Get answers from customer success leaders
Ben Terrill
Brex Senior Director, Customer Success • January 18
I find the best CSMs are: * Curious - they want to understand “why”. This translates well with customers as it means they have an innate desire to understand their business. It also means that they are likely to find the CSM role very rewarding. * Builders - especially in the early days. * Empathetic - Empathy has 2 components as a CSM: 1) it helps build a personal connection 2) it allows a CSM to more successfully advocate on a customer's behalf internally.
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Georgia Glanville Harrison
Braze VP Customer Success, EMEA • January 26
Unlike a lot of Customer Success departments, we’ve chosen to align our team to customer KPIs rather than commercial/upsell targets. As such, we have less overlap in goals between CS and Sales. Of course, we’re both targeting Gross Renewal Rate and ensuring we maintain the customer base, but we don’t extend that to upsell targets in the same way as commission-based CS teams. Currently, we’re focused on exploring how we can share “time spent” efficiency and reach KPIs to help keep us accountable for spending as much face time with our customers, tech, and agency partners as we can over the course of many key city hubs whilst being mindful of the cost of trips.
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Brett Milstein
Narvar Director, Customer Success • February 7
There are two questions I always like to ask during an initial interview with a candidate: 1. Tell me about a problem you have worked on and how you solved it? - In full transparency, I actually borrowed this question from an article I read about Elon Musk's interview questions. I found the reasoning behind this question to be extremely interesting. First, you gain insight into the types of challenges the candidate has come across and their thought process for overcoming those challenges. Second, Musk says that this question shows him if the candidate truly worked on resolving this problem. Someone who was integral in the solution of a problem will know all the details and be able to explain in length what they were thinking was during the process. I have found a lot of success in asking this question. 2. I ask candidates to share with me a time they had to articulate value of their product/solution to a customer. As I mentioned in another question, showcasing your company's value is one of the most important responsibilities of a CSM. If a candidate does not have experience with this, how can I expect them to articulate value to our customers?
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Jessica Haas
Appcues Chief of Staff & VP of CX • April 26
You're going to want a well-rounded set of knowledge and tools to set you up for success in Success. These include the practice of Customer Success, business metrics, core components of Customer Success, and supplementary industry knowledge. Below are some of my favorites that I've treasured over the years: Community Seekers - Success Coaching If you want to network and learn alongside others, Success Coaching is an excellent place to start in your CS career or level up as you grow. https://successcoaching.co/ For the DIY’er - The Gainsight Blogs & CSM Certifications This content speaks all the love languages of Customer Success professionals and every post is relevant and insightful. https://www.gainsight.com/blog/ A MUST-have for all CSMs - Value-first Onboarding, the Product Adoption Academy Onboarding is crucial for the success of all customers and there is a refined art to crafting & measuring this experience for CSMs. Don’t skimp on this topic! https://academy.appcues.com/courses/value-first-onboarding CS & Business Metrics - Crash Course in Customer Success and SaaS Metrics Hands down, the main questions I hear from new CSMs are around business metrics. Dave Kellog is the LeBron James of SaaS metrics and will explain everything you need to know. Excellent video, grab a notebook! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8hKPfH1q88 Separate yourself from the pack - Jeanne Bliss Understanding business metrics and a product will get you far but what separates you from others is heart and no one on earth does this better than Jeanne Bliss. She has worked with the best customer-first companies and never lets you forget why we’re here…humanity in business. https://www.customerbliss.com/ Staying on top of industry changes - Dave Kellog & Tomasz Tunguz Being aware of what’s happening in Tech will be a massive advantage for you. There are so many great blogs and resources to help you stay on top of what’s happening in the tech world so find what speaks to you! What speaks to me are the Dave Kellog & Tomasz Tunguz blogs...I swear, they're fortunetellers. Dave Kellog - https://kellblog.com/ Tomasz Tunguz - https://tomtunguz.com/
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Christine Vienna Knific
mParticle Senior Director, Customer Success - North America • May 2
* Show that you're a team player! It's a huge red flag when a candidate demonstrates a lack of willingness to work as a team. The ability to work cross-functionally to drive customer results is critical. If a candidate conveys the message "that's not my job," they aren't a good fit for our team. * Not understanding support vs success. There are a lot of definitions of Customer Success, but I need CSMs who work proactively to drive results. Using "support" and "success" interchangeably in a resume or interview discussion raises a concern. * Lack of metrics. Customer Success is often more difficult to measure than, say, a sales role because our metrics are not all quantitative, but that doesn't mean we aren't focused on showing results. Demonstrating a combination of qualitative and quantitative results in your experience set is important.
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Caoimhe Carlos
Udemy Vice President Global Customer Success • February 13
One of my favourite CS interview questions is some variation of "Can you share a time when you received constructive feedback from a peer, manager, or cross-functional partner in your previous role as a Customer Success Manager? How did you deal with it, and how did it impact your actions after the fact?" The reason I like this question is that the way the candidate answers it tells me a lot about their self awareness, intelligence, their ability to handle difficult situations with maturity, humility and professionalism, their communication skills and their growth mindset, all of which are skills that are valuable in your role as a CSM and also make someone a great colleague and team member. The best answers I have heard to this question have been thoughtful, honest, clear and have all resulted in genuine impact for the person in terms of how they have grown and developed.
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Natasha Evans
Hook Head of Customer • April 25
Great question! Retaining great CS talent is the same as retaining any good talent, but I do think that there are a few extra things to consider... The role of a CSM can often be high pressure when things go wrong and little recognition when things go really right. So I would always go out of my way to recognise great talent at every opportunity. That could be everything from nominating them for High Achiever's Club and shouting them out at company meetings, all the way to dropping them a meaningful message to thank them for something they did. I also think that more often than not, CSMs love the variety of the job and the variety in skills that goes with it. Which means they often want to learn and grow. So clear PDPs with each CSM and helping them develop in new areas is key. Finally, CSMs want achievable targets and they want to be rewarded for all the hard work that they put in. So design an incentive plan that does just that.
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Wynne Brown
RocketReach VP of Sales & Customer Success • May 16
The most successful CSMs have these things in common: 1. Human-centric: a real level of caring and interest in helping others succeed 2. Curiosity: only a curious mind can lead to the best answers, not just the ones that are already created 3. Tenacity: an inability to let go until things are complete I firmly believe that most folks can learn any content, software, system or process. What cannot be taught is how a person is wired: what they're innately good at, how they think, their passion for collaboration and results.
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Jeff Beaumont
Customer Success Consultant • September 6
Do things that scale. I had a CEO who said the perfect sized organization was an org of exactly one. Once you went beyond that, communication became critical because you had to share information and gain alignment between two people, then three, then four... So when going to multiple people, establish: 1. Consistency: concern yourself with areas such as playbooks, how/when you reach out to customers 2. Operations: ensure there's an agreed-upon funnel or customer journey that everyone uses (again, for consistency) 3. Trust: make sure that each person trusts one another, is an advocate for each other, and is willing to ask questions when they don't know the answer 4. Insights/analytics: more functional than above, but with more people you need reporting and insights to know how and when to connect with customers. Also, what metrics/KPIs are we aligned to and targeting? 5. Team lead/ownership: when questions arise, is there someone who makes the final call? Is it decision by committee? Voting? 6. Planning/direction: as individuals, we need direction. We need to know where we are going and what we need to do. Paint the future, establish the plan
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Amara Okoli
MURAL Director of Customer Success • March 22
* Always be clear on the purpose of the meeting and involve agendas and share relevant documentation with their EAs well in advance * Center conversations with a key headline - what is most important and the significance of that backed by relevant data * Keep communications concise and timely. Be sure to specify if updates are informative or actions are needed * For any meetings, be as prepared as possible by researching your customer/portfolio, relevant product updates, and any changes (good or bad) regarding customers' experience with your product and services * Leverage champions and sponsors who may meet more regularly with the C-Suite to get to know them indirectly * Provide something valuable and ask for something specific in return. Think of this as a ping-pong game where you can keep your audience engaged and give them a tangible action to help
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