Building Shared Understanding: The Foundation of Trust

Trust isn’t built on features. It’s built on understanding.

When a customer feels understood, everything changes. Conversations get easier. Problems get solved faster. Relationships deepen.

But here’s what’s broken in most organizations: There is no shared understanding.

Sales understands the customer one way. CS understands them another way. The customer feels like they’re being understood differently by different people. And trust erodes.

Shared understanding is the foundation that everything else is built on.

What Shared Understanding Looks Like

Shared understanding means:

Everyone knows why the customer bought. Not just “they need our product.” But the deeper context: what problem are they solving? Why does it matter? What’s at stake?

Everyone knows what success looks like. There’s no ambiguity. “Success” isn’t interpreted differently by Sales, CS, and the customer.

Everyone knows the customer’s constraints. Budget constraints. Timeline constraints. Political constraints. If you don’t know what the customer is working within, you can’t help them.

Everyone knows who matters. Who’s the economic buyer? Who’s the end user? Who could block this? Who’s the champion?

Everyone knows the risks. What could go wrong? What’s keeping them up at night? What would cause them to pull the plug?

When everyone knows these things, everything becomes easier.

Why Shared Understanding is Rare

Most organizations don’t have shared understanding. Here’s why:

It’s not captured anywhere. Sales has conversations with the customer. Those conversations live in the sales rep’s head. When the rep leaves for another meeting, the understanding leaves with them.

It gets lost in the handoff. Sales talks to the customer. CS talks to the customer. But there’s no conversation between Sales and CS about what they learned. So each team develops their own understanding.

Different people interpret it differently. Even if you document the understanding, different people read it different ways. A sales rep sees “the customer wants fast time-to-value.” CS reads the same document and interprets it as “the customer expects us to implement everything in 30 days.”

It changes, but nobody updates it. Customer priorities shift. Budget situations change. Politics evolve. But nobody goes back and updates what people understood about the customer.

There’s no system for it. You have systems for deals (Salesforce). Systems for customer health (Gainsight). But there’s no system for “what do we understand about why this customer bought and what success looks like?”

The Cost of Misunderstanding

When people in your organization don’t share understanding about a customer, several things break:

Sales over-promises. Sales sees one version of the customer’s needs and promises features that don’t exist or don’t work the way they’re imagined.

CS under-delivers. CS discovers that what was promised doesn’t match what’s possible. They either burn themselves out trying to deliver the impossible, or they deliver less than promised and the customer feels let down.

Customers feel unheard. The customer has to repeat themselves to different people. To Sales. To CS. To Onboarding. Each time they’re explaining context that should have already been understood.

Expansion opportunities are missed. CS discovers expansion opportunities but doesn’t have enough context to understand the customer’s buying criteria. So opportunities get lost.

Churn risk increases. If the customer doesn’t feel understood, they don’t feel valued. And when the contract is up for renewal, they look for a vendor that does understand them.

How to Build Shared Understanding

1. Create a Customer Understanding Document

At the moment a deal is won (or before a customer signs), create a one-page document that captures:

The Business Context

• What problem are they solving?
• Why does it matter to them?
• What’s at stake if they don’t solve it?
• What does success look like to them?

The Success Criteria

• What will be different when this works?
• How will they measure success?
• What’s the timeline?
• What are the non-negotiables?

The Stakeholders

• Who’s the economic buyer?
• Who’s the champion?
• Who could block this?
• Who are the end users?

The Constraints

• Budget constraints
• Technical constraints
• Timeline constraints
• Political constraints

The Risks

• What could derail this?
• What are they worried about?
• What would cause them to pull the plug?

This document is not for internal use only. You share it with the customer and ask: “Is this right? What did we miss?“

2. Use it as the Source of Truth

This document becomes the reference point for everyone in the organization who works with this customer.

Sales uses it during onboarding conversations with CS. CS uses it to plan onboarding and success. Product uses it to understand feature priorities. Executives use it to understand the customer’s strategic importance.

When someone has a question about the customer, they look at this document first.

3. Keep it Updated

Understanding changes. At each critical moment, you revisit the document:

• After onboarding: Is what we promised matching what they’re getting?
• After they hit the first milestone: Are they on track to success? What’s changed?
• Mid-year: How is their context evolving? Are priorities shifting?
• At renewal: Did we deliver on success? What’s next?

4. Build Understanding Into Your Processes

Make shared understanding part of your operational rhythms:

At deal close: Sales and CS sit down and share understanding. Sales tells the story. CS asks clarifying questions.

At onboarding: You review understanding with the customer. “Here’s what we understood about your goals. Is this still right?”

At each milestone: You revisit understanding. “When we started, you wanted to reduce onboarding time by 40%. Are you on track? Have priorities changed?”

At renewal: Understanding becomes the basis for renewal conversation. “Here’s what we understood. Here’s what we delivered. Here’s what changed in your business.”

5. Train Your People

Help your team understand why this matters:

• Sales: Shared understanding means easier conversations and better fit deals
• CS: Shared understanding means faster onboarding and clearer success criteria
• Product: Shared understanding means knowing which features to prioritize
• Executives: Shared understanding means knowing which customers matter most

What Gets Better

Organizations that build shared understanding see:

✅ Better customer experience — customers feel understood from the first conversation ✅ Faster onboarding — CS starts with context, not confusion ✅ Higher adoption — when people feel understood, they engage more ✅ Clearer expansion paths — you understand what the customer cares about ✅ Easier renewals — renewal conversation is confirmation, not negotiation ✅ Lower churn — customers churn because they don’t feel understood; fix that and churn goes down ✅ Better hiring and retention — your team feels like they’re working with context, not in the dark

The Bigger Idea

Shared understanding is the foundation of trust. And trust is the foundation of lasting business relationships.

You can have great products. You can have great service. But if the customer doesn’t feel understood, none of that matters.

Shared understanding is what transforms vendor relationships into partnerships.

Getting Started

1. Pick one customer. Start with a customer you’re about to onboard or a customer at risk.

2. Create the understanding document. Sit with Sales and CS. Collaborate. Write down what you understand about this customer.

3. Share it with the customer. Ask them: Is this right? What did we miss?

4. Use it. Reference it in onboarding. Reference it in mid-year reviews. Reference it at renewal.

5. Iterate. Update it as understanding evolves.

Start with one customer. Then expand to your entire customer base.

---

Do your Sales and CS team share understanding about your customers? Or does each team have their own interpretation? That difference is often the difference between customers who stay and customers who leave.