Sales-to-CSM handover
Objective. Transfer goals, stakeholders, promises, scope, data needs, risks and pilot evidence to the CSM so that no unresolved promise is left hidden in free text.
A seven-field handover record and a promise-audit checklist. It forces every commitment made during the sale - especially the soft, implied ones - into the open, so the CSM inherits reality instead of a sales-optimistic story. This is the tool version of S09 - the handover is done when the CSM signs off, not when the doc is sent.
See it in the demo
What it is and when to use it
The handover is the structured transfer from the AE to the CSM at the point a deal or pilot is won. Use it the moment commercial close is confirmed, before the first onboarding touch. It matters because the customer does not distinguish 'sales said' from 'CSM said' - it is all Time Champ - so a promise that lives only in the AE's memory becomes the CSM's dispute at the first QBR. The most expensive failure in the lifecycle is a handover that hides a promise.
The handover - copy this
ACCOUNT: ____ AE: ____ CSM: ____ CLOSE DATE: ____
- GOALS - the customer's business outcome and the pilot baseline, in their words and numbers: ____
- STAKEHOLDERS - champion, economic owner, operational owners, detractors, who owns which number, sponsor-change risk: ____
- PROMISES (the field that prevents disasters) - every commitment, each marked RESOLVED / OPEN-SCOPED (owner + date) / OPEN-UNSCOPED, with owner: ____
- SCOPE - application(s), team/process/payer, pilot vs rollout, and explicitly what was OUT of scope: ____
- DATA NEEDS - sources, completion/standard definitions agreed, access/role scope, capture policy + comms, freshness, time zones: ____
- RISKS - data gaps, unmet dependencies, employee-comms exposure, specialist escalations and their status: ____
- PILOT EVIDENCE - charter, measurement method, result, and which numbers are capacity vs cash: ____
PROMISE AUDIT (attach): every statement the customer could treat as a commitment, classified. None may remain OPEN-UNSCOPED.
CSM SIGN-OFF: 'I can act on each of the seven fields; nothing is ambiguous.' ____
How to fill it and run the promise audit
Before the handover meeting, run a deliberate promise audit: re-read call notes, the proposal, the demo and email threads, and extract every statement the customer could reasonably treat as a commitment. Classify each as RESOLVED (delivered or contractually scoped), OPEN-SCOPED (committed, owner, date) or OPEN-UNSCOPED (said in passing, never scoped - the landmines). Nothing may remain OPEN-UNSCOPED at handover: scope it, escalate it, or explicitly retract it with the customer ('to be clear, that EHR integration was not in the pilot scope - here is the path to scope it properly'). Carry specialist items (packaging, integration method, security answer) WITH their current status and named owner, never assumed closed. Carry the capacity-vs-cash split forward exactly. In the meeting, walk the CSM through all seven fields live and get the sign-off.
The honest caveat
'The CSM can just read the notes' is how promises hide - notes are prose to mine, the seven fields force commitments into the open and the sign-off is the control. 'We did not promise that, the customer inferred it' does not matter to the customer; if it is a reasonable inference, treat it as a promise and resolve or retract it now, cheaply, rather than at a disputed QBR. The handover transfers what is known and agreed - it is not the place to invent outcomes or paper over an unmet dependency; hand an unresolved dependency over AS unresolved, with an owner. Where commercial ownership of renewal and expansion sits with sales (confirm the internal model), the handover transfers delivery and success, not the commercial relationship.
Interpretation check
The customer does not distinguish 'sales said' from 'CSM said'. Therefore no promise, especially a soft or implied one, may be left in free text or assumed closed - every commitment is resolved, scoped with an owner, or explicitly retracted before handover.
In the field
KnackGlobal handover: goals = output per FTE and cost per claim with the pilot's clean-unit baseline; stakeholders = flag the ex-Omega-CTO sponsor dynamics and displacement politics; promises = any EHR/clearinghouse integration statements scoped or retracted; pilot evidence = freed claims-capacity kept explicitly separate from denial-recovery cash so the first QBR on a ~6,000-seat account defends an un-blended number.
Practical task
Produce a seven-field handover for a closed pilot or deal and attach a promise audit that classifies every commitment with none left open-unscoped. Carry the capacity-vs-cash split and any specialist-item statuses forward, then have a CSM review it and sign off that no unresolved promise is hidden in free text.
Self-check
Name the seven handover fields.
Goals (with baseline), stakeholders (with number ownership and sponsor-change risk), promises (classified, with owner), scope (incl. what is out), data needs, risks (gaps/dependencies/escalations), pilot evidence (incl. capacity vs cash).
What are the three promise classifications and which may not survive to handover?
Resolved, open-scoped, and open-unscoped. Open-unscoped may not survive - it must be scoped, escalated, or explicitly retracted with the customer before handover.
A security answer was escalated and is still pending at close. How is it handed over?
As an explicit risk/promise entry naming the specialist and its state (pending, committed-by-date) - never assumed closed, because the CSM cannot defend what they did not know was open.
When is the handover actually complete?
Not when the doc is sent, but when the CSM signs off that they can act on each of the seven fields and nothing is ambiguous or hidden in free text.
Verified vs demo. The structure and discipline are process, not demo-dependent; the specific promises, data needs and pilot numbers come only from the real deal and must be transferred exactly, with unmet dependencies handed over as unresolved rather than smoothed over.