Gerard Gustafson

Work History

Finalsite

07.2020 - Current

Promoted from Client Success Manager to Director, now leading a high-performing team of 18 Client Success Managers overseeing 2,400 school districts and charter schools, representing $72.2M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
Accountable for department-wide sales, client retention, and revenue retention goals—consistently delivering strong performance across all metrics.
Serve as a strategic advisor to Executive leadership within 84 of the 100 largest U.S. school districts, fostering long-term partnerships and expanding account value.
Developed and implemented scalable success programs and standardized processes, significantly improving client health and team efficiency.
Partner with Sales, Product, and Marketing to align on customer feedback, product roadmap influence, and go-to-market strategies.
Elevated team performance through hiring, mentoring, and professional development initiatives, driving CSM accountability and career growth.
Utilize Salesforce, Totango, and Looker to monitor KPIs, forecast risk, and guide data-driven decision-making.
Played a critical role in achieving revenue retention and expansion goals, with the team exceeding annual sales and retention targets in 2 out of 4 years.

Finalsite

11.2016 - 06.2020

Owned and managed a portfolio of 300+ high-value Public school districts and charter schools valued at $13.5M in ARR.
Held annual goals of 84% client retention, 100% revenue retention, and individual sales targets—exceeded all targets in 4 out of 5 years.
Achieved an average client retention rate of 90% and revenue retention rate of 102% through proactive engagement, strategic planning, and upsell execution.
Generated new revenue through upselling and cross-selling initiatives, contributing over $1.5M in annual expansion revenue.
Recruited, trained, and led a team of 3 Client Success Managers, fostering a collaborative culture and standardizing success processes.
Developed playbooks and onboarding procedures, improving time-to-value and team performance.
Collaborated cross-functionally with Sales, Product, Marketing, and Support teams to resolve client issues and inform product enhancements.

Clarus Commerce

09.2015 - 10.2016

Managed over 25 strategic UK and US clients across various industries including marketing agencies, apparel, publishers, consumer electronics, retailers and other CPG companies.
Analyzed the health and profitability of each client by running monthly P&L and LTV models to continually grow and optimize client market share.
Upsold clients on monetizing additional ad spaces across their sites and websites to promote Clarus's loyalty products increasing client's net commissions.
Managed the build process of a 3-year, $5MM custom loyalty product for a major retailer in the footwear space.
Sold and converted 3 O&O clients to custom loyalty solutions resulting in over $3MM in Clarus revenue over the first year live in the market.
Spearheaded the development of client-facing informational implementation and launch documents to assist in the sales and onboarding processes.
Performed in-person quarterly business reviews with key C-level executives to dive deeper into the data, extract meaningful trends, and develop new strategies to drive the relationship forward.