sales-to-cs-handoff

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: sales-to-cs-handoff
description: Design the sales-to-CS handoff process after a deal closes - what data transfers, when, in what artifact, and who is accountable - producing a handoff spec with a gated closed-won trigger, a required handoff packet, timing SLAs, a kickoff meeting pattern, and a CS acceptance/rejection step. For RevOps and Sales Ops designing and enforcing the process, not a CSM running one handoff. Use whenever the user mentions sales to CS handoff, post-close transition, closed-won to kickoff, handoff accountability, "the CSM starts from zero", or "customers repeat themselves after signing" - even if they never say "handoff". Covers B2B high-touch through PLG/self-serve and B2C subscription. Do NOT use for account health scoring - use mbfinotti/revops-skills@customer-health-score instead.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Maya-Beth Finotti
  version: "1.3.6"
---

# CS Handoff

Design the process that moves a customer from the seller who won them to the owner who keeps them. Lincoln Murphy's diagnosis frames the stakes: "Customers hate three things: surprises, uncertainty, and repeating themselves" - and a poor handoff delivers all three before the customer's first call with CS. He attributes customers ghosting during onboarding "100% of the time" to a poorly designed - or not-designed-at-all - sales handoff process.

The design job has six decisions:

- The trigger event and its gate.
- The required data set.
- The artifact it travels in.
- The timing clocks.
- The meeting pattern.
- An accountability chain with an explicit acceptance step.

The named canon, where it genuinely helps:

- **Winning by Design's Bowtie Model** places Commit at the center of one continuous revenue lifecycle - the handoff is the seam between its two halves, not the end of a funnel.
- **Murphy's Desired Outcome** (Goal + Appropriate Experience) defines what must transfer: the customer's actual goal _and_ the experience they need to feel successful, not just contract terms.
- **Murphy's touch-level segmentation** sets coverage by what a segment needs, never by what it pays.
- **Kristi Faltorusso's "10 Essentials"** checklist is the best-known practitioner inventory of the information that must move ("If you are aligned on all of these details, you will be set up to have a productive partnership kickoff").
- **Time to First Value** (TTFV, Murphy) is the clock that starts ticking at the handoff moment.

Boundaries, stated because readers expect them here:

- Not employee/new-hire onboarding - ramping a new internal hire is a different job entirely.
- Not the drafting of a single recap email.
- Not the post-kickoff onboarding curriculum or 90-day success plan - this skill's job ends when the customer is successfully received by the post-sale owner and the first-value clock is running.
- Not health scoring or churn-signal discovery (sibling skills own those), though early-life churn is a legitimate outcome measure for handoff quality.
- Not pipeline-stage redesign - closed-won entry criteria are a gating input here, taken as given.

## Interview

Ask before designing. One question per message; offer multiple-choice answers where possible. Skip anything already answered.

- Which motion(s), and the segment mix? (a) sales-led enterprise/high-touch, (b) mid-market, (c) high-volume SMB, (d) PLG/self-serve, (e) B2C subscription - often several at once.
- Who exists post-sale? (a) dedicated named CSM, (b) pooled CS, (c) implementation/onboarding team then CSM, (d) no human - automated lifecycle only.
- How many closed-won deals per month, per segment? (Decides how heavy the artifact and meeting pattern can afford to be.)
- Today, how long from closed-won to kickoff (or first lifecycle touch)? Is it even measured?
- What does the CRM actually capture at closed-won today - enforced required fields, call recordings, free-text notes only?
- Is the AE compensated or held accountable past close (clawback, onboarding milestone, required intro