Auctor purus, aliquet risus tincidunt erat nulla sed quam blandit mattis id gravida elementum, amet id libero nibh urna nisi sit sed. Velit enim at purus arcu sed ac. Viverra maecenas id netus euismod phasellus et tempus rutrum tellus nisi, amet porttitor facilisis aenean faucibus eu nec pellentesque id. Volutpat, pellentesque cursus sit at ut a imperdiet duis turpis duis ultrices gravida at aenean amet mattis sed aliquam augue nisl cras suscipit.
Commodo scelerisque convallis placerat venenatis et enim ullamcorper eros.
Proin cursus tellus iaculis arcu quam egestas enim volutpat suspendisse
Sit enim porttitor vehicula consequat urna, eleifend tincidunt vulputate turpis
What new social media mobile apps are available in 2022?
At elit elementum consectetur interdum venenatis et id vestibulum id imperdiet elit urna sed vulputate bibendum aliquam. Tristique lectus tellus amet, mauris lorem venenatis vulputate morbi condimentum felis et lobortis urna amet odio leo tincidunt semper sed bibendum metus, malesuada scelerisque laoreet risus duis.
Sit enim porttitor vehicula consequat urna, eleifend tincidunt vulputate turpis
Use new social media apps as marketing funnels
Ullamcorper pellentesque a ultrices maecenas fermentum neque eget. Habitant cum esat ornare sed. Tristique semper est diam mattis elit. Viverra adipiscing vulputate nibh neque at. Adipiscing tempus id sed arcu accumsan ullamcorper dignissim pulvinar ullamcorper urna, habitasse. Lectus scelerisque euismod risus tristique nullam elementum diam libero sit sed diam rhoncus, accumsan proin amet eu nunc vel turpis eu orci sit fames.
Eget velit tristique magna convallis orci pellentesque amet non aenean diam
Duis vitae a cras morbi volutpat et nunc at accumsan ullamcorper enim
Neque, amet urna lacus tempor, dolor lorem pulvinar quis lacus adipiscing
Nisi in sem ipsum fermentum massa quisque cursus risus sociis sit massa suspendisse. Neque vulputate sed purus, dui sit diam praesent ullamcorper at in non dignissim iaculis velit nibh eu vitae. Bibendum euismod ipsum euismod urna vestibulum ut ligula. In faucibus egestas dui integer tempor feugiat lorem venenatis sollicitudin quis ultrices cras feugiat iaculis eget.
Try out Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse on iPhone
Id ac imperdiet est eget justo viverra nunc faucibus tempus tempus porttitor commodo sodales sed tellus eu donec enim. Lectus eu viverra ullamcorper ultricies et lacinia nisl ut at aliquet lacus blandit dui arcu at in id amet orci egestas commodo sagittis in. Vel risus magna nibh elementum pellentesque feugiat netus sit donec tellus nunc gravida feugiat nullam dignissim rutrum lacus felis morbi nisi interdum tincidunt. Vestibulum pellentesque cursus magna pulvinar est at quis nisi nam et sed in hac quis vulputate vitae in et sit. Interdum etiam nulla lorem lorem feugiat cursus etiam massa facilisi ut.
Customer success is a functional area that is exploding right now. In a few short years, the “customer success manager” role went from new and trendy, to essential and mainstream. In fact, it’s now one of the hottest titles in tech. Demand is high, salaries are increasing, and SaaS companies are hiring CSMs as quickly as they can find them.
A common question I am asked frequently from SaaS executives and hiring managers is: “What is the ideal candidate profile of a great CSM?” My response is that there is no standard professional background that CSMs commonly come from, and this role is so new that it’s hard to find talent with many years of direct experience as a customer success manager. In fact, my top three customer success leaders that I hired at Omniture came from very diverse professional backgrounds. One was a senior director of online merchandising at a major clothing retailer, another was a product manager at Amazon, and the third was a success sales professional with IBM.
Regardless of professional background, I look for the following 6 attributes when hiring customer success managers:
Natural Leader—My #1 hiring criteria is leadership. I want to hire smart, natural leaders from top to bottom on my team. I believe a team full of natural leaders will have an inherent ability to succeed. You can teach many skills and you can even teach leadership, but natural leaders will have the initiative to figure it out faster, and help others along the way. The common phrase I use is that I look for individuals who “excel in their current role and show thought leadership outside their role.” If I see evidence of that from a candidate, they’ve captured my initial interest.
Relationship Builder—The best CSMs have an incredible ability to build and nurture relationships. I’ve seen CSMs develop genuine, professional relationships with their customers in a way to transcends the standard vendor/client dynamics and span many years and multiple job changes. Those CSMs are excellent at fostering “Relationship ROI”. Obviously, the primary focus is on building customer relationships, but they also must be good at developing productive relationships internally as they’ll have to cash a lot of internal checks as they advocate for their customers. One way I assess their relationship skills is to see them in action with me and the rest of the interview team. Do they truly try to develop a relationship with us during the interview process? Are they genuine? Do they send a thank you note after the interview and mention specifics about our conversation? Do they have good follow-up and follow-through? These are key indicators of how they will treat our customers.
Passion for customer success (lower case)—This is important. Does the CSM candidate have a true passion for customer success. Does she find personal and professionals satisfaction in doing whatever is necessary to ensure her customers are delighted with your company and receiving value from the relationship? Can she effectively advocate for the customer? Does she consistently go above and beyond for the customer? Will she take a bullet or two for the customer (or from the customer), if necessary? I remember one CSM leader who truly exemplified this type of passion. He was at home in bed with a serious case of food poisoning. That same day, one of his top clients was experiencing serious issues with the service, negatively impacting one of their most important events of the year. The client called support and others trying to get the issue resolved, to no avail. In desperation, he called the CSMs cell phone for help. The CSM was tremendously sick, weak and exhausted and could have let the call go to voicemail, but when the call came him, he answered the phone. Within 30 minutes, the CSM helped navigate a resolution for his client. The client was on his way, and the CSM was back to his sick bed. That’s an example of a CSM who has a passion for customer success.
Business & Tech Savvy—I want my CSMs to have solid business and tech smarts so they can have credible conversations with executives and align business objectives to our solution(s). They don’t need to be Harvard MBAs or Google engineers, but they do need to be able to grasp their customer’s business, comfortably speak with senior executives, and confidently recommend/deliver solutions to their needs.
CSM Experience—Certainly previous CSM experience is helpful, especially SaaS CSM experience. If I can find qualified candidate with prior SaaS customer success experience, golden. However, I don’t let that be a show stopper. There are many excellent professionals out there who have the makings of a great CSM, but just need to be found.
Industry/Domain Expertise—Many may disagree with me, but industry/domain expertise is typically at the bottom of my list. The reason why is that if a candidate is strong in all the other areas mentioned above, I believe they can quickly learn the industry/domain (with few exceptions). As an example, I had no experience at all in web analytics when I started at Omniture. None. However, I was able to pick it up over time and have sufficient knowledge to successfully support my clients. Deep expertise typically came from our consultants, but I knew enough to get the job done. The same was true about the majority of the CSMs I hired. Very few if any came from a web analytics or digital marketing background, but all were able to learn quickly and effectively manage their clients. Hire smart CSMs and train them on the industry and domain.
If you want a rockstar CSM, start with these attributes when evaluating candidates and you won’t be disappointed.
Learn more about how ClientSuccess can help your company develop a strong Customer Success methodology and strategy with easy-to-use customer success software by requesting a 30-minute demo.
