I've found two KPIs to be difficult to commit to: 1. Customer Health. If you have a robust algorithm to measure customer health (influenced by a number of inputs ), it can be hard commit to a certain outcome. To frame this another way, I've often observed customer health scores as being a bit of a black box where it's hard to tie the actions you take to specific outcomes when there could be a number of variables outside of your control that influence the ultimate score. I much prefer to commit to lead measures that are directly within the control of the team. KPIs related to customer engagement are a good example of things that are more directly within the team's control. 2. Upgrade rate. Many CSM teams are measured on Net Revenue Retention. As part of this, your CSMs may be responsible for identifying growth opportunities within the install base of customers. I find it's effective to measure the team on how many growth opportunities the team identifies but not the close rate or upgrade rate, especially if the Sales or Account Management team owns the closing motion. 

The best metrics to use to justify a pay raise are those that tie to revenue and direct value impact (internally and customer-facing). I like to keep a private list (for example, Asana) of the projects I've worked on and my contributions to them so I can refer to it during performance reviews, promotion advocacy, etc. Revenue metrics - must be quatifiable: * Net Revenue Retention in my portfolio * Expansion revenue * Renewal win rate (this is a ratio or percentage, not a $ amount) * CSQLs provided to sales (Customer Success Qualified Leads) Value Impact: * Significant contributions of customer advocacy events, including customer speakers / event participation, referencability, creation of case studies * Creation of 1:many customer-facing value drivers, such as webinars, podcasts, training series, enablement materials

Some essential hard skills that are considered must-haves for a customer success leader include: (must have does not necessarily mean now - you can and should be trained on the job) • Analytical skills: the ability to analyze customer data and metrics to identify trends and opportunities for improvement, as well as a deep understanding of customer behavior and the ability to create actionable insights from that data. • Project management skills: managing customer projects and initiatives effectively to ensure timely delivery and customer satisfaction. • Technical skills: navigating technical tools and software used in customer support and engagement. • Product knowledge: a deep understanding of the product or service can help customer success leaders effectively troubleshoot and provide solutions to customer issues. • Problem-solving skills: the ability to quickly and effectively identify and resolve customer issues is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. • Knowledge of Tools (soft and hard skills): CRM (Jira/SFDC/HubSpot/Zoho etc.), CSM (Gainsight, Einstein, Totango, ChurnZero), and Analytical Tools like (Tableau, SAS/ PowerBI, and Google Analytics). You should get some training as part of your onboarding; however, self-help is the best help. As for nice-to-haves skills: • Industry knowledge: the ability to stay current on industry developments and trends, as well as an understanding of best practices in customer success management. • Financial analysis skills: the ability to evaluate and analyze financial data, such as customer revenue, churn rate, and lifetime value, to identify opportunities for growth and improvement. • Business Acumen: the ability to understand the company's goals and align customer success strategies. • Leadership skills: the ability to inspire, motivate and lead a team of customer success managers and associates to achieve their goals. • Communication skills: the ability to clearly and effectively communicate and collaborate with customers and other stakeholders/inter-department and intra-department are essential for building and maintaining positive relationships.

Technical Support response targets! We’ve all been there, and being the first Success Hire is super exciting. You get to wear many hats, get involved all the way through the customer lifecycle and be scrappy to get customers what they need. For us at the beginning, that meant taking on a lot of Technical Support tickets for our EMEA customers, especially in the morning before our then US-based tech support team was online. On the one hand, this gives you a lot of valuable product knowledge that can help you be an impactful CSM, but on the other hand, it can mask the business need to expand technical support teams and can hurt your focus in the long term. If you can, explain early the difference between CS and Tech support KPIs and ensure that anything you take on is temporary!

Rather than just asking a candidate about their background, I prefer to ask about real situational questions. Here are a few of my favorites: * Tell me about a time you had an unhappy customer. What was the issue and how did you resolve it? * Take me through a time when a customer provided a churn notice and you were able to save them. What was your process and how did you turn things around? * Walk me through one of your recent renewals. When did you start the renewal conversation and what did the entire process look like? Also, in my opinion, all candidates need to do some type of live presentation for the hiring manager/team before an offer is sent out. Keep in mind, presenting to customers is a major part of a CSM's job and is not a skill I recommend you judge based on an interview and/or resume. While a candidate can tell you all about their communication style and experience, I believe the only way to truly judge their presentation skills is to see it live. 

Scenario-based questions are my favorite but I especially like this one as it breaks the ice and allows the candidate to show their personality & you can have fun with the scenarios. Three emails hit your inbox, which do you answer first, second, and last and why? No wrong answers here! 1. You ordered lunch and the delivery person is running an hour behind and asks if you still want your order. (symbolizes a higher-value downgrade scenario) 2. Your friend wants to reschedule your plans for the evening and is asking for a confirmation (symbolizes a mid-value cancellation scenario) 3. You were given an Amazon gift card that needs to be claimed (symbolizes a lower-value upgrade scenario)

This is a tough one. I generally view these as “lite sales cycle” which it sounds like you do as well. If the account is large enough - a multi-level engagement strategy extending 1-2 management layers above your main champion would help. I would also ask why these champions are changing - is the position being passed around in the organization because no one wants to own it? If so, why? Is it too time consuming? If so, perhaps there’s a way to reduce how time consuming it is or advocate for a dedicated role.

Here are some core skills: - Being an established expert in your field or are you making an attempt to get there with certifications, answering questions in your community, answering internal questions, etc? - Being cross-functional with sales, services, support and product counterparts - Work in lock-step with your sales counterparts for renewals, upsells and cross-sells. Have your sales team vouch for you! - Thriving in the face of a challenge: Does your leadership trust you to give you the most demanding customers because they know you will turn them around? - Operational excellence: How do you stand out? Are you able to call out organizational barriers that are stopping the customer from delivering value? Are you helping your customers achieve ROI? - Process excellence: Are you following all the processes laid down by your leaders? - Metrics over-achievement: Are you over-achieving your metrics? - Team mentoring: Are you helping your immediate team members and your broader team in the face of a technical or strategic challenge? Do you take the time out for mentoring? Are you an established expert in your field or are you making an attempt to get there with certifications, answering questions in your community, answering internal questions, etc?

The best customer success candidates possess the following traits: * Relationship Building Skills. The ability to develop positive, trust-based relationships while adding value to the client and team. * Intellectual Capability & Curiosity. The desire to proactively seek out and learn about the unfamiliar or unknown. * Communication Skills. The ability to express themselves clearly and engage others verbally and in writing; can determine the effective means and frequency of communication to keep all parties on the same page.

The future for customer success is incredibly bright! The role of CS is becoming increasingly important both for organisations and for customers. Customer retention and loyalty are the lifeblood of healthy organisations and CS directly drives these outcomes through making sure customers derive value from their investment. Exceptional customer success can act as a core differentiator in market and by investing in CS, organisations can realise benefits not only in terms of retention and engagement but also in terms of expansion and net new customer sales as superior service can be a compelling reason to buy. For the organisation this means CS is pivotal to both revenue growth and customer experience. On the customer side customer success often acts as they key conduit for customer feedback and insight, this data informs product development decisions, continuous improvement investments and improves the organisations ability to anticipate customer needs. Customer success can also be powerful partners in terms of sharing industry best practice, connecting customers with one another and ensuring the customer achieves their outcomes and can demonstrate ROI fro their investment. The advancements in AI should also free up time for CSMs to add additional value to their customers through automation and efficiency gains in administrative tasks.