Customer Revenue Leadership Study
Definitive customer success benchmarks and trends for 2025 through 2026.
About the 2025 Customer Revenue Leadership Study
Now in its sixth year, the Customer Revenue Leadership Study, formerly the Customer Success Leadership Study, provides insights and benchmarks for customer success and now customer go-to-market budgets, team sizes, tech stack, AI usage, decision-making, revenue ownership, and measurement.
This year’s Customer Revenue Leadership Study is brought to you by ChurnZero, 6sense, Customer Success Meetup, Onramp, Outreach, Pavilion, Success in Black, and Success Venture Partners.
Executive Summary
Customer-driven growth is the rule.
74% of participants report that most of their revenue comes from existing customers, meaning that post-sale execution is a topline priority.
Retention turns the corner.
After a 2022–2024 decline, net revenue retention (NRR) and gross revenue retention (GRR) are stabilizing in 2025.
Buying cycles thaw.
Fewer teams report 6+ month delays; more report that business is moving along as normal.
The makeup of your team can lift NRR.
The presence of enablement, CSM, support, and account management roles are associated with higher NRR
CS stays resilient; sales is under strain.
Both CS and sales are growing—but CS is growing on steadier ground, while sales is facing budget pressure.
Tech stack strength correlates to higher NRR.
The presence of CRM, CSP, LMS, and support software is all connected to higher NRR.
AI use is still in early stages.
Most teams are in exploration/tactical stages.
Customer lifecycle goals are focused on revenue metrics.
Goals are geared toward revenue, not activity.
Featured data from 2025’s study.
NRR and GRR stabilize.
After two years of erosion, retention has steadied. Net revenue retention (NRR) fell from 2022 through 2024 and then stabilized in 2025. Gross revenue retention (GRR) remains steady as well.
Together, this suggests SaaS organizations have adapted to the post-2022 environment.
This means that 2025 can be treated as a baseline year for planning and benchmarking. With volatility lower, your strategies, tactics and operations will have more of an impact on your success than external pressures.
Economic impact on buying cycles.
Buying cycles are thawing but buying readiness still divides performance.
Economic conditions improved versus 2024: Fewer leaders report 6+ months in purchasing/decision-making delays (20% in 2025 vs. 25% in 2024) and more say business is “moving along as normal” (37% in 2025 vs. 34% in 2024).
The makeup of your team can impact NRR.
We asked participants to describe their current customer go-to-market team and who leads the team.
We found that whether a customer go-to-market team reports to a single executive or multiple executives doesn’t make a meaningful difference to NRR or GRR. However, the presence of certain roles within the team does.
Here are the key roles that stand out for their association with stronger NRR:
- Customer enablement: 99% NRR with the function present vs. 94% without.
- Customer success managers (CSMs): 98% when present vs. 90% without.
- Support: 98% when present vs. 93% without.
- Account management: 98% when present vs. 94% without.
Staff your team to win.
The presence of CSM + support + enablement (and account management when your expansion lives on the sales side) correlates with NRR lifts. These are your must-have roles. Treat them as your minimum viable team for customer growth. Don’t over-rotate on structure. Since NRR and GRR don’t differ by single vs. multiple executive models, focus your leadership energy on role coverage, playbooks, and system adoption.
Tech stack strength can impact NRR.
One pattern in our data indicates that a strong, customer-data-centric stack correlates with higher NRR. Teams using a CRM report NRR at 98.5% vs. 90% without; CSP 100% with vs. 94% without; LMS 99% with vs. 95% without; and support software 99% with vs. 93% without.
Get the latest benchmarks and trends
The Customer Revenue Leadership Study is here. This year’s report provides the definitive picture what roles and technologies impact NRR, and provides benchmarks of customer go-to-market team composition, budgets, tech stack, goals and metrics.
2024 Study
2023 Study
2022 Study
2021 Study
2020 Study
