As a hiring manager, what do the best customer success candidates have in common?

Customer Success is different in every organization. Some companies see CS as product experts or an extension of Support. I see Customer Success as Consultants and Change Agents and so I hire for the skill set that will ensure they succeed in a role at Salesloft. 3 main things I look for: Leadership & accountability: Leadership isn’t always leading a team. It’s ownership of your book of business and ownership of the success of your customers. It’s being able to coach a customer and push back ...Read More

The best customer success candidates: • Communication skills: The ability to communicate with customers and all stakeholders clearly and effectively. • Customer-centric mindset: The ability to put oneself in the customer's shoes and understand their needs, pain points, and goals. A genuine passion for helping customers succeed and a strong sense of ownership over their success. • Adaptability: The ability to adjust to changing customer needs and priorities and to be flexible in finding solutions ...Read More

The best Customer Success candidates demonstrate a genuine interest in the industry they are supporting, whether it’s a passion for enhancing the customer experience, like at Zendesk, or a strong enthusiasm for technology. They excel in communication and problem-solving, building lasting relationships while thoroughly understanding customer needs. A proactive, solution-focused mindset is essential, along with the ability to navigate complex situations with empathy and clarity. Top candidates als ...Read More

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 suc ...Read More

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 al ...Read More

As a hiring manager, when evaluating candidates for a customer success role, there are several characteristics and traits I would ideally look for. The best customer success candidates often have these in common: Operational Rigor: The idea that irrespective of how many customers one has, a CSM can’t afford to take their eyes off the ball at any point. On any given day, one must: follow that 24-hour service level agreement (SLA), write that stakeholder ghost email, reach out to the engineers for ...Read More

The intangibles: assertiveness, strong sense of ownership, business acumen, very strong communication at the exec level, soft-sales experience, technical acumen (at a high level),  All of these are important, but honestly without assertiveness & sense of ownership - the others just relegate the CSM down the stack in terms of customer engagement - i.e. at the admin level. Sales will not let you at the exec level of customer engagement unless you can really lean in and demonstrate business val ...Read More

These are the top-5 characteristics I look for and interview around! I've also found these traits to be useful and necessary for any CX role, giving your team member optionality if they want to pivot their career down the road: 1. They’re owners. They feel ownership of the customer & product and treat their domain as their own business. They follow through on commitments with the agility to change priorities when circumstances change. 2. They’re assertive. They regularly train and lead custo ...Read More

Fundamentally I look for a positive attitude , aptitude (growth mindset) and values alignment. Then to expand further I see the following traits as common among the nest CSM candidates that I shortlist; Excellent communication skills: The best candidates have a natural ability to build rapport with key stakeholder at all levels, articulate their thoughts clearly, and adapt their communication style to fit the situation. Customer-centric mindset: The best customer success candidates are obsessed ...Read More

I love when the candidate is smiling and have friendly energy. That tells me if he/she is making me feel comfortable, it is highly probable that he/she will do the same with the customers. These are a few skills I like to look at: 1. Empathy and customer focus 2. Analytical 3. Tech Savvy 4. Resilence 5. Comfortable wearing different hats 6. Think out of the box 7. Eager to learn ** This is very important** If they come to the interview very prepared about the company and how their skills or expe ...Read More

Fundamentally I look for a positive attitude , aptitude (growth mindset) and values alignment. Then to expand further I see the following traits as common among the nest CSM candidates that I shortlist; Excellent communication skills: The best candidates have a natural ability to build rapport with key stakeholder at all levels, articulate their thoughts clearly, and adapt their communication style to fit the situation. Customer-centric mindset: The best customer success candidates are obsessed ...Read More