The Full Interview Playbook — Pitch, Tasks, STAR & Scripts

1. Start with timing: "Renewal in 58 days and no contact in 6 weeks. That's my first concern."
2. Stack the signals: "3 open tickets, one aging past 14 days, devices dropping 18% — this account is disengaging quietly."
3. Pull the history: "Previous note shows unresolved latency in Germany. That's likely the root cause of the drop."
4. State your move: "Tier-1 risk list today. Call the primary contact within 24 hours, formally own the German technical issue with a deadline, and book a renewal QBR for 30 days out."

1. Top nav → Reports → Create report → Single object → Companies.
2. Visualization: Table (best for portfolio scans).
3. Columns: Company, Owner, Last activity, Renewal date, Open ticket count, Email engagement (30d), MRR, Health score.
4. Filters: Renewal date is within next 90 days AND Last activity date more than 30 days ago.
5. Sort: Renewal date ascending.
6. Save → Pin to a dashboard named "My Portfolio · Weekly Risk Scan."

1. Open the Contact/Company → Log activity → Call.
2. Set Date/time, Direction (Outbound), Outcome (Connected), Duration (15 min).
3. Associate the call with the right Deal AND Company, not just the contact.
4. Write a structured note (template below).
5. Create a follow-up Task linked to the same Deal with a due date.

1. Automation → Sequences → Create sequence.
2. Day 0: Personal email referencing the unanswered thread. Token: {{contact.firstname}}.
3. Day 3: Auto-task — "Call this contact, mention a specific value point."
4. Day 7: Low-pressure email — "Should I close the loop, or is there a better person to speak with?"
5. Day 10: LinkedIn touch task (manual — never automate B2B social).
6. Set sending hours Mon–Thu 9–15 CET; exclude weekends.

1. Company record → Deals tab → + Add deal.
2. Name: NordicFreight — Renewal — Jul 2026 (always: Customer — Renewal — Month Year).
3. Pipeline: Renewals. Stage: Renewal Discovery. Close date = actual renewal date.
4. Amount = previous ARR + target uplift (e.g., 5%). Note rationale.
5. Create 4 linked tasks: T-60 kickoff. T-45 QBR. T-30 proposal sent. T-14 final decision.
6. Tag renewal-at-risk if any health flags exist.

1. "First I look at risk overlap — low activity AND near-term renewal. That's the top of my list."
2. "Then ticket-volume spikes — sudden increases usually signal product friction or onboarding gaps."
3. "Then usage trends — anything dropping 15–20% MoM gets a proactive call before the customer raises it."
4. "Then what's missing — is there a sentiment score? An adoption metric? A last-QBR-date column? Often the biggest insight is what's not shown."

1. Settings ⚙ → Properties → object: Company → Create property.
2. Group: Customer Success. Label: Churn Risk Score. Type: Dropdown — Low / Medium / High / Critical.
3. Description: "Set by CSM weekly. Critical = active save plan in progress."
4. Visible in: sidebar, Reports, Workflows.
5. Build a workflow: Critical → Slack alert to Head of CS + high-priority task on owner.

1. Automation → Workflows → object: Company.
2. Trigger: Lifecycle Stage = Customer AND Onboarding Status is unknown.
3. Set Onboarding Status = Kickoff Pending; create owner task: "Welcome email + kickoff call in 3 business days."
4. Day 7: check kickoff call logged; if no → alert CSM lead.
5. Day 14: adoption check-in email. Day 30: NPS / feedback ask.
6. Day 45: set Onboarding Status to Onboarded or Stalled based on milestones.

1. Contacts → + Create view.
2. Filter: Lifecycle = Customer/Evangelist AND Last activity > 30 days ago AND Owner = me.
3. Columns: Company, Last activity, Last contacted, Email opens 30d, Phone.
4. Save as "30+ Day Quiet Customers."
5. Bulk action → create tasks → "Reach out — 30+ day silence."

1. Read every prior reply top to bottom before acting.
2. Priority = High. Status = Waiting on us. Assign yourself temporarily for ownership.
3. Internal note: tag support lead + product owner — "Now CSM-owned. Need root cause + ETA today."
4. Pick up the phone — don't email. Customers escalate when they feel unheard.
5. After call: log activity — what you heard, what you committed, by when.
6. Follow-up task for yourself, day after committed ETA.

1. Identify the master (more activity, longer history, correct owner).
2. On the duplicate → Actions → Merge.
3. Choose master as primary; resolve property conflicts deliberately.
4. Re-associate orphaned deals/tickets/contacts before finalising.
5. Leave a note: "Merged from record ID xxxxx on 17 May 2026. Original creation date preserved."

1. Sales → Deals → switch to Renewals pipeline.
2. Table view. Filter: Close date next 90 days AND Stage not Closed Won/Lost.
3. Columns: Company, Amount, Close date, Stage, Owner, Last activity, Churn Risk Score.
4. Sort by close date ascending. Save view. Pin to dashboard.

1. Service → Feedback Surveys → NPS.
2. Send 30 days post-onboarding completion (reuses workflow trigger).
3. Detractor follow-up: "What's the main reason for your score?"
4. Promoter follow-up: "What's the one thing we should never change?"
5. Workflow: Detractor → task on owner in 24h. Passive → next QBR. Promoter → referral / case-study ask.

1. Custom Company properties: First SIM activated date, 10 SIMs milestone, API connected y/n, Active devices 30d.
2. Populate via integration or weekly CSV import.
3. Workflow: Active devices 30d drops >20% WoW → flag account + alert owner.
4. Report: First SIM activated >14 days ago AND no second milestone = stuck-onboarding cohort.

1. Company record → + Create task → Meeting type → due in 14 days.
2. Share QBR-specific Meetings link from Sales → Meetings.
3. Sub-task: "Pull QBR data — usage, ticket history, ROI — 2 days before meeting."
4. Post-meeting: log activity with action items + send recap email within 24h.

1. Their world (10m) — what's changed on their side?
2. What we delivered (15m) — usage, ROI, support summary.
3. What's next from them (15m) — roadmap on their side.
4. What's next from us (10m) — product roadmap relevant to them.
5. Commitments + dates (10m) — three each side.

1. Custom Company property: CSM Tier — T1 / T2 / T3 / Tech-touch.
2. Criteria: ARR, strategic logo, growth potential, complexity.
3. Workflow suggests tier based on rules (e.g., ARR > €50k = T1 candidate); CSM overrides.
4. Cadence: T1 monthly call + QBR. T2 quarterly call + QBR. T3 semi-annual touch. Tech-touch automated + reactive.

1. Workflows → object: Ticket.
2. Trigger: Status ≠ Closed AND Create date > 7 days ago.
3. Action 1: Priority = High. Action 2: Email/Slack ticket owner + manager. Action 3: Task on Company owner.
4. Re-enrolment OFF.

1. Marketing email — one-to-many newsletters, product updates, broadcasts. Branded.
2. Sales sequence — 1:1-feeling outreach at small scale (under 50). Comes from your inbox; personal.
3. Workflow + template — when behaviour-triggered (e.g., on milestone hit).

1. Specific times — not "yesterday afternoon."
2. Plain-language cause — no jargon shield.
3. Three concrete prevention steps, not "we'll do better."
4. Concrete next step — two date options.
5. Personal ownership — "I take full ownership," not "we apologise."

1. "Who else on your team will be using this day-to-day?"
2. "What's your timeline for the first wave of deployments?"
3. "What are you measuring internally to know this is working?"
4. "Where do you think the biggest risk is — technical setup, internal adoption, something else?"
5. "How do you prefer to be communicated with — email, calls, Slack, async updates?"

1. Clear summary of what you heard back to them.
2. Three commitments — one from you, two from them — with dates.
3. Next touchpoint in the calendar before you hang up.

1. Listen, don't defend — let them vent fully. Most angry customers calm in 90 seconds if uninterrupted.
2. Acknowledge specifically — "You were billed €240 over the agreed rate, and nobody flagged it. That's on us, and I understand why you're frustrated."
3. Own it without overselling — "I'm fixing this personally. Here's what I'll do in the next hour..."
4. Concrete timeline — "Answers back to you by 16:00 today." Then beat it by 30 minutes.
5. Close in writing — log call + follow-up email by end of day.

1. Lead with value, not the number — recap the year: usage growth, tickets resolved, value delivered.
2. Anchor on market & investment — "Across our customer base we've added capacity, X feature, improved reliability to Y. To keep investing at that pace, pricing adjusts 8% across the board this cycle."
3. Frame it mutual — "Let's walk through the agreement and make sure the tier matches where you're going next year."
4. If they push — don't break price first. Offer term length, payment timing, service add-on. Discount last, never first.
5. Always show the alternative — what happens if they don't renew. As a real cost, not a threat.

1. Welcome email within 24h of contract signing. Names, calendar invite, no jargon.
2. Kickoff call in week 1 — discovery + alignment on success definition.
3. Technical setup tracked weekly. First milestone by day 21.
4. Stakeholder map: who decides, who uses, who pays.

1. Adoption check-in — are people actually using it daily?
2. Identify the internal champion.
3. First mini-win documented and shared back.

1. ROI conversation — quantify what's been delivered.
2. First formal QBR with decision-makers.
3. Set the next 90-day expansion plan together.

1. Diagnose the real reason — not the cited one. "Too expensive" is usually "we never got value."
2. Right person in the room — decision-maker, not just the user. Bring your manager or their VP if needed.
3. Concrete offer — not vague reassurance. Waived month, dedicated technical session, roadmap commitment in writing.
4. 14-day re-evaluation — "Let's revisit on date X based on what's changed."
5. Honesty if it's lost — leave them as an alumnus who'd come back, not a customer you fought to the last day.

1. Don't reply by email. Phone within an hour. Speed signals seriousness.
2. Open: "I got your email and wanted to call rather than write. Can you walk me through what's behind that?" — listen 5+ minutes.
3. Three "and what else" questions before responding. Surface the real reasons.
4. Don't commit on the call. "I want to come back to you in 48 hours with a concrete plan rather than a half-answer."
5. Internally: brief your manager, loop product/support, build the save plan. Return in 48h.

1. 00:00–10:00 · Their world — "Before we dive in, what's changed on your side since we last met?"
2. 10:00–25:00 · Our delivery — usage, value, support summary. Data, not adjectives.
3. 25:00–40:00 · Roadmap exchange — map our roadmap onto their priorities visibly.
4. 40:00–55:00 · Risks & opportunities — honest conversation about friction.
5. 55:00–60:00 · Commitments — three each side, owners, dates. Recap email within 24h.

1. Open with their growth — "Your active SIMs grew 40% since January. Strong year."
2. Surface the natural ceiling — "At current pace, you'll hit plan ceiling around September. I want to plan rather than surprise you mid-deployment."
3. Present 2–3 options — "Stay + overage, move tier with headroom, or restructure to volume tier. Each has trade-offs." Options = agency.
4. Frame cost of inaction — what breaks if no upgrade.
5. "Let me think" → set next conversation in calendar before hangup.

1. Never blame product. Never "they won't build it." Undermines internal trust.
2. Acknowledge the real need. Feature is surface; problem underneath may be solvable another way.
3. Probe: "If we had that feature, what would change day-to-day?" Often reveals a workaround we have.
4. Be honest: "Not on the roadmap for the next two quarters. Here's what we can do instead..."
5. Real alternative: workaround, integration, custom report, manual help.
6. Log the request internally. 5 customers asking = product case. You're the voice of the customer, not the wall.

1. Shadow every CSM, sales rep, support engineer. Sit on calls without speaking.
2. Read last 90 days of notes for every account I'll own. One-pager per customer.
3. Map the tech stack: HubSpot setup, product telemetry, ticketing flow, data movement.
4. Interview 5+ customers — not to pitch, but to understand how they see us.

1. Identify top 3 recurring frictions — onboarding gaps, ticket types, billing clarity.
2. Propose one structural improvement to HubSpot — small, shippable, measurable.
3. Own my portfolio end-to-end. First round of QBRs.

1. Ship the improvement. Measure. Present results internally.
2. 3+ product-relevant customer insights back to product team.
3. Set 6-month goals with manager grounded in what I've learned.

Benedicte said this would come up in the call. Don't volunteer a number first. Anchor to your range, defend it calmly, leave room.

They'll ask. Don't dodge — name it cleanly and offer two flexible options. The strength is in the framing.

1. Leads with what's already done (CPR, residency) — removes the "is this complicated?" worry.
2. Names the constraint precisely (20h cap, until June 2026).
3. Closes with two flexible options — doesn't dump the problem on them.
4. No apology, no over-explanation.

Pick 4–5 based on the flow of the conversation. The closing one is mandatory.

The day will fly. Lock the timeline before, so the call itself is the easy part.

Most candidates fade out. Yours closes deliberately. The last impression is disproportionately what they remember.