Case study · Save play · 2026

How I turned a frustrated ANZ enterprise customer into an expansion advocate.

An ANZ enterprise customer in healthcare-adjacent technology. Multi-product Cloudflare deployment, around 12 months into the contract, no consistent CSM in the seat before I picked it up. By the time I walked in, the head of IT security was 45 minutes into a frustration rant and renewal was on the horizon. This is what we did about it, and what it ended up being worth.

10-slide narrative Problem → Approach → Outcome Customer-identifying details lightly anonymized

  1. 01 Problem · Where it started

    I picked up an account that had every problem an account can have.

    An ANZ enterprise customer in healthcare-adjacent technology. Mid-size book, multi-product Cloudflare deployment, around 12 months into the contract. By the time I picked it up, the relationship had been running without a consistent CSM in the seat. The TAM, the AE, and the SE were all pulling on separate threads. Nothing was joined up.

    Multi-product deployment · 12 months in contract · no consistent CSM prior

  2. 02 Problem · What was actually broken

    The product wasn't the problem. The engagement around the product was.

    Most of the products were poorly onboarded and poorly utilized. The customer was short on resources, hadn't set things up in a meaningful way, and was blaming the product for the gap. Stakeholder damage from accumulated small failures over time. By the time I walked in, the head of IT security on their side was 45 minutes into a frustration rant in our standing meeting, and renewal was on the horizon.

    Renewal approaching · stakeholder damage · onboarding gap masquerading as product gap

  3. 03 Approach · First move

    I listened first. Let them have their say before I tried to fix anything.

    The reality is that frustration is data, not noise. You don't get to solve a thing for a customer who doesn't feel heard yet. So the first thing I did was nothing. I let the customer have their word, take their say, and put the whole thing on the table. Only then did we start working on what we were going to do about it.

    Listening as a first move · not a soft skill, a first deliverable

  4. 04 Approach · The shape of the work

    Got the right people back in the room, then made the work visible.

    I brought the CSE, AE, and SE back in around a single thread instead of separate ones. We started hitting on what they actually wanted, product specialty advice and roadmap input, while also optimizing what they already had on contract. We built usage analytics that catered to how they thought about their own business, so they could communicate their problem up to their own leadership. And we reframed the contract in terms of business outcomes rather than features. We have a lot of features. The reality is they only cared about a handful that mattered.

    Cross-team thread reset · tailored analytics · outcomes over features

  5. 05 Approach · Cadence and consistency

    Committed to QBRs every three months. Delivered them every two.

    I committed to a QBR every three months. Then we did them bi-monthly, aligned to their internal cycles instead of ours. Each round we reworked the deck until it was bespoke to them. Not a template with their name on top, a deck that helped them get the results they were actually trying to land. Look, consistency is the cheapest superpower in customer success. Most CSMs don't use it.

    QBR every 2 months · tailored to customer cycle · iterative rework

  6. Today's CSM meeting was fabulous. The customer is super stoked with the engagement he has provided, the adapted meeting approach and has turned around to be a huge supporter of ours talking about where else he can roll us out in their organisation.

    In the room · The Account Executive Cloudflare Account Executive March 2026

  7. 07 Outcome · The renewal

    Renewal landed clean. Contract value up around $100K NRR.

    When the final push came at renewal, the work was already done. We didn't have to argue for it, we just had to point at it. NRR up roughly $100K. The customer didn't add new services but raised cap across the products they were already on, the same caps they had told us 12 months earlier they shouldn't need to raise. Ticket volume cleared out. SLAs back inside the lines after being blown out the previous year.

    +$100K NRR · cap increases across in-use products · SLA recovery

  8. 08 Outcome · The moment that turned

    Procurement leadership saw the proof in the QBR. Then everything changed.

    The thing that really turned it was the renewal QBR. When the procurement leaders and the executives who actually sign the contract sat in the room and saw where we'd been, where we were, and where we were going, they got it. They hadn't seen it yet because they hadn't been in the room before. The work was already done. We just hadn't shown them the proof. Once we did, it changed everything. Executive team on board. Real conversations starting about new products and services they hadn't been open to six months earlier.

    Executive buy-in · expansion conversations opened · reference posture

  9. I wanted to call out the way you've shown up for our ANZ customers this quarter. Turning around a challenging situation like this one takes patience and judgment, and the fact that they now see us as a trusted partner says a lot about your approach.

    After the fact · Senior leadership Cloudflare President of Revenue April 2026

  10. 10 Takeaways · What another CSM could use

    Keep doing what you know is right, even when the customer hasn't seen it yet.

    Look, the lesson here is to keep doing what you know you're supposed to do as a CSM, even when the customer doesn't know what they're doing yet or can't articulate what they need. You keep digging, you keep pushing, you keep asking the questions, you keep building the case for their success. When the rubber hits the road and shit hits the fan, you'll have everything you need to stand your ground, be defensible, and prove the value is there. That's what mattered here. The work was already done. We just had to show them.

    Three lessons · Listen first · Make the work visible · Trust the cadence