AMA: HubSpot Senior Director, Customer Success, Matt Kiernan on Developing Your Customer Success Career

I think the most frustrating thing about Customer Success is that without agreement across the organization about the importance and role of Customer Success, it can become a catch-all. As the quarterback of the customer relationship, that means all things can fall to the CSM. If there are not very clear swim lanes, paths of escalation and role definition, this means the CSM may soon find themselves as; * Customer Support * Collections Specialist * Renewal/Contract Manager * IB seller * Product Specialist * Escalations Manager While a great CSM possesses skills that can help in each of those categories, they cant be all of those things without burning out quickly.

While I have been at HubSpot for a long time (13+ years), many opportunities have come up over time that I have had to assess new opportunities. Here are the things I tend to look at when considering a role; * Market Evolution * Size and growth potential of the market the company plays in * Stage of evolution : is this a horizon that is in its late stages or on the cutting edge? * Potential : is this a single product/one trick pony or do * Product * Do customers love their product/service? * Who are their competitors and how does their solution stack up? * Are they a leader or laggard? Have they shown product/service innovation? * Leadership and Culture * Are they proud of their vision, values and culture, even if they are against the grain? * How visual/vocal is their executive leadership? * Do people love the company? Are they staying there or leaving after short periods of time? * How do they treat failure? * Skills and Growth * Does my past experience lend well to the role? * Are there opportunities for me to build new skills? * What is my potential for impact on the business priorities? * Does this role help me build skills for the next position I hope to achieve?

This answer is entirely dependent on the what field/product the CSM works with, who their target persona is and what resources are available based on company maturity. For someone dealing in cybersecurity, working mostly with CISOs, technical skills are more important. For someone in general CRM, maybe not so much. My feeling is that process experts > product experts. I find the best CSMs have strong business acumen, can step into a customer relationship and understand where there is opportunity to either (1) inject their product into existing process to create efficiency or (2) suggest a new process built around their product that drives better outcomes. That is less about deep technical knowledge and more about an ability to understand what value means to your customers and how your product can deliver that. Assuming that you have resources available to you that allows you or the customer to solve a technical issue when they arise, your true value is driving results vs. troubleshooting.