What's the best way to break into the tech industry as a customer success manager?

I love that you’re looking to break into tech as a CSM, here are a few strategies I would recommend:  Internal Promotion - Some of the best CSMs I have worked with have moved up internally from other roles in the company. Customer Support and Sales Development are two internal roles that I frequently recruit from. If you’re early in your career, look for entry-level roles in Customer Success-adjacent roles at a company that prioritizes internal mobility. A benefit to both you and your employer i ...Read More

There are several ways to break into the tech industry as a customer success manager: Look for growth opportunities in your existing organization: Even if you start in a different role, look for opportunities to take on more responsibilities related to customer success, and to demonstrate your skills and interest in the field. Shadow a CSM if you can for a day Education: Pursue certification in a relevant field (Gainsight's Pulse+ as an example). Read resources available online on Customer Succe ...Read More

The tech industry is broad and the role of a CSM can vary widely depending on the type of role or company you are interested in however below are some tips which may be helpful: Focus on skills - review job postings to determine the skill set your target companies are looking for in their CSMs. Previous experience and titles are less important that the right skill set - many of the best CSMs I have worked with did not come from CS or tech backgrounds; however they all had the right skill set tha ...Read More

There are several paths and none of them require a CS background. I came in through account management that evolved into CS. I’ve hired plenty of folks from sales (SDR, jr AE), support, and implementation. Each path works. What’s becoming non negotiable is comfort with technical concepts. You don’t need to code. You do need to be fluent enough with APIs, SQL basics, integrations, and how your platform actually works to do initial diagnosis and triage before you escalate. That fluency also makes ...Read More

It's very feasible to break into the tech industry as a CSM without prior experience. The key thing is to understand what the tech provider is looking for from the role and what skills are critical. Generally most CSM roles will include some of the following focuses: Onboarding Adoption Retention Growth Stakeholder Management - Internal & External It's important to think about the skills you have today and how you would map these to the role you are considering applying for. I've hired CSM's ...Read More

Here are some suggestions that come to mind? Gain relevant experience in other customer facing roles to build up the skills that can be reapplied and are relevant to the role of a CSM. Also be prepared to start at a lower level and work your way up. Develop a strong understanding of the Subscriptions business model, SaaS and Cloud computing.There’s a wealth of online courses available including with LinkedIn Learning as an example. Read up on Customer Success. There are many great books availabl ...Read More