Being the First CS Leader within a Go-to-Market Team - Ashley Stamps-Lafont

What does it actually take to be the FIRST Customer Success leader embedded inside a go to market organization, not sitting on the sidelines, not called in when churn spikes, but brought in to shape the growth engine from day one?

In this episode of The Customer Success Pro Podcast, Anika Zubair sits down with Ashley Stamps Lafont, VP of Customer Success at QuotaPath and founder of SuccessRx. Ashley has led Customer Success across wildly different stages, from early startups to large scale orgs, and she is clear about one thing, Customer Success is no longer a “nice to have” function. It is a BUSINESS FUNCTION that must influence revenue outcomes.

If you are a CS leader trying to earn a true seat at the table, or a rising leader stepping into a new role and wondering how to build credibility fast, this conversation is packed with practical moves you can steal.

Becoming the First CS Leader in a Go to Market Team

One of the biggest takeaways from Ashley’s experience at QuotaPath is that CS integration into go to market is not a slogan, it is built into how the company OPERATES.

QuotaPath’s North Star metric is GRR, gross revenue retention, and it is not just a Customer Success metric. The entire organization’s corporate bonus is tied to GRR, from engineering to RevOps. That single decision changes everything because it creates shared ownership, shared urgency, and fewer internal turf wars.

Ashley also introduces a concept many leaders forget to name, FIRST TEAM mentality. At QuotaPath, the executive team functions as one unit with loyalty to the business objective, not to functional silos. That means Sales, Marketing, RevOps, Product, and CS are expected to collaborate daily, call out dependencies openly, and solve problems together.

For CS leaders trying to join go to market conversations, here is the real point, you cannot “argue” your way into influence. You have to align yourself to the outcomes the business already values, then show how CS drives those outcomes.

The First 30 Days Playbook for Trust and Influence

Ashley is six months into her role, but her early moves are what set the tone.

First, she prioritized in person relationship building. Even in a remote first world, she flew to Austin where the core go to market team regularly works. Her focus was not executive schmoozing, it was building trust with the people doing the work across Customer Success, Sales, and Marketing. The message is simple, relationships come before requests.

Second, she obsessed over customer reality. Ashley listened to a massive volume of Gong calls early on to understand what customers were actually asking, what they were frustrated by, and what patterns existed beneath the internal narratives. That gave her real credibility when she shared insights back with the team because she could connect internal assumptions to external truth.

Third, she communicated openly and often. She gave regular readouts to both leadership and her CS team, sharing what she was focused on, what she learned, what questions she still had, and what was not working yet. That level of transparency builds trust fast because people can see you are not hiding behind a title, you are operating like a builder.

If you are stepping into a new CS leadership role, especially as the first CS leader in the org, this is the formula: SHOW UP, LISTEN DEEPLY, THEN NARRATE YOUR DECISIONS.

Revenue Ownership, Comp Plans, and AI Powered Efficiency

This episode does not dance around the hard topic, revenue accountability.

At QuotaPath, revenue goals are split across GRR and upsells. The team structure supports that reality with distinct roles across implementation focused CSMs, an Account Management arm that owns renewals and upsell, plus a Solutions function for complex use cases. The point is not that every company needs the same org chart, it is that revenue outcomes require clarity of ownership and skills.

Ashley also calls out a huge mindset shift, many CS professionals built their identity around “doing whatever it takes” to make customers happy. Revenue conversations require different muscles, negotiation, objection handling, and the ability to hold boundaries when customers push for concessions.

Then comes the controversial moment, comp plans.

Ashley’s stance is direct, adoption should not be in compensation. Why? Because compensation should reinforce behaviors that drive business outcomes, and boards do not ask how many QBRs happened. They ask if customers renewed, if they expanded, and what ROI was delivered.

Anika adds a truth many teams avoid saying out loud, if your team is measured on NRR or GRR, you already have a quota. You might call it a KPI, but it is still a number the business expects you to hit.

Finally, Ashley shares a powerful example of practical AI adoption that is NOT about shiny tools. A newly promoted Senior CSM automated kickoff deck creation using Notion, Zapier, and Google Slides, cutting a process that used to take 45 minutes per customer. That is what AI should do in CS, remove manual effort, increase consistency, and free the team to spend time where humans matter most.

Looking ahead, Ashley’s themes for 2026 are efficiency and growth. That includes investing in smarter orchestration, strategic hiring, and building a more integrated CS and Support model as complexity increases.

Key Takeaways

1. If you want CS inside go to market, align to the company’s North Star metric and make it shared across teams.

2. Your first 30 days should prioritize relationships, customer listening, and high frequency communication.

3. First team mentality beats silo politics, executive cohesion drives cross functional execution.

4. Revenue ownership requires skill building, especially negotiation and objection handling for teams moving from CS to AM style accountability.

5. Comp plans should reinforce business outcomes, not activity volume.

6. AI wins in CS come from automation that removes manual work, not just note taking.

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