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Portrait of Jonathan Croft

Account managementCustomer successChannel partnerships

Jonathan Croft

With customers, I learn the goals each one is working toward and help them reach every one. Along the way, I catch risk early, protect the renewal at a higher contract value, and grow the account through upsells, cross-sells, and added users.

In the channel, strong partnerships sell more. I build the relationships and enablement behind them, and both companies win. Along the way, I recruit the right partners, get them selling fast, and keep each partnership growing through joint planning.

Hi, I'm Jon. I've spent 15 years in B2B software, managing enterprise and mid-market accounts and building channel partner networks, where I recruited and onboarded close to 200 partners across three companies. Every account starts with the customer's business challenges and the outcomes they expect from the product. I tie adoption and usage to those outcomes, and I watch for the signals that put a renewal at risk, like slipping usage or a champion leaving. When a fix needs Product, Finance, or Legal, I get them in the room early.

Resumes (PDF)

Account management Customer success Channel partnerships

The scoreboard

Overall

  • 15years in B2B software
  • 111%average quota attainment across all 14 periods, 2012 to 2025

Direct accounts

  • $6.2Mlargest annual recurring revenue book
  • 116%net revenue retention, 2024, with upsells and cross-sells
  • 91%gross revenue retention, 2024 through May 2025, across the Bullhorn acquisition

Channel partners

  • ~200partners recruited and onboarded across three companies
  • 6 of 6channel periods above quota, from 104% to 116%
  • Top Sales RepresentativeTextkernel, 2024CloudCall, 2019 and 2021
  • Unsung Hero AwardCloudCall, 2021, voted by peers

Quota, period by period

111%

average quota attainment across all 14 periods, 2012 to 2025

Direct account roles and channel roles, side by side.

Account stories

Two renewals that started going sideways. The names are out. The numbers are real.

Story 1 · Enterprise renewal

They asked to pay less. They signed for more.

The key move was letting them drop a product they didn't need and grow the two they used most.

The situation

A Fortune 500 enterprise customer was coming to the end of a 36-month agreement, with renewal due in November 2024. They used several of our products across talent acquisition and workforce management. Adoption was strong and support issues were rare. Then in the spring of 2024 they cut about 10% of their workforce. The renewal was only months away.

What changed

Several of my champions and key stakeholders were gone. QBRs got harder to run because the people who knew the products had left. Then the customer asked for a lower price and a 12-month term instead of 36. They were also openly looking at cheaper competitors and pushing back on contract terms.

The result

They asked for a lower price and a 12-month term. They signed for 24 months at an 8% increase in annual contract value. The deal closed before the November expiration, through every legal, procurement, and executive approval.

What I did

  1. Rebuilt the stakeholder map. The champions who stayed introduced me to new decision makers, department heads, and procurement. One senior procurement contact helped me learn who could approve what.
  2. Listened before proposing anything. I met with each department to learn which capabilities they relied on and which they could do without. Some teams needed specific features. Others mostly wanted to cut costs.
  3. Brought data to the table. I worked with Sales Operations to build usage reports for this account, based on the health scoring approach I built. They showed where the products delivered the most value.
  4. Changed the conversation. Instead of defending the old contract, I proposed a more focused portfolio. The customer would drop a career development product they no longer needed and expand functionality in their two most-used products. I tied each addition to what those departments were trying to achieve.
  5. Lined up our internal teams. Product and Solutions Engineering confirmed the new functionality was feasible and set realistic delivery expectations. Finance and our executive team modeled pricing and discount options, since removing a product changed the pricing of the rest. Legal worked through contract language, commercial terms, and term length.

Story 2 · API partner renewal

I flagged the problem before they raised it.

The usage data showed the drop first. I took it to the customer, then to our Chief Product Officer.

The situation

A fast-growing applicant tracking software company built our resume parsing and skills technology into its own platform. Their customers used it every time a candidate applied. So API usage was the clearest sign of how the account was doing. They also served customers in France and Germany, where our language accuracy was weaker than in English.

The signal

I had set up custom AI agents to watch API usage and other health signals across my book. One flagged a steady drop in this customer's API usage. Our customer portal couldn't break usage down by language. So I dug into their support history and found a rise in tickets about French and German parsing and skills extraction.

The result

French and German usage recovered, and related tickets dropped. The customer kept French and German in the agreement instead of cutting them. They renewed for 12 months at a 5% increase in annual contract value while they evaluated their own AI plans. In QBRs I had suggested offering our capabilities across more of their subscription tiers. The new subscription packaging then grew API usage, bringing total growth in annual contract value to 12% over the previous contract, including the 5% renewal increase.

What I did

  1. Tested the hunch with data. I worked with Sales Operations to break six months of API usage down by language. French and German usage were clearly falling.
  2. Brought it to the customer first. I showed my contact the usage trends and the ticket pattern before they had raised the problem. They connected me with their teams in France and Germany.
  3. Listened to the people closest to the problem. I wrote a sentiment survey their teams sent to users, and I set up user groups and office hours. Recruiters were dropping the automation and going back to manual work. That undercut the reason the customer bought the product.
  4. Made the business case inside. I took the findings to our Chief Product Officer, then to Product and executive leadership. I tied the problem to the renewal and to our standing in international markets. Leadership moved French and German improvements up the roadmap. Releases went from every two to three months to about monthly. I held weekly check-ins with Product and updated the customer about twice a month. After each release I tracked language usage and tickets to confirm it was working.
  5. Handled the build-versus-buy question. The customer was weighing building its own AI parsing. I walked them through what it takes to keep accuracy and multilingual skills data current over time, using the effort they had just watched us put in.

How I work

I listen first. Then I bring in whoever the fix needs.

Customers

Find out what each person needs

Big accounts have a lot of people who want different things. I figure out who uses the product, who owns the budget, and who signs. Then I talk to each of them before I put anything on the table. A plan that ignores what they're trying to do won't survive the renewal. Those same conversations show me where an upsell, a cross-sell, or more users would actually help them.

Internal teams

Bring the data, get the help

Some problems I can't fix on my own. So I go to Product, Support, Sales Engineering, or Sales Operations with the data they need to act. I pass along what customers tell me so it can shape the roadmap. In channel roles I also worked with Marketing on co-marketing and partner content.

Finance and Legal

Only offer what we can sign

Finance and Legal own the terms, changes, and red lines. I bring them in before I make an offer. That way, what I put in front of a customer is something we can sign. When a deal needs a new structure, I work out the pricing with Finance and the language with Legal first. Partner agreements in my channel roles worked the same way.

Channel partnerships

Partners are accounts too. They're just measured differently.

In channel roles I was measured on the partners I signed, how fast they got productive, and the business they brought in. Here's how I worked it.

Recruit

Own every partner from the first call

I owned each partner from the first qualifying call through the signed agreement. That added up to close to 200 MSP, reseller, and systems integrator partners across three companies. That includes 74 at FreedomVoice, 12 in 10 months at Egenera, and roughly 4 a month at Reflexion.

Enable

Get them selling fast

New partners got hands-on training and the onboarding and enablement resources I built. I also joined them at customer meetings, conferences, and trade shows to help position the product.

Grow

Keep the relationship after the signature

I ran joint business planning with partners and stayed their owner through growth and retention. Finance and Legal set the terms, changes, and red lines on partner agreements. Marketing helped with co-marketing and partner content.

Lead

Build the team behind it

At FreedomVoice I led a team of channel development reps, six over my tenure, most with no sales experience. I coached them with role-playing, shadowing, and live call feedback. I also built a process to qualify prospects fast, so account executives only got strong meetings.

How I score account health

Four signals I watch on every account.

I can't watch every account every day. So at Textkernel I built a health score that tells me where to look first.

I also set up custom AI agents that watch API usage and other health signals across my book. They flag changes early, before a customer brings them up.

Example accountRenewal at risk
  • Adoption and usageTrending downWatch
  • Support ticketsClustering on one topicWatch
  • ChampionsMain contact has leftAt risk
  • Organizational changeLayoffs announcedAt risk
An illustration of how the score reads. Not real account data.

Adoption and usage

Are they using what they bought, and which way is it trending? For customers who build us into their own product, API usage tells the story.

Support tickets

How many, and what they're about. A cluster on one topic usually points to the cause.

Champions

Are my main contacts still there and still engaged? When a champion leaves, the account needs a new map.

Organizational change

Layoffs, reorganizations, acquisitions, and new leaders all change who decides and what they care about.

Usage on its own tells me something changed. The other signals usually tell me why. In both stories above, these signals are what told me where to look.

QBRs and EBRs

Every review starts with why they bought.

At Textkernel I overhauled the account team's quarterly business review process and rebuilt the template. It became the standard for 10 account managers across the US and Europe. I ran it on about 15 core accounts that made up roughly 80% of my book, plus one-off reviews where there was an opportunity.

Tactical

Quarterly business review

With the day-to-day users and owners. Every account above a certain size got one. We covered usage, open issues, and what was coming next.

Strategic

Executive business review

With the executives. My top enterprise accounts always got one, and some smaller accounts did too. We covered ROI and the case for renewal and growth.

Every review opens with the goal they bought us for. Then we check whether their usage is getting them there. When it is, that progress is the renewal case. When it isn't, we find out why and fix it while there's still time. The process also gave the whole team one shared way to spot trouble early.

Training and onboarding

Getting new sellers and new customers up to speed.

25%

shorter ramp across 7 new hires at CloudCall. The program became the standard after I left.

  • At CloudCall I built the sales onboarding and training program from scratch. New hires worked through product and technical certification, tailored demos, CRM and pipeline hygiene, and structured shadowing before running a live call or demo on their own.
  • I stayed the named owner of each new customer for their first 60 days, guiding them through implementation before introducing their account manager.
  • At Textkernel I helped train newer account managers on product and process while carrying a full book, as the team added five hires.
  • In channel roles I built partner onboarding and enablement resources and trained new partners hands-on.
  • As a consultant I built playbooks, training documents, and on-demand video modules for client sales teams.

Tools I work in

  • Salesforce
  • Gainsight
  • Jira
  • LMS platforms
  • Call library platforms
  • AI tools

Let's talk.

If your accounts need someone who catches trouble early, I'd like to hear about the role.

Resumes (PDF)

Account management Customer success Channel partnerships