Meenal Shukla

Growth opportunities abound for really effective and successful CSMs.  Jungle GYM: We have seen and heard of Customer Success Managers moving into literally every department - Training, Marketing, Product, Analytics, Operations, Consulting, Professional Services, HR and more. (Check out this link to know more about the Jungle Gym concept of career progression: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-career-jungle-gym-matters-now-more-than-ever-pattie-sellers/ Individual Contributor progression: We ha ...Read More

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 Being reasonably good with numbers  Nice-to-have hard skills for a customer su ...Read More

One example of a Customer Success Operations framework is the "Customer Success Management Framework" developed by Gainsight. The framework includes five key components: Strategy: This component includes defining the overall customer success strategy, including identifying customer segments, defining key performance indicators (KPIs), and setting goals for customer retention and growth. People: This component includes building and managing a customer success team, including roles and responsibil ...Read More

Almost did not want to answer this question because it would give it away. Haha! I ask: Has it ever happened to you that a very red customer is moved to your portfolio? What's your first reaction when that happens? How do you solve for it? The answer to the first question tells me whether the CSM's current leadership trusts them enough to give a red-hot customer. Only the best CSMs get really risky customers because the leadership believes in the capability of the CSM to save the customer. The a ...Read More

1. Customer Success will become more and more metrics-driven. Without performance standards, it is very difficult to show the true value of CS to the organization. 2. Proactive experience and Personalization: believe the future of customer success will continue to focus on providing a personalized and proactive customer experience. This will involve using data and technology to gain a deep understanding of individual customer needs and preferences, and using that information to identify and addr ...Read More

When CSMs are being asked to give the same updates to different people in different channels because: 1. Either there is no clear system of choice for the customer updates 2. If there is a system of choice, leadership is not enforcing its adoption, so people are doing their own thing 3. Leadership themselves are not in that system of choice If the leaders don't do what they preach and expect CSMs to update spreadsheets, slack channels, CRM, create PPTs, give 1:1 updates, etc, it is a sign of poo ...Read More

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 may be biased but Gainsight offers some of the top resources on Customer Success. We release at least 2-3 blogs a week and we are constantly releasing new content as fast as we are learning from our community. 1. https://www.gainsight.com/blog/ for Blogs 2. https://www.gainsight.com/events/ for webinars 3. Gainsight also offers Pulse+ certification which combines premium eLearning and industry-grade certifications with exclusive content and behind-the-scenes stories of brands and thought lead ...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

As the Head of Customer Success in a startup that did not have Customer Success Managers before, your primary objective would be to establish a successful customer success function. To do this, you must take a phased approach in the first 30/60/90 days to develop a foundation for success. Here are some possible goals you could set for the first 30/60/90 days: First 30 days: Understand the company's products/services, customers, and their pain points. Meet with key stakeholders such as sales, ser ...Read More