Customer success and customer marketing are often seen as separate functions. But what happens when they work as one?
Emily Cid, Senior Director of Customer Success at Champion, shares her journey from account executive to customer advocacy leader, offering an inside look at what it takes to build human-first, revenue-aligned teams. With experience across sales, success, and marketing, Emily reveals how aligning internal teams around customer outcomes drives both retention and growth.
Emily zooms in on practical ways CS and marketing can partner more effectively: from shared KPIs to advocacy programs that actually scale. Plus, she shares how curiosity and empathy power everything from strategy to leadership.
What you’ll learn:
Episode Outline:
(00:00) The power of curiosity in customer relationships
(01:05) Introducing Emily Cid and her customer-first career path
(03:02) What drew Emily to Champion and the customer-led growth mission
(04:35) The common thread across her AE, CS, and marketing roles
(06:31) Building empathy across siloed teams
(08:18) The missing connection between CS and customer marketing
(09:45) What real customer centricity looks like in practice
(11:20) Advocacy as a CS metric and force multiplier
(13:16) Proving impact through measurable advocacy outcomes
(17:06) How multiple champions in an account impact retention
(18:16) Making customers successful in the new AI era
(20:27) Human-first leadership and career development
(23:29) Hot takes on what customer marketers get wrong
(24:42) The future of customer marketing as a strategic function
(26:20) Final advice for aspiring customer-centric leaders