Meeting Standards & Working Norms

Prism Customer Success Handbook — Section 2.2

Part 1 — Meeting standards

This page defines the standard for each meeting type: purpose, frequency, attendees, required prep, and required output. The artifacts — agendas, deck outlines, checklists — live in Section 4.

A meeting without a defined output is a status update. Every standard below names what must exist when the meeting ends.

Kickoff


Purpose	Close the demo gap and align the buyer and the implementer before work starts
When	Within 5 business days of handoff
Attendees	Practice lead, implementer, technical/data owner if identifiable. CSM. AE optional. SE required for Enterprise.
Segments	All — including SMB. This is the one live meeting SMB always gets.
Prep	Completed handoff checklist (2.1 Sales → CS Handoff Standard) reviewed; success criteria sold extracted verbatim
Output	Confirmed success criteria, named implementer, credentials path identified, sequence agreed with realistic dates, kickoff activity logged

The non-negotiable element: the success criteria sold are restated out loud with the implementer present. If their understanding differs from the handoff record, that surfaces now rather than in week three.

The credentials question belongs here: who owns admin access to the systems we need to connect, and have they been told this is coming? Asking at kickoff prevents the single most common onboarding stall (see 1.5 Customer Journey Map).

Cadence call


Purpose	Maintain the relationship, surface friction early, keep the success plan current
Frequency	Enterprise: monthly. Mid-Market: monthly during onboarding, then quarterly. SMB: none scheduled — see below.
Attendees	Champion and/or practice lead; account managers as relevant
Prep	Health and usage reviewed beforehand; open items from last call carried forward; success plan open (MM/Ent)
Output	Activity logged with substance (not "had call"), success plan updated if anything changed, next actions with owners

SMB has no standing cadence call. SMB coverage is automated and exception-triggered: lifecycle emails, milestone nudges, and outreach the health model flags. A live call happens when the account asks for one, or when something triggers. This is a deliberate consequence of tech-touch coverage — standing calls across a large SMB book would consume the capacity that makes exception-based coverage possible, and would mostly be calls with accounts that are fine.

A customer-requested SMB call is always honored, and always logged.

Executive Business Review (EBR)


Purpose	Put value in front of the economic buyer and align on the next period's objectives
Frequency	Enterprise: quarterly. Mid-Market: twice yearly (EBR-lite). SMB: not applicable.
Attendees	Practice lead / economic buyer required — if they can't attend, reschedule rather than proceed. Champion, key AMs.
Prep	Value record assembled, success plan reviewed, objectives for next period drafted, known risks named honestly
Output	Updated success plan with agreed objectives, executive-level record of value delivered, any commitments logged

Why the buyer's attendance is a hard requirement: the EBR exists to solve the invisible-value problem (1.5 Customer Journey Map, stage 4) — the person who renews is often the person with the least direct exposure to the product. An EBR held without them doesn't do the job it exists for.

Not a product demo. An EBR that walks through features has failed. It reviews outcomes against the objectives the customer stated.

Artifacts: 4.3 EBR Kit.

Renewal conversation


Purpose	Confirm intent to renew and resolve anything standing in the way
When	Per the renewal motion checkpoints (3.7 Renewal Motion) — not a single meeting at the end
Attendees	Economic buyer; Sales if pricing or contract terms change (see 2.5 Cross-Functional Interfaces)
Prep	Value record current, health and Risk Level reviewed, forecast category set with reasoning, known blockers identified
Output	Forecast category updated with a stated reason, next steps with dates, activity logged

Renewals are earned continuously, not negotiated at the end. If the first renewal conversation is the first value conversation, the motion has already failed.

Internal risk review


Purpose	A scheduled pass over the book to catch what ad-hoc dashboard checking misses
Frequency	Weekly
Attendees	CSM alone. It's still a meeting — it's on the calendar and it produces output.
Prep	None; the dashboard is the input
Output	Triaged priorities for the week (2.4 Account Prioritization Framework), any new escalations opened, forecast categories updated where they've drifted

A solo CSM has no manager asking what's at risk this week, which makes the discipline of a scheduled review more important, not less. Without it, attention flows to whoever emailed most recently rather than to what the data says matters.

Part 2 — Working norms

Log it or it didn't happen

Every substantive customer interaction is logged as an activity in the CSP. Not because of process piety — because health scoring, playbook triggers, and the renewal record all read from that log. An unlogged call is invisible to every system that depends on knowing when we last talked to someone.

What gets logged: calls, meetings, substantive emails, stakeholder changes, escalations opened or resolved, status changes, and material notes.

What doesn't: routine scheduling back-and-forth, automated sends, internal thinking that didn't reach the customer.

What a good note contains

A note should be readable by someone with no memory of the conversation — including you, eight months from now, preparing for a renewal.

What the customer said, especially in their words when it concerns goals, frustration, or intent
What changed — a decision, a new blocker, a stakeholder shift
What happens next, and who owns it
What you'd want to know before the next conversation

Not: a transcript. Not: "good call, all fine."

Follow-up timing

Meeting notes logged same day. Detail decays fast and a note written a week later is a summary of a summary.
Committed follow-ups delivered within 2 business days, or the customer told why not.
Customer emails acknowledged within 1 business day, even if the substantive answer takes longer. Acknowledgement is not the answer; it's the thing that stops the customer wondering.

These are norms, not SLAs. A solo CSM publishing formal response-time guarantees across a large book would be writing a promise the coverage model can't keep.

Async by default

Default to written communication unless urgency, complexity, or relationship value justifies a meeting. Meetings are the scarcest resource in a solo-CSM model — spending one on something an email resolves is spending it against an account that needed it more.

Exceptions where a meeting is the right call: anything with bad news, anything requiring negotiation, anything where you need to read the room, and anything the customer has asked for.

Naming and consistency

Accounts are referred to by their Account name as recorded in the CSP, not informal shorthand
Terminology follows 1.3 Customer Data Model — particularly the three meanings of "risk," and Account vs. end client
Escalations use the severity tiers in 1.6 Health Scoring Methodology and 2.7 Escalation Management, not ad-hoc descriptions of urgency

1.2 CS Operating Model — the coverage model these frequencies implement
1.3 Customer Data Model — terminology this page enforces
2.1 Sales → CS Handoff Standard — what kickoff consumes
2.3 Operating Rhythm — where the internal risk review sits in the week
2.4 Account Prioritization Framework — what the risk review produces
4.3 EBR Kit · 4.4 Cadence Call Agendas — the artifacts for these meetings