Joshua J. Lyons

linkedin.com/in/joshualyons
Customer Success professional with over 25 years in Digital Technology & Cybersecurity. Specializes in recovering at-risk Enterprise accounts & converting them into referenceable partners who expand their spend. Track record spans SaaS, Cloud Infrastructure, & InfoSec/Compliance — consistently achieving 100% retention & double-digit NRR growth. Builder by nature: has built CS functions from scratch, custom platforms on Salesforce, & AI-powered workflows now used across CS and Sales organizations.
Professional Experience
Sr. Customer Success Manager  |  Cloudflare, Inc.
Oct 2024 – May 2026  |  Remote
Position eliminated in company-wide RIF, May 2026 (1,100 employees / ~20% of company)
  • Maintained 100% logo retention and 20% expansion revenue growth across 20 Enterprise accounts (avg $600K ARR; range $400K–$1.8M) over 5 quarters
  • Prevented churn of 6 high-risk accounts, protecting ~$4M ARR — including one account that had cycled through multiple CSMs; stabilized within 6 months and renewed with a 10% ARR increase
  • Generated $300K+ in net-new ARR by sourcing and introducing 3 new logos to Cloudflare's sales team — outside the assigned book of business
  • Built AI-powered CS & Sales workflow tools deployed across the organization: negotiation guidance skill (Black Swan methodology), automated file organization & post-meeting brief generation, and MCP-integrated customer research workflows — built using OpenCode & Windsurf (Claude Opus 4.x); work featured in CS team meetings, CS org newsletter, and led to invitation to join the GCS AI Task Force
  • Monitored account health scores and churn risk indicators in Gainsight across 20 Enterprise accounts — using adoption signals and usage data to prioritize proactive outreach, identify expansion opportunities, and exceed CS Qualified Lead (CSQL) quota every quarter
Director, Customer Outcomes  |  Infolock
Dec 2018 – Apr 2024  |  Remote
Promoted from Customer Success Manager → Director, Customer Success → Sr. Director, Customer Outcomes
  • Founding CSM; built the Customer Success function from scratch while owning a $2M+ ARR Enterprise & Mid-Market book — sustained 100% retention for 3+ consecutive years through cross-functional stakeholder management
  • Ran full customer lifecycle: onboarding, implementation, success planning, optimization, renewal, and expansion
  • Increased account ARR 10–25% YoY in partnership with Sales; maintained 100% renewal rate annually with average NPS of 9.5 and reference account attainment at 166% of goal
  • Designed onboarding process that reduced time-to-first-value by 33% and raised implementation CSAT by 28%
  • Built a custom CS platform on Salesforce that increased CSM efficiency 20% and reduced errors 25% in year one, while delivering key data insights to executive leadership
  • Created first-ever Voice of the Customer program achieving ~100% response rate, generating actionable insights and revenue opportunities
  • Expanded CS scope from 1 to 4 lines of business; authored 50+ SOPs, playbooks, and customer-facing deliverables (inc. QBR/EBR frameworks), standardizing execution across the entire CS team
Director, Client Relations  |  Fortrex Technologies
Dec 2000 – Dec 2018  |  Hybrid
  • Achieved 115% average quota attainment (2013–2018) on $1M annual target managing 30 key national and 25 Mid-Market/SMB accounts
  • Grew company's largest account from a $15K consulting engagement to $500K ARR over 12 years — retained through acquisition and multiple leadership transitions
  • Extended 75% of customers from 1-yr to multi-year contracts; served as primary Salesforce administrator for 12 yrs
  • Represented Sales/AM on the leadership team, counseling the President on corporate sales strategy and direction
Director of Client Services Dec 2008 – Dec 2012  |  Frederick, MD
  • Led onboarding of Mid-Market customers onto 3rd Party Risk Mgmt SaaS with 95% renewal rate; reduced average onboarding completion time by 65%
  • Managed 50 concurrent client engagements with 60% conversion from one-time to repeat; led a team of 10 consultants and engineers with zero turnover
Regional Sales Manager / Director of Sales (Mid-Market & SMB) 2005 – 2008  |  Frederick, MD
  • Originally responsible for PCI DSS line of business revenue; promoted to Account Management of 75+ customers, corporate-wide revenue responsibility, and hiring and managing the sales team — 100–130% quota attainment each year
Account Manager / Inside Sales / Vendor Relations / Purchasing 2000 – 2005  |  Frederick, MD
  • Account management for 25+ customers across customer and partner responsibilities
  • Responsible for 15 vendor/partner relationships
  • Sales Operations go-to resource for all internal departments; sold company's largest product resale deal ($300K)
Certifications
CCSM Level II Cloudflare One Fundamentals Symantec DLP / CloudSOC Specialist HITRUST CCSFP