i killed account management at $2.5m arr.
most saas founders add an AM team at this stage to "protect retention." i deleted ours.
here's what replaced it:
csm now self-funds. $5k/mo upsell mandate per person. 10% commission on every dollar of expansion. three new usage-grant tiers ($500/$1k/$3k) they can pitch on any account.
miss the number, you don't earn out. hit it, you get paid like the closer you actually are.
why i did it:
account management is the polite way to subsidize unprofitable accounts. you pay AMs to babysit sub-$100/mo customers and call it "retention."
it's not retention. it's denial.
CSMs whose only job is to protect don't grow. they become an expense line. they optimize for zero-friction (no cancellations, no escalations) instead of expansion.
now they're paid to grow it.
the lesson: the moment you carve "account management" out as its own service line, you've admitted some accounts aren't worth the seat they take.
cheaper to learn that at $2.5m than at $25m when the salary base would have eaten me alive.
fight me.