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

In my experience there are a few characteristics/skillsets that the best CSMs I have hired all have in common:

1. Organizational skills - This is #1#1 for me. I have never seen a CSM who was not organized be successful. As a CSM requests are being thrown at you left and right, and you are being pulled in a million different directions. The best CSMs are organized/proactive and know exactly what action items they need to complete and how to prioritize them. 

2. Ability to showcase value - This one might sound simple but I can promise you it is not. A large part of a CSMs role is to retain customers and to do that, they need to articulate and justify the price of the service. This is challenging for two reasons. 1. Not all customers justify value in the same way, so a CSM needs to make sure they truly understand how the customer is determining this. 2. The majority of the time the day-to-day contact is not the ultimate decision maker. Therefore, the CSM needs to articulate the value in a way that the day-to-day contact will be able easily to go back and relay this to their boss (or decision maker). If a CSM is having a tough time explaining the value, it's going to be even more difficult for the day-to-day contact to explain it. 

3. Charisma - Customer Success is all about relationship building. CSMs spend a ton of their time on zoom calls with their customers and valuable/engaging conversations are what help build strong and trusting partnerships. The CSMs I typically see with the most success (especially regarding renewals and upsells) are the ones who have built the best relationships with their partners. 

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.