Jim McDonough knows that on a SaaS team, it’s vital for sales and customer success to work as one.

He is the VP of Sales and Customer Success at Attend, the event management and engagement platform. McDonough spent the past 10 years building out sales teams at three early/expansion stage software companies including Mashery, which was acquired by Intel in 2013, SmartBear Software, and Acronis.

Now, he’s turned his attention to aligning the goals of sales and customer success. McDonough explained that as a SaaS startup grows, recurring revenues become even more important.

“At some point, the existing customer base is really going to begin to contribute more of the startup’s revenue than new customers and bookings,” he noted. “That’s going to demand a focus on retention, upsell, and cross sell. Someone who has been in sales, who’s owned the number, who understands how to work with the customer, seems like a natural fit.”

In the latest episode of Ramp, McDonough shares how he helps sales and customer success work together to drive down churn, and drive up revenue.