Navigating Overlap Between Customer Marketing and CS Teams

Sandra Grauschopf · 2026-01-09T18:28:41.886Z

Have any of you navigated overlap with CS? We have a large and active CS team, and I'm just starting as a customer marketer, and am wondering if anyone else found a good way to delineate who is responsible for what when there's overlap.

Navigating Overlap Between Customer Marketing and CS Teams | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

13 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Mary Green
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That's a great question. I think it unfortunately depends on the org. A lot of us have had overlap with CS. Ashley Ward has gone from working under CS to working in Marketing. (I could be wrong about this shift) but I think she would have advice. We often discuss how CMA is a post-sales swiss army knife. When added to an org it can cover so many responsibilities, so you have to narrow down which responsibilities are necessary for the org, the customers' needs, and skills gaps in the teams.
Holly Reynolds
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Sandra Grauschopf Happy to share my experience. While working with a large CS organization and many different personalities, I focused on building trust and alignment, which ultimately led to a strong, joint customer motion.
Sandra Grauschopf
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Thank you, Mary Green, that's a good way to look at it!
Sandra Grauschopf
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Holly Reynolds I'd love to hear more! Would you be open to a quick chat next week?
Gabrielle Herrera
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I'm a marketer but report up to cs! I think I'm more effective this way actually
❤️1
Holly Reynolds
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Yes! Shoot me a DM and we can figure out a time.
👍1
Sandra Grauschopf
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Gabrielle Herrera I've heard that some CMs sit under CS instead of under marketing. I can see that working well, yeah, but our org has a different structure.
Ashley Ward
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Yes, I have gone from reporting to CMO to CCO back to CMO. My background is in CS and Account Management, but I'm a marketer at heart so I find value in both, but goals will definitely shift depending on where you sit. As far as any cross-over, generally speaking I view CM as producing 1:Many programs to drive retention and growth at scale, where as CSMs are 1:1. If advocacy is also your responsibility, this is a great position to help ensure customers are successful so they become advocates.
❤️2
Kevin Lau
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My boss is the chief customer officer and has marketing under her remit so we're a hybrid function. When we had cs as a separate org, Ive found the best way to align is shared goals and outcomes so ppl were clear on how each team supported one another vs creating the territorialness that sometimes happens
❤️2
Sandra Grauschopf
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Ashley Ward I think having a background in CS would be so helpful for this role! And I agree about the 1:1 vs. 1:many split. As this role coalesces more and more, I'm going to try to keep that as my guided light, thanks!
Sandra Grauschopf
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Kevin Lau Interesting that your company has CS and Marketing under one umbrella. It sounds like that would work nicely! Shared goals and outcomes sounds like what we need. I will try to figure out how we can do that in practice, thank you!
Emily Coleman
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I was moved to CS back in July, and we're moving back to marketing at the end of the month. I loved being in the CS org, because it made coordinating those responsibilities a lot easier. Being involved in their QBR and leadership team meetings was probably the most valuable and what I would recommend if you can make that happen.
👍2
Sandra Grauschopf
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Emily Coleman That's a great suggestion, thank you!

Mary Green
·
·
That's a great question. I think it unfortunately depends on the org. A lot of us have had overlap with CS. Ashley Ward has gone from working under CS to working in Marketing. (I could be wrong about this shift) but I think she would have advice. We often discuss how CMA is a post-sales swiss army knife. When added to an org it can cover so many responsibilities, so you have to narrow down which responsibilities are necessary for the org, the customers' needs, and skills gaps in the teams.
Holly Reynolds
·
·
Sandra Grauschopf Happy to share my experience. While working with a large CS organization and many different personalities, I focused on building trust and alignment, which ultimately led to a strong, joint customer motion.
Sandra Grauschopf
·
·
Thank you, Mary Green, that's a good way to look at it!
Sandra Grauschopf
·
·
Holly Reynolds I'd love to hear more! Would you be open to a quick chat next week?
Gabrielle Herrera
·
·
I'm a marketer but report up to cs! I think I'm more effective this way actually
❤️1
Holly Reynolds
·
·
Yes! Shoot me a DM and we can figure out a time.
👍1
Sandra Grauschopf
·
·
Gabrielle Herrera I've heard that some CMs sit under CS instead of under marketing. I can see that working well, yeah, but our org has a different structure.
Ashley Ward
·
·
Yes, I have gone from reporting to CMO to CCO back to CMO. My background is in CS and Account Management, but I'm a marketer at heart so I find value in both, but goals will definitely shift depending on where you sit. As far as any cross-over, generally speaking I view CM as producing 1:Many programs to drive retention and growth at scale, where as CSMs are 1:1. If advocacy is also your responsibility, this is a great position to help ensure customers are successful so they become advocates.
❤️2
Kevin Lau
·
·
My boss is the chief customer officer and has marketing under her remit so we're a hybrid function. When we had cs as a separate org, Ive found the best way to align is shared goals and outcomes so ppl were clear on how each team supported one another vs creating the territorialness that sometimes happens
❤️2
Sandra Grauschopf
·
·
Ashley Ward I think having a background in CS would be so helpful for this role! And I agree about the 1:1 vs. 1:many split. As this role coalesces more and more, I'm going to try to keep that as my guided light, thanks!
Sandra Grauschopf
·
·
Kevin Lau Interesting that your company has CS and Marketing under one umbrella. It sounds like that would work nicely! Shared goals and outcomes sounds like what we need. I will try to figure out how we can do that in practice, thank you!
Emily Coleman
·
·
I was moved to CS back in July, and we're moving back to marketing at the end of the month. I loved being in the CS org, because it made coordinating those responsibilities a lot easier. Being involved in their QBR and leadership team meetings was probably the most valuable and what I would recommend if you can make that happen.
👍2
Sandra Grauschopf
·
·
Emily Coleman That's a great suggestion, thank you!