Classroom-first
I came from the K-12 classroom before I ever sold into it. Educators and districts can tell the difference.
Christie Madsen · K-12 Post-Sale Operator
Turn the districts you've sold into customers who stay, and send the next one your way.
I build the systems that keep districts renewing so retention doesn't depend on heroics or relationships that walk out the door.
Built & led post-sale at
Two customer success teams built from scratch, one optimized to $100M ARR. 112% net revenue retention. Fourteen years inside K-12 post-sale.
01 / The Difference
Most CS consultants teach the work. I've been on the hook for it, in your market.
Six things that separate an operator from an advisor with a deck.
Operator, not advisor
I've run the post-sale team you're trying to build, not just advised on it.
Whole GTM machine
I've worked across sales, business development, operations, product, and customer experience, not just the post-sale portion.
Knows how districts buy
Procurement cycles, academic-year renewal timing, and where a buying committee really decides.
Built from zero, twice
Built two post-sale teams from scratch and optimized a third to $100M ARR.
Investor-fluent through M&A
Carried post-sale through multiple acquisitions and investor diligence.
02 / Where Are You?
Three places companies bring me in.
Find the one that sounds like you.
You just found product-market fit.
You've closed the early deals. Now what? Are you set up to keep those districts and turn them into the references your next sale depends on?
How I help: I stand up post-sale from scratch: the systems, lifecycle, and team that turn first customers into renewals and referrals.
You're scaling fast.
You have early systems in place. Will they hold at the next stage of growth, or break when you double?
How I help: I pressure-test and rebuild your post-sale function so it scales past the threshold instead of cracking at it.
You're established.
The structure is there. But are you driving real leverage, or leaving expansion on the table? Is your customer base actually a growth engine?
How I help: I optimize a working function: tighten the gaps, lift retention and expansion, and turn your customer base into a referenceable growth engine.
Not sure which one? Book a 30-minute call
03 / How We Work Together
Three ways to plug me in.
Pick the structure that fits. Any service can be delivered through any of them.
Project-based consulting
Scoped, time-bound work with clear deliverables. I diagnose the real problem, design the fix with your team, and launch it into production.
Embedded Advisor
A light-touch retainer where I'm in the room without being in the seat: board prep, exec escalations, hiring, comp redesigns. The model between fractional leadership and project work.
Training & Coaching
Coaching for CS leaders who came up through education and now run the function. You know the customer cold; I build the operator vocabulary with you: capacity models, board conversations, and reading what breaks at the next stage of scale.
05 / Where to Start
If you're not sure where to begin, begin here.
One productized engagement. Fixed scope, fixed fee, named outputs. A defensible answer for post-sale in 90 days, not 9 months.
The First 90
A 90-day action plan, inside a 12-month roadmap.
The First 90 is the plan you act on now, backed by the year behind it.
A focused engagement that gives you and your CEO a defensible answer to "what do we do with post-sale next year." In about six weeks with your team, you get a board-ready readout, a 90-day action plan, and the 12-month roadmap it sits inside.
- Week 1Kickoff & scoping
- Weeks 1–3Diagnostic & maturity scoring
- Weeks 4–5Plan-build with your team
- Week 6CEO/board readout
- Post90-day action plan + 12-month roadmap delivered
What you get
- A clear, scored read of where your post-sale function stands today.
- The two or three highest-leverage gaps holding back retention and expansion, named.
- A 90-day action plan plus the 12-month roadmap it fits inside, every move tied to an impact metric.
- A CEO and board-ready readout you can present, with an optional hand-off into Embedded Advisor.
Book a 30-minute call to scope The First 90
Just want the diagnosis? The Post-Sale Maturity Assessment is available on its own: mention it on our call.
06 / BELIEFS
A few things I believe, after fourteen years.
- Customers don't buy products. They buy outcomes.
- Frameworks aren't the product. Systems are.
- Credibility in education is earned in the classroom.
- In K-12, your customer base is your sales team.
- When the whole company owns retention but only Customer Success is measured on it, CS gets blamed for gaps it can't fix alone.
- If you hold a team accountable for renewals, give it the authority to influence what drives them (onboarding, product feedback, and exec air cover).
I've walked the walk. When I tell you something works in K-12, it's because I've watched it work.
07 / The Post-Sale Maturity Assessment
Before you book a call, score yourself.
The same diagnostic I use inside paid engagements. Nine dimensions, twenty minutes, an honest read on where you stand.
What's inside
Nine dimensions, three families
Strategy & Diagnostic, Operating Model, and Customer Outcomes...every part of post-sale, in one view.
Five-stage maturity rubric
Reactive → Defined → Proactive → Predictive → Strategic. Calibrated to K-12 EdTech, useful for horizontal SaaS.
Self-scored, plain language
Plain-language descriptions for every dimension, written so you can score your function yourself.
Maturity heat map
A fill-in heat map plus a "how to read your result" guide that points you to your lowest gaps and shared root causes.
Your email is used to send the PDF and one follow-up, nothing else.