I want to make a specific argument that I think gets missed in the "CS should be commercial" debate.
When a CSM avoids the expansion conversation because they don't want to seem like they're selling — they are not protecting the customer. They are failing the customer.
This is not a rhetorical point. Think through the logic.
Your customer has been using your CRM for six months. They've closed 10 deals with clean data and tight processes. The next logical step in their growth is adding your auto-dialer — it integrates natively, it would cut their connect time in half, and based on their current pipeline volume, they'd see ROI in the first month.
You know this. You can see it in their data. You have the conversation framework to make the case simply and clearly.
And you don't say anything. Because you don't want to seem like you're pushing a sale. Because you were trained to believe that CS and revenue are in tension.
What just happened?
Your customer didn't hear about the product that would help them the most from the person who knows them best and has the most context. They'll find out eventually — from a cold outreach, from a conference, from a competitor's rep. They'll buy it, or they won't. But they missed the window where the conversation would have been most valuable, most timely, and most relevant.
You failed them. In the name of not wanting to seem commercial.
Being commercial IS being customer-centric — when you're doing it right.
The expansion conversation, done well, is not a pitch. It's a continuation of the discovery conversation you should be having continuously. "Here's where you are. Here's where you're trying to go. Here's what the path looks like from here."
The moment you decide that path includes a product upgrade or a seat expansion or a new module — and you don't say so because you're uncomfortable — you've chosen your own comfort over the customer's outcome.
That's not altruism. That's conflict avoidance with a customer-centric label on it.
Have the conversation. You owe it to them.
Lincoln Murphy formally named and popularized Customer Success starting in 2010 and has spent 15 years connecting it to expansion revenue and commercial outcomes. Read The Premise.