When your customer success team gets overwhelmed by competing priorities, your goal should never be to solve every problem at once.
Instead, you need to identify the single action that unlocks the next opportunity. This is how you combat chronic overwhelm and beat “analysis paralysis.”
Elizabeth Blass, CCO at Karbon, has developed the Next Best Action (NBA) Framework to help customer success leaders and their teams in situations where action is needed. It’s a decision-making model that builds momentum by focusing on immediate, smart moves as opposed to over-engineered, long-term plans—plus, it draws an artful analogy with professional sports that everyone can appreciate.
At ZERO-IN in Chicago, the ChurnZero team scored courtside seats to learn more. Here’s how the steps and plays of Elizabeth’s NBA Framwework help you and your CSMs make the best move for any situation, and build an ongoing habit of momentum.
Step 1: Know the game situation (awareness).
In any crisis or moment of uncertainty, the first step toward clarity is gaining situational awareness. For CS leaders, this means identifying what the current moment is asking of you.
“Great players know where they are in the game,” Elizabeth explained. “The clock, the score, their role in the game. It’s really important to ask yourself: are you in growth mode? Are you building skills?”
Awareness plays
Assess the clock and the score. Ask where you are in the customer lifecycle or career phase. Are you in “growth mode,” or is it “crunch time” for a renewal?
Identify the real need. Elizabeth shared an example: a renewal is due the next day with no stakeholder engagement. In this “game situation,” a success plan is irrelevant. The only logical next action: engage immediately and reestablish trust through direct conversation.
Step 2: Scan the court (identification).
Once you understand the situation, it’s time to scan the court. Where do you foresee lanes opening up, or blockers suddenly appearing?
Elite players don’t just watch the ball. They take in the entire landscape to identify openings or blockers—so look beyond the obvious.
Scanning plays
Identify customer signals. Look for patterns in feedback, internal dynamics, or even “silence,” which is often a critical signal.
Avoid assumptions. Scanning the court means asking questions to uncover hidden information. Stay curious and speak up. Elizabeth recalled one instance where a renewal conversation shifted entirely once the CS team identified the critical signal that a customer was being acquired.
Check your ego. Scanning includes stepping back to see if personal biases are clouding the interpretation of signals.
Step 3: Make the play (action).
The most critical, and often the most difficult, phase of the Next Best Action Framework is making the play. It doesn’t have to be perfect, says Elizabeth, but it does need to unlock the next move.
Perfectionists everywhere might shudde at this point, fearful of “missing the shot”. But missing is still a play—plus, talking to someone constitutes action, too. It doesn’t have to take a massive project to move the needle; a clarifying conversation can do that, too.
“Am I hesitating out of lack of fear? Would moving create more clarity? Can I learn something even if it’s not perfect? Don’t overthink.” Elizabeth emphasized.
Action plays
Force decision-making. Hesitation kills momentum. As a leader, you must ask: “What single action will move this forward right now?”
Embrace the “shot” even if it misses. If a play doesn’t land? That’s okay: it still provides data for your next move.
Post-game: Study the film and reset (reflection).
To ensure continuous improvement (and action), reflection is a must. In the NBA, players study game video not to self-flagellate, but to learn. Did the energy shift? Did you surface a blocker? What new signal emerged?
Reflection and resetting plays
Study the film: Reviewing past actions isn’t for self-criticism, it’s for reflection.
The mid-game reset. Sometimes the next best action is a “halftime” reset—owning a failed move, then reengaging from a different angle. Elizabeth mentions a team who forced a QBR that fell flat. The lesson wasn’t “never do QBRs” again, but “scan the court better next time, then choose a different play.”
Using the NBA Framework to coach your customer team.
As a leader, how you can encourage newer CSMs to adopt the framework when they don’t yet have the expertise to “self-NBA”?
Create safe spaces where the stakes are lower, Elizabeth says. When you allow less experienced team members to practice decision-making on “rubber balls” rather than “glass balls,” you build their decision-making muscles without risking the entire account.
You should also address the tendency to “think too big”. True momentum happens when you break problems down into smaller, actionable chunks.
Final coaching plays
Reframe your signals. A new reporting line to a VP isn’t necessarily a demotion. It can signal strategic importance. Context matters.
Upgrade the value of meetings. If customers avoid monthly calls, don’t chase them; raise the value. Upskill your CSMs technically, bring sharper insights, and align to outcomes.
Tackle big blockers with small plays. When budget constraints, product gaps, and cross-functional buy-in feel immovable, break them into smaller, sequenceable steps to generate proof and momentum.
Coach the rookies. Give new CSMs safe reps: lower-risk decisions, clear guardrails, and fast feedback (start with the scrimmage, move up to the big game).
What’s your CS team’s next best action today?
If you’re in a renewal crunch, book that trust-building call. If signals are unclear, ask more uncomfortable questions. If a blocker looms, carve off the smallest slice that produces more information, more learning.
Then, like the pros, review the film, adjust, and run the loop again. Momentum isn’t magic; it’s a practised habit of choosing the next best action, over and over, until the path forward reveals itself.
“Action over perfection,” Elizabeth concluded. “That is a great note to end on.”
