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 ...Read More

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 com ...Read More

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 opportun ...Read More