What type of skill sets and experiences do I need to build in order to strengthen my career and move from being a Sr. customer success manager to Director level and above?

Here are some core skills: - Being an established expert in your field or are you making an attempt to get there with certifications, answering questions in your community, answering internal questions, etc? - Being cross-functional with sales, services, support and product counterparts - Work in lock-step with your sales counterparts for renewals, upsells and cross-sells. Have your sales team vouch for you! - Thriving in the face of a challenge: Does your leadership trust you to give you the mo ...Read More

I am assuming this is while maintaining an individual contributor role. Consistently meet and exceed your KPIs.  Be the go to person for Customer Success within your organization. Mentor and Coach other CSM team members globally. Be the subject matter expert within your department for all matters related to customer success. Proactively share best practices and learnings across the department.  Leadership skills - motivate and inspire others in the team. Support management in driving continuous ...Read More

As a Senior CSM, you are likely regarded as a product expert—not necessarily from a technical perspective, but certainly when it comes to how your customers can successfully use and integrate your products into their workflow. Being a CSM is a fantastic way to understand the challenges they face, how they can win, and to advocate for them internally. To make the move to Management, there are several key skills you'll need to be ready to flex: The Data Miner You now have a much bigger book of bus ...Read More

It sounds like you’re asking about how you move from being an individual contributor to being a people manager. The first thing I’ll say is that people management is not for everyone! There are plenty of career growth opportunities in Customer Success as an IC. That said, some of the reasons you might want to be a manager in CS are: You want to help others grow You want to expand your impact You want a new challenge As a hiring manager, I would focus on internal candidates first if I’m consideri ...Read More

There are a number of key skills that will assist in making the transition from Senior CS Manager to Director+, that range from strategic thinking and decision making to leadership and critical thinking however I will elaborate on three of the core soft skills which have a high propensity to positively impact career development in the context of CS. Change management - change is constant and effective change management is a highly valuable skill for leaders at any level and especially for senior ...Read More

Three things in priority order: Ownership. If you’re crushing your current role, ask for more. Take on a piece of team reporting. Own the EBR template. Own onboarding for new hires. Own the renewal forecast for your segment. Director level work is owning outcomes that span more than your own book. Start practicing now. And as a leader I can't tell you how much I love sharing my legos with folks who want to take on parts of the job, it frees me up to do other work which is super rewarding. If you ...Read More