The Top 15 Customer Success Mentors To Learn From And Work For - 2024
Overview
The way we acquire job knowledge has changed. We learn more from each other than we do at school. The Customer Success Mentor List shows you the top 15 customer success practitioners to learn from to develop your career. All of these leaders have contributed content that Sharebird users find helpful.
Methodology
Sharebird's algorithm ranks contributors based on how helpful our users perceive their customer success - related content to be. We do not handpick people. To be considered for this list, mentors need to be current customer success practitioners and in a leadership role. We look at the following factors with Sharebird content: views, saves, and followers. We then apply a proprietary algorithm to calculate content credibility and helpfulness. Views show us content relevancy, saves show us content quality, and followers show us content credibility.
Sharebird does not accept payment to be included on this list, which allows us to maintain objectivity and independence. We update this list every year. For any questions about this list, please contact [email protected].
About Sharebird
Sharebird is where leading executives answer your questions. Get easily digestible tips and insights from leaders at the fastest-growing companies, so that you can solve your hardest work challenges and reach your career potential.
In Alphabetical Order by Company:
Jessica Haas
Appcues Chief of Staff & VP of CX
Career Path Tip: No matter what you know, how far you’ve come, or how good you are — earn your spot, every day through learning and service. You will always have areas where you can improve, learn, grow, and challenge yourself so stay curious and open, whether that feedback is coming from your customers, teams, peers, colleagues, or a fortune cookie, stay open and invested in self-growth! Bonus for the women out there: Find ways to honor the women who came before you and leave a better, more empowering place for the ones coming after you; it matters more than you know.
Georgia Glanville Harrison
Braze VP Customer Success, EMEA
Career Path Tip: Try to tackle your role today with the confidence that you are capable of much harder things. Whenever I feel daunted by the next step in my career, I remember that I felt exactly the same way when I first started in the industry, if I'd have known then what I know now I wouldn't have worried so much and so I try to project that calmness forward in my day to day
Ben Terrill
Brex Senior Director, Customer Success
Career Path Tip: Take time to understand your customer’s business - one of the best parts of this job is the exposure you get to so many different types of businesses. The more you understand this, the better a CSM you will be.
Conor Holmes
Confluent Director, Customer Success EMEA
Career Path Tip: Focus on the impact on the customer and your company rather than you and your team. When we take a broader view of what we strive for in terms of generating impact, putting the customer and company goals ahead of our personal or team goals, this, in my experience, has always led to positive outcomes for myself and the team.
Rebecca Warren
Eightfold Director, Customer Success
Career Path Tip: No matter what is thrown your way, do your best to take yourself out of the equation - don't make it personal. Assume best intent and focus on the outcome the client/other party is trying to achieve. Put yourself in their shoes and figure out a way to agree on something, even if it's a tiny thing, and then build from there. How can you accomplish the why, even if you don't align on the what or how? You might surprise yourself with how creative you can get!
Manil Vasantha
Freelance Information Technology Consultant
Career Path Tip: To thrive in your career, especially in customer success, it's crucial to understand your customers profoundly and have a thorough knowledge of your competitive products and their customer base. Actively participate in open forums to discuss product and vertical challenges, as this fosters a broader understanding of the market and enhances problem-solving skills. Additionally, make your mark by contributing your unique insights and experiences; this not only aids in your personal growth but also establishes you as a thought leader in your field.
Meenal Shukla
Gainsight Senior Director of Customer Success
Career Path Tip: Relentlessly work to reinvent yourself. Intellectually curious people who take the time to learn and hone a new skill will often be lucky enough to find their way to greatness than those who do not. Develop the habit of learning. An inquiring mind fuels progress, whereas a complacent mind anchors you to the familiar. Say yes to hard things. And then figure out a way to make it happen - an urgency to keep your commitment helps accelerate learning.
Michael Maday
Gainsight Senior Director, Customer Success
Career Path Tip: Be curious! Ask questions about the future of your organization, what your leaders are focused on, what needs your customers have, and how you can help move all of these folks forward!
Natasha Evans
Hook Head of Customer
Career Path Tip: 2 key things that I live by: 1) Chase skills not job titles. Skills are what people look for when hiring or promoting and will make you a more well-rounded professional. 2) Build deep connections with everyone around you in your professional network, you never know when they'll come in handy.
Stephen O'Keefe
HubSpot Senior Director, Customer Success
Career Path Tip: Constantly ask yourself: “how would I explain this to a customer in the simplest language possible?” As organizations grow, complexity creeps into internal processes first, and then customer process. If you can’t explain a process to a customer in 30 seconds or less, you need to strip it down and simplify it further.
Nicole Alrubaiy
Jellyfish Senior Vice President, Customer Success
Career Path Tip: Success isn't a solo act-- it's about connecting with others, amplifying their strengths, and working together to create something great. Seek ideas and feedback from others, customers included, and always give credit where it's due.
Christine Vienna Knific
mParticle Senior Director, Customer Success - North America
Career Path Tip: In sales, we've heard the phrase "Always be closing." In Customer Success, we should Always be Discovering. This means that every conversation a CSM has with a customer is an opportunity to ask why, learn how, and dig deeper into the customer's business goals. The more we know about the client's goals and business, the more valuable we become.
Brett Milstein
Narvar Director, Customer Success
Career Path Tip: 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.
Wynne Brown
RocketReach VP of Sales & Customer Success
Career Path Tip: One powerful north star is to view all the work you do as systematically removing friction - this can guide you to making processes, products and relationships smoother and more customer-centric. It also makes your customers and colleagues happier, which is the best possible fringe benefit.
John Brunkard
Sitecore Vice President of Customer Success APJ
Career Path Tip: Own your own career, have a growth mindset to continuously learn, develop, grow and improve. Be the architect of your own success as a Customer Success Manager.
I believe in the power of networking, seek mentors and coaches and help others when you can (pay it forward)