In this episode of Mastering CS: Candid Leader Insights, Irina Cismas sits down with Agathe Nivet, Customer Success Manager at Spendesk, a platform that helps finance teams control and automate company spending. Agathe brings a sharp, practical perspective on what onboarding actually means and why it goes far beyond training and go-live checklists.
She shares how a disciplined POC framework helped secure a long-term partnership, what a good sales-to-CS handoff really looks like, how to spot early signals that an onboarding is on the right track, and how to scale the onboarding process without losing the human connection.
What You’ll Learn
- Why onboarding is about driving value, not just completing a training checklist
- How to run a POC that builds trust and secures a long-term partnership
- What information a CSM actually needs from sales at handoff and why it matters
- How to handle a handoff that falls short of what you need
- What early signals tell you an onboarding is on track or heading off the rails
- How to balance automation and human connection as onboarding scales
- What to look for in the first two customer calls when evaluating an onboarding process
Key Insights & Takeaways
- Onboarding is a momentum builder, not a formality. The value you prove in the first weeks of onboarding shapes the entire long-term relationship. It’s where trust is built or lost.
- A good POC is a disciplined project, not a free trial. Clear phases, pre-configured setups, non-negotiable milestones, and defined outcomes turn a test into a trust-building exercise.
- The handoff from sales is strategic, not administrative. CSMs need concrete KPIs, context on why the customer chose you over competitors, and visibility into risks and objections that came up during the sales process.
- Silence is a warning sign. A customer who stops sending emails is not necessarily happy. Engagement, even when it includes questions, is a healthier signal than silence.
- Scaling doesn’t mean removing the human. Automation handles the repetitive parts, like product training through an academy, so that human interaction can focus on relationship-building and value alignment.
- Onboarding is change management. Getting a customer to adopt a new platform is not just a technical exercise. It requires project management, transparency, and helping people feel confident, not just trained.
- 80/20 is the rule for good onboarding calls. If the CSM is doing most of the talking, something is wrong. The customer should be speaking 80% of the time.
Podcast transcript
Intro
Irina (0:06 – 0:25)
Welcome to Mastering CS, the podcast where we dive into the world of customer success with industry leaders. I’m your host, Irina Cismas, and today I’m joined by Agathe Nivet, customer success manager of Spendesk, a platform that helps finance teams control and automate company spending. Agathe, I’m really happy to have you here.
Thanks for joining!
Agathe (0:26 – 0:30)
Thank you, Irina. Very nice to meet you.
A POC That Became a Partnership: An Onboarding Story
Irina (0:31 – 0:49)
I want to start the conversation with a story. So I want to ask you, what is one onboarding moment you still remember clearly, either because it went very well or completely sideways?
Agathe (0:50 – 3:12)
I remember working with a company that was considering a new feature we were selling for their internal operations. They were existing clients, and before we officially signed the contract, we ran a POC, a proof of concept, to prove the value in real conditions. I started an onboarding as a POC, which was pretty interesting, and we didn’t just let them play with the tool. We built a very disciplined framework to ensure the test was a success and that they signed the contract.
We had different phases. The first was a homework phase before the kickoff, where we asked the client to define their current needs and pain points. They didn’t come to test and explore. We really wanted them to have specific problems to solve. And once they did their homework, we didn’t give them a blank slate. We pre-configured for them what they needed based on what they told us. So they didn’t have to build from scratch, but had to refine what we pre-configured for them. They also had to do it themselves. So it was like 80 to 20 configuration, 80 from us, 20 from them.
And once it was set, we also had clear deadlines because we really wanted to have a real project for them, with non-negotiable milestones to keep the momentum really high. And spoiler, it was a success. They told us at the midway point that with their complex structure and complex use cases, it works, so the process is right.
It’s a great reminder that when you manage a POC with an onboarding, you’re not just doing onboarding. You’re building trust, and that secures a long-term partnership.
Irina (3:14 – 3:35)
So basically this story of yours proves that a great onboarding secures the renewal contract and does the job for the renewal team, whether the renewal sits in a different team or not. It basically saves the work at the renewal part.
Agathe (3:36 – 3:51)
Yes, exactly. Because onboarding is really a momentum, because you really have to prove the value from the very first moment, and that can save the long-term relationship.
What Onboarding Actually Means
Irina (3:52 – 4:24)
I actually like this, and I think you indirectly answered my second question. People often talk about onboarding like it’s just a training or a go-live implementation checklist that somebody needs to do. You mentioned that for you it’s really about providing value. Now I want to ask you to be a bit more specific. What does the job actually imply in your particular case?
Agathe (4:25 – 6:05)
For me it’s three things. The first one is to drive adoption through real use cases. It’s very important that you’re not just showing them where to click in the platform. You’re helping them understand why they need the product and how it will change how they work.
The second one is supporting them until they feel the value. You’re not waiting until they finish the training. You’re really there until they actually use the platform autonomously and confidently. It’s not just about when they go live.
The third one is positioning them to succeed without you, so that they can do it on their own. It’s not really about whether they have finished the training. It’s about whether it was worth the effort, whether it actually delivers what was promised, and whether the vendor is taking care of them or just waiting for the next deal and moving on. The way they value the product and the relationship you build with them is more important than the training itself.
The Sales-to-CS Handoff: What You Actually Need
Irina (6:06 – 6:30)
Indeed, the first thing you mentioned was understanding the use case. And in order for an onboarding team to make sure they do that, I assume they need a proper handover from the sales team. I’m curious, how does this handover process between sales and customer success look like?
Agathe (6:33 – 7:10)
I think the worst is when the customer has to repeat everything they already told sales. That’s really frustrating for them and it’s a waste of time. So it’s really important to have a good handoff, and it’s strategic.
As a CSM and customer onboarding manager, I really need from my colleagues in account executive roles the context of the client: who they are, what are their objectives, what are they trying to accomplish. And I really want specific KPIs. “We want to reduce our process by 50%” not “we want better processes.”
Irina (7:11 – 7:32)
Okay. Numbers in order. So a good handover between sales and onboarding means receiving the concrete KPIs the customer is monitoring with numbers, not with buzzwords or things that are not tangible.
Agathe (7:32 – 8:42)
It’s also crucial for me to understand why they chose us compared to competitors. Competition in SaaS is big, and we really need to know what was the reason the client signed with us and not someone else, so we can understand what they value and what they are measuring.
We also want to know the risks, because sales often forget the obstacles that came up along the way. They’re really happy, they closed the deal, and they don’t really remember what the pushback was, for example on budget, or what competitors they had to beat. But for customer onboarding, it’s really important to have a maximum of information so we are not surprised when the client tells us something that is very important to them.
So I advise having a three-way handover, if possible, with the account executive, the customer, and the customer onboarding manager.
Irina (8:42 – 9:05)
I’m super curious because I don’t often hear that in onboarding calls. Why they picked you as a solution, why they picked your product over competitors, is important. How do you leverage this information? Why is it important, and what do you do with it when you have it?
Agathe (9:06 – 9:30)
Because some competitors have different functionality, and we are often compared to them. So we want to know what functionality was really important to the client and where they want to get the most value, compared to what was proposed by other competitors.
What to Do When the Handoff Falls Short
Irina (9:31 – 10:22)
Understood. And what do you do if that information is not received, if sales forgot to provide it? Because as you mentioned, the focus of the sales team is on closing the customer, or at least in most of the companies I interact with. They are focused on closing, not on what happens afterwards. They would mesmerize the customer into signing the contract and aren’t necessarily rigorous or careful when it comes to things like concrete KPIs or understanding why the customer chose us and not someone else. What do you do when the handover is far from ideal?
Agathe (10:23 – 11:19)
I haven’t had any horrible cases, so that’s all right. But I think what is important is to be transparent with the customer, share that maybe some information was missed, and that we will talk internally. It’s then important to have everyone at the table, sometimes running a meeting with the client, the account executive, and the onboarding manager to see what was missed and whether we need to take actions or not. It’s really important to be transparent, communicate with your colleagues, and see if it’s a misunderstanding on the customer’s side or on our part. And if needed, bring everyone together in a meeting.
Early Signals: Is This Onboarding on Track?
Irina (11:20 – 11:38)
Okay. Early on. So let’s say that the onboarding process started, what tells you this onboarding is on the right track versus this might get messy later?
What are the signals that sends you on track? Not necessarily.
Agathe (11:39 – 13:07)
I think the first thing is a metric: you can see if the core features of the platform are activated. Not just are they logging in, but are they doing actions, are they creating value in the platform? The data is very important here and usually it’s easy to track.
The second one is the autonomy of the customer. Are they doing things on their own or are they constantly sending emails? But we do want to receive emails, because on the opposite end, if we have silent clients, we are a bit worried and churn is on the table.
The third one is timelines. We want to check if the timelines that were set at the beginning of the onboarding are being respected and that clients are doing what they were supposed to do at specific moments. For example, by day 30, have they done these settings, and by day 60, are they already seeing the value.
That’s how I see it.
Metrics That Actually Show Value
Irina (13:08 – 13:36)
Let’s go deeper into the metrics part. You mentioned that it’s important to understand if they are starting to implement the use case into the platform, not just whether they are logging in. So what concrete metrics do you measure in order to see that they are on the right path? And how do you tie it to a concrete KPI to see if they are starting to see value?
Agathe (13:37 – 14:42)
I think it really depends on the product. It depends on the project and what metrics you have determined with the data team and the rest of the company around how the customer can see value. For example, if it’s a spend management platform, did they spend on the platform? If it’s an implementation on a website, have they deployed? And if they told us they had multiple entities or multiple companies, have they deployed on one or multiple entities?
So it really depends on the product. But for me, the main metric is whether the core features of the product are being used.
When the Customer Isn’t Ready to Onboard
Irina (14:43 – 16:04)
So it’s the core feature: is it used or not? And I think you mentioned earlier that time to value is very important, that it’s important to map the journey and look at the timing between the steps. So it’s a combination of core feature usage and the time window in which they complete a particular action.
I’m curious now, there are situations in which the customer just signed and doesn’t know what to expect after joining. They realize maybe they need the engineering team to implement the platform, or maybe they don’t have the data to bring in, and those things impact the onboarding. What do you do in that situation when you don’t have what you need to keep the customer moving forward and you’re waiting for other teams to do their job? How does this phase look and how do you overcome this challenge?
Agathe (16:05 – 18:25)
Usually you detect it during the kickoff, because during the kickoff you set the scope and see who has ownership for what. It’s important to set ownerships and see what resources the client can bring to the table and what resources we can bring. The kickoff really helps to create and manage the project, because onboarding is also about change management and project management.
But when it’s not detected during the kickoff, it’s really important to be transparent with the customer and tell them that, for example, those technical resources are not on our side, and to remind them of the scope that was defined at the beginning. I also really advise having partnerships with integrators or technical partners to offer those kinds of services if it’s a real issue for the customer.
But usually they don’t really need a technical background. It’s just that they are afraid of the technical settings, but they just need to be reassured, advised, and helped. As a customer onboarding manager, you help them and show them how to be autonomous. And I really advise having an academy, because it’s really helpful for customers. They can do the settings on their own, via videos, at the times they want. It really helps the customer feel confident with the technical side.
Scaling Onboarding Without Losing the Human Touch
Irina (18:26 – 18:58)
How do you scale an onboarding process without losing the automation and the human connection?
How do you build a process that scales in the onboarding without losing the human touch? What’s important in order to have it right?
Agathe (18:59 – 20:53)
I think scaling is not the opposite of human connection because we can have both. It’s just about where you put the human and where you put the automation. The internal academy is really important because you don’t need a human to show the platform over and over repetitively when you can have very structured videos that help customers train on their own. But you still have to be there to build the connection and the relationship with the clients. For example, you ask the customer to train on their own and then propose Q&A sessions every week until they are ready and confident with the platform.
On the side of scaling for a team, if the portfolio is growing, what is important is to share between colleagues. It happens a lot that one CSM figures out how to do brilliant kickoffs and another has understood how to build a good training flow, and they never tell each other. So everyone is losing productivity. It’s really important to share and capitalize on all the documentation we build.
And at the same level, it’s important to create a step-by-step playbook to share with all colleagues, that can also help customers understand very rapidly what their steps are and what they need to do to reach their goals.
Irina (20:54 – 21:31)
So basically it’s about having a streamlined internal communication process within the team and standardized flows and processes internally so that everyone can share best practices. And once a process is developed internally, make sure it is adopted across the whole team and constantly optimized and tweaked based on the input received from each member of the team. If I got that right.
Agathe (21:32 – 22:04)
Yes, exactly. And also what I’ve done in the past is meetings with all my onboarding colleagues where we share concrete examples and use cases, and also the problems we have and how we solved them. It really helps to share what we are going through because it helps solve other customers’ problems.
What to Look for in the First Two Customer Calls
Irina (22:06 – 22:23)
One last question before we wrap up our conversation today, if you joined a new company tomorrow and had to judge their onboarding process, just by watching or listening to the first two customer calls, what would you look for immediately?
Agathe (22:24 – 23:20)
I will really look at whether there is 80% speaking from the customer and 20% from the customer onboarding manager. Because if it’s only the CSM or the customer onboarding manager speaking, it’s a monologue. And if it’s a monologue, they can’t really understand the client. They don’t have any answers from the client, and it will be very difficult in the next steps to leverage the value for them. As I said before, onboarding is not only about training, it’s about understanding and helping the customer reach their goal.
Irina (23:21 – 23:48)
Agathe, this was a great conversation. I enjoyed getting into the operational side of things on the onboarding and hearing how you think about the structure, the handoffs and what actually makes the process work. Thanks again for making the time to join me and to everyone listening.
Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, stay curious, keep learning and mastering customer success.
