AMA: Confluent Director, Customer Success EMEA, Conor Holmes on Customer Success Soft and Hard Skills

Generally, when hiring CS team members, for me, it's all about soft skills; * Deep customer empathy * Great communication skills * Strategic thinking * Time and project management * Active listening * Problem-solving The hard skills are more related to domain knowledge, which can primarily be trained on the job. However, there is a significant dependency on your company's stage and goals. For example, if the company is an early-stage B2B tech software company, you may want a profile that has been there and done that for the first hire. If not in the specific domain, you will need someone who has worked with a similar customer type at a similar scale for the new hire to be productive as fast as possible. Arguably the earlier the stage, the less time you will have for the person to be successful in their role.

What I enjoy most about the customer success role is the lens of seeing customers grow from their initial commitment to successful renewals and expansions where the customer achieves their goals. Throughout this journey, many teams often engage and work with the customer to support this motion. Having a view of the end-to-end customer journey and a strong understanding of the motions that drive customer value is a perspective that can benefit most areas of the business. 

Every company is on some form of journey. Whether you are at an early-stage start-up or have been around for decades, your team needs to understand how what they do daily relates to the journey the company is on and how their daily interactions contribute to the company's goals. For me retaining good talent is ensuring that you have a team that has signed up to go on that journey with you. I operate from a position of transparency, which builds trust. If your team trusts that you are lobbying for their professional growth trajectory and aligning with the company's (and hopefully the customer's) goals. In that case, they are more likely to stay for a relatively substantial period. I'm a huge proponent of helping team members get promoted and grow their careers, and this should be a frequent conversation individually with each team member. 

The best candidates can relate their experience to how they will be successful in the role. They will have thought about scenario-based questions and be ready to describe how they have tackled specific problems and scenarios. I have found that having a reasonably open presentation brief in the interview process is an excellent way to understand how a candidate unpacks a brief. It's always telling how much research and preparation they have done for the presentation round. One common trait of successful candidates is whether they have used their connections to research the company and the role. If they have no other connections to the company, they ask for the opportunity before the presentation round. If your company is public, you will want to ask questions about the annual report or the latest earnings call. So, in summary, preparation and clarity in relating their experience to the role are good indicators of successful candidates. 

As a CS leader, it's critical to have the ability to analyse, interpret and understand data. Most organisations have various data sources to understand what is happening in the customer base. What's important for a CS leader is to combine these data sources to get a complete picture of what's happening. Within this area, cohort analysis is fundamental. Understanding customer cohorts allows you to segment the customer base into a distinct grouping that shares specific attributes and behaviour, allowing CS leaders and their teams to design dedicated motions to treat these cohorts. Other essential skills include; effective presentation and communication abilities, project management, collaboration with other teams and change management. Out of this list, I would classify project management as a 'nice to have' as there's software out there that can help with this, or if you are fortunate, you will work with a CS or Sales Ops person who can be a game changer for your organisation.

1. Learn about the role. I have included some links below that can help with this. 2. Network (don't be afraid, I've found the majority of people are more than willing to offer guidance and advice) 3. Ask for a mentor 4. Look for internships https://www.csinfocus.com/community https://www.customersuccess.community/feed https://gaingrowretain.com/ https://hub.practicalcsm.com/ https://catalyst.io/community/community-home https://community.gainsight.com/ https://userpilot.com/blog/customer-success-courses/

I greatly respect the sales role, and CS and sales must work well together to drive successful customer outcomes. I have been in sales at various times throughout my career within multiple functions, be it expanding customers or working on net new logo acquisition. I have been honest about where I see my strengths and get my most energy from, and it's working with existing customers to make them wildly successful!