What hard skills are must haves to be a customer success leader? What are nice to haves?

Some essential hard skills that are considered must-haves for a customer success leader include: (must have does not necessarily mean now - you can and should be trained on the job)

• Analytical skills: the ability to analyze customer data and metrics to identify trends and opportunities for improvement, as well as a deep understanding of customer behavior and the ability to create actionable insights from that data.

• Project management skills: managing customer projects and initiatives effectively to ensure timely delivery and customer satisfaction.

• Technical skills: navigating technical tools and software used in customer support and engagement.

• Product knowledge: a deep understanding of the product or service can help customer success leaders effectively troubleshoot and provide solutions to customer issues.

• Problem-solving skills: the ability to quickly and effectively identify and resolve customer issues is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Knowledge of Tools (soft and hard skills): CRM (Jira/SFDC/HubSpot/Zoho etc.), CSM (Gainsight, Einstein, Totango, ChurnZero), and Analytical Tools like (Tableau, SAS/ PowerBI, and Google Analytics). You should get some training as part of your onboarding; however, self-help is the best help.

As for nice-to-haves skills:

• Industry knowledge: the ability to stay current on industry developments and trends, as well as an understanding of best practices in customer success management.

• Financial analysis skills: the ability to evaluate and analyze financial data, such as customer revenue, churn rate, and lifetime value, to identify opportunities for growth and improvement.

• Business Acumen: the ability to understand the company's goals and align customer success strategies.

• Leadership skills: the ability to inspire, motivate and lead a team of customer success managers and associates to achieve their goals.

• Communication skills: the ability to clearly and effectively communicate and collaborate with customers and other stakeholders/inter-department and intra-department are essential for building and maintaining positive relationships.

Must-have hard skills for a customer success leader include:

• Operationally rigorous and metrics-driven
• Knowledge of customer success best practices and methodologies
• Strong presentation and negotiation skills
• Cross-functional and be able to remove organizational barriers to get stuff done
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Problem-solving and analytical abilities
• Project management and organizational skills
• Knowledge of customer success best practices and methodologies
• Being reasonably good with numbers 

Nice-to-have hard skills for a customer success leader include:

• Sales, Consulting or business development experience
• Technical aptitude and understanding of the company's product or service
• Familiarity with customer relationship management (CRM) software
• Knowledge of data analysis and reporting tools (or having someone reporting to them who is good with these)
• Familiarity with industry-specific regulations and compliance requirements.

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.