INSIGHTS & UPDATES

The BackEngine Blog

Discover insights on customer success, retention strategies, and how AI is transforming the way teams work.

Revenue Leaders and the Visceral Fear of Surprises
Mar 3, 2026

Revenue Leaders and the Visceral Fear of Surprises

Host: Victor Vatus, Founder of TrackRec Featuring: Eli Portnoy, Co-founder of BackEngine Jeanne Marie Wilke, RevOps Advisor Rafaella Fontes, Director of Stra...

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What Is an Anti-Surprise System? A practical framework for customer success and revenue leaders
Feb 19, 2026

What Is an Anti-Surprise System? A practical framework for customer success and revenue leaders

An anti-surprise system surfaces execution risk early and brings it into the open, before it turns into a missed forecast, a failed renewal, or a loss of trust ...

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The Execution Gap: Where Revenue Is Quietly Lost After the Deal Closes
Feb 18, 2026

The Execution Gap: Where Revenue Is Quietly Lost After the Deal Closes

The Execution Gap: Where Revenue Is Quietly Lost After the Deal Closes Quick Answer The execution gap is the context breakdown between sales close and delivery....

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Why Customer Success Execution Breaks at Scale
Feb 17, 2026

Why Customer Success Execution Breaks at Scale

Why Customer Success Execution Breaks at Scale And Why Dashboards, QBRs, and Process Alone Don’t Fix It Quick Answer Customer Success execution breaks at scale ...

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What Is Execution Intelligence? Complete Guide for 2026
Feb 16, 2026

What Is Execution Intelligence? Complete Guide for 2026

What Is Execution Intelligence? Quick Answer: Execution intelligence is a system that connects customer signals across tools, identifies execution risk earl...

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Announcing BackEngine 2.0
Feb 13, 2026

Announcing BackEngine 2.0

Today we're launching our Deal Execution Engine. It lets GTM leaders scale their thinking across every deal and customer. The old GTM playbook is dead. The econ...

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Ways Consumer AI Fails B2B Sales Teams
Feb 13, 2026

Ways Consumer AI Fails B2B Sales Teams

Every GTM leader today is under pressure to make AI work for their organization. Consumer tools like ChatGPT create quick wins for individuals, but they consist...

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The Hidden Cost of DIY AI in Sales Teams
Feb 13, 2026

The Hidden Cost of DIY AI in Sales Teams

Many revenue leaders encouraged their teams to experiment with ChatGPT and similar tools, hoping to spark productivity gains. What they discovered is a differen...

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Why Generic AI Tools Can't Deliver for B2B Sales Teams
Feb 13, 2026

Why Generic AI Tools Can't Deliver for B2B Sales Teams

AI is everywhere in sales today. Teams are experimenting with ChatGPT, Claude, and countless other tools to draft emails, clean up messaging, and prepare meetin...

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How to Use Feedback to Beat Competitors
Feb 13, 2026

How to Use Feedback to Beat Competitors

SaaS competition has never been tougher. Switching costs are lower, features are easily copied, and buyers demand more value with less patience. Yet some compan...

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Why Feedback Architecture Is the Key to Scaling Customer Intelligence
Feb 12, 2026

Why Feedback Architecture Is the Key to Scaling Customer Intelligence

As SaaS companies grow, so does the volume of customer conversations. But growth also brings complexity. Different teams collect feedback in different ways. Ins...

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Who Owns Customer Feedback?
Feb 12, 2026

Who Owns Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback is one of the most discussed yet misunderstood assets in SaaS companies. Everyone agrees it matters. But when we asked 150+ SaaS leaders who o...

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Volume Over Vision: Why Most B2B Teams Miss Critical Customer Feedback by Eli Portnoy
Feb 12, 2026

Volume Over Vision: Why Most B2B Teams Miss Critical Customer Feedback by Eli Portnoy

Many founders wait for a breakthrough insight. One perfect piece of feedback to steer the ship. That's not how it works. Breakthroughs come from patterns. Patte...

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Why Feedback Fragmentation Is Slowing SaaS Growth (More Than You Think)
Feb 12, 2026

Why Feedback Fragmentation Is Slowing SaaS Growth (More Than You Think)

Most SaaS CEOs would agree: customer feedback matters. Yet few realize how much poor feedback systems are silently holding them back. It's not just that opportu...

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Why Your Sales Playbook Isn't Delivering Results – And How to Fix It
Feb 12, 2026

Why Your Sales Playbook Isn't Delivering Results – And How to Fix It

You've built the perfect sales playbook. Your team spent months interviewing top performers, documenting winning strategies, and codifying best practices for ev...

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The 3-Minute Executive Briefing That Made a CEO Forward Customer Insights to the Board
Feb 10, 2026

The 3-Minute Executive Briefing That Made a CEO Forward Customer Insights to the Board

Imagine a leadership meeting where the CEO begins by pulling up customer insights dashboards and walking through patterns. Not because a Customer Success leader...

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The Heavy CS Burden: Why Retention & Expansion Is A Team Sport
Feb 10, 2026

The Heavy CS Burden: Why Retention & Expansion Is A Team Sport

It's time to broaden our view of what affects NRR and adjust our expectations of who should be accountable for it. By spreading the responsibility across the or...

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Beyond Health Scores: The Speed Advantage in Customer Feedback
Feb 10, 2026

Beyond Health Scores: The Speed Advantage in Customer Feedback

The Problem with Customer Health Scores Customer health scores have become the standard metric for B2B SaaS companies. But here's an uncomfortable truth: by the...

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What I Learned from Our Customer Feedback Research: The Data-Driven Case for Listening by Eli Portnoy
Feb 10, 2026

What I Learned from Our Customer Feedback Research: The Data-Driven Case for Listening by Eli Portnoy

The line between success and failure in B2B SaaS is incredibly thin. After surveying over 150 B2B SaaS companies about their customer feedback practices, I'm co...

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The Ownership Without Empowerment Trap: Why 53% of CS Teams Are Set Up to Fail
Feb 10, 2026

The Ownership Without Empowerment Trap: Why 53% of CS Teams Are Set Up to Fail

The uncomfortable truth about customer feedback "ownership" in most organizations. Here's a scenario that probably sounds familiar: You're in a leadership meeti...

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From Cost Center to Strategic Partner: Elevating Customer Success in B2B SaaS with AI
Feb 9, 2026

From Cost Center to Strategic Partner: Elevating Customer Success in B2B SaaS with AI

Many B2B SaaS companies still treat Customer Success as a reactive support team. It solves problems, manages churn, and handles renewals. But this limited role ...

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The Unseen Cost of Missing Feedback: How Fragmentation Hurts Growth
Feb 9, 2026

The Unseen Cost of Missing Feedback: How Fragmentation Hurts Growth

Most SaaS companies don't think they have a feedback problem. They run surveys, record calls, collect customer tickets, and hold periodic QBRs. From the outside...

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The Data is Clear: CEOs Who Stay Close to Customers Outperform
Feb 9, 2026

The Data is Clear: CEOs Who Stay Close to Customers Outperform

In theory, every SaaS leader agrees that customer-centricity matters. But few realize just how much CEO behavior specifically influences business performance. W...

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Why Customer Feedback Alone Won't Save Your NRR: Turning Signals into Action
Feb 9, 2026

Why Customer Feedback Alone Won't Save Your NRR: Turning Signals into Action

Most SaaS companies collect customer feedback. But the data shows that simply "collecting" isn't enough. In our survey of over 150 B2B SaaS leaders, 85% of comp...

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Stop Apologizing for Product. Start Driving Strategy. by Eli Portnoy
Feb 9, 2026

Stop Apologizing for Product. Start Driving Strategy. by Eli Portnoy

Most CS leaders are playing defense when they should be playing offense. Here's what I mean. Too many CS teams spend their days apologizing for product gaps. Th...

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Championship Execution: What Revenue Leaders Can Learn from Super Bowl-Winning Teams
Feb 6, 2026

Championship Execution: What Revenue Leaders Can Learn from Super Bowl-Winning Teams

Written by Rafaella Fontes Championship Execution: What Revenue Leaders Can Learn from Super Bowl-Winning Teams Super Bowl teams win on execution, not just play...

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Beyond "Better, Faster, Cheaper": Why Transformative AI Demands a New Playbook
Feb 6, 2026

Beyond "Better, Faster, Cheaper": Why Transformative AI Demands a New Playbook

In the AI revolution sweeping B2B SaaS, there's a critical distinction that most operators miss. I'm seeing two fundamentally different types of AI products eme...

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The Silent Killer Behind SaaS Churn: Why Understanding Customers is the Real Advantage
Feb 6, 2026

The Silent Killer Behind SaaS Churn: Why Understanding Customers is the Real Advantage

Most SaaS companies claim to be customer-centric. Yet, when we surveyed over 150 B2B SaaS businesses, only 11% said they deeply understand their customers. At t...

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From Feedback to Influence: How Customer Success Becomes a Strategic Engine
Feb 6, 2026

From Feedback to Influence: How Customer Success Becomes a Strategic Engine

Customer Success is evolving. It is no longer just about renewals and churn prevention. It is becoming a strategic engine for growth, product alignment, and lon...

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Cultivating NRR: How AI-Powered Personalization Turns Customer Relationships into Money Trees
Feb 6, 2026

Cultivating NRR: How AI-Powered Personalization Turns Customer Relationships into Money Trees

Picture your customer base as a vast garden. Each customer is a unique plant, with its own needs, quirks, and potential for growth. In the past, we've treated o...

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Aligning Teams for Customer Success: Boosting Net Revenue Retention
Feb 6, 2026

Aligning Teams for Customer Success: Boosting Net Revenue Retention

To maximize NRR, companies must ensure that every team, from product development to sales, is aligned and working towards the common goal of customer success. A...

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Scaling with Purpose: Eli Portnoy on The Growth and Scaling Podcast
Feb 6, 2026

Scaling with Purpose: Eli Portnoy on The Growth and Scaling Podcast

Scaling a company isn't just about moving fast, it's about building with clarity, discipline, and a relentless focus on what truly drives growth. On The Growth ...

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The Power of Resilience and Innovation: Eli Portnoy on The Sparking Entrepreneur Show
Feb 6, 2026

The Power of Resilience and Innovation: Eli Portnoy on The Sparking Entrepreneur Show

Building something from the ground up takes more than vision. It requires resilience, clarity, and the ability to learn quickly, from successes, but especially ...

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The Henry Ford Lesson Every B2B Company Gets Wrong
Feb 6, 2026

The Henry Ford Lesson Every B2B Company Gets Wrong

Henry Ford famously said: "If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Most people use this quote to justify not listening ...

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Why Product Teams Should Never Own Customer Feedback (And the Data Proves It)
Feb 6, 2026

Why Product Teams Should Never Own Customer Feedback (And the Data Proves It)

Here's a statement that might make your Product team bristle: They should never own customer feedback. I know, I know. It sounds crazy. After all, Product build...

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Speed Up Customer Response: Announcing BackEngine's Latest Features
Feb 5, 2026

Speed Up Customer Response: Announcing BackEngine's Latest Features

BackEngine announces four new product improvements: Interactive Feedback Reports (click insights to see customer conversations), Instant Video Context (jump to ...

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Building for Optics vs. Building for Value: The Startup Trap
Feb 5, 2026

Building for Optics vs. Building for Value: The Startup Trap

This article discusses the danger of startups optimizing for appearance rather than real value creation. It emphasizes that most startups fail not because they ...

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What too many people get wrong about PMF for the enterprise
Feb 5, 2026

What too many people get wrong about PMF for the enterprise

This post explains that Product-Market Fit (PMF) in enterprise is more than just having a good product. You also need Go-To-Market (GTM) fit. The article discus...

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When to Pivot, When to Persist: The Founder's Hardest Decision
Feb 5, 2026

When to Pivot, When to Persist: The Founder's Hardest Decision

This post shares the founder's experience with Thinknear - initially building a location-based coupon platform that failed, then pivoting to location-based mobi...

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Introducing Chat with Signal: Our Latest Customer Intelligence Feature
Feb 5, 2026

Introducing Chat with Signal: Our Latest Customer Intelligence Feature

BackEngine announces Chat with Signal, a conversational AI feature that provides instant visibility into customer situations. Users can ask AI questions about a...

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The Superhero Every B2B SaaS Company Needs: The Chief Customer Officer
Feb 4, 2026

The Superhero Every B2B SaaS Company Needs: The Chief Customer Officer

Customer-Centric Culture A CCO is instrumental in fostering a customer-centric culture within an organization. They ensure that every department, from product d...

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