3 Questions Every CSM Can Ask Themselves to Help Level Up Their Effectiveness.
Ian Robson shares 3 questions every CSM can ask to level up their effectiveness: who is your most and least successful customer, and how do you close the gap?
TL;DR
- Ian Robson, founder of Success Methods, offers three questions CSMs can ask to level up: Who is my most successful customer and why? Who is my least successful customer and why? And what do I need to do to move the least successful up to the level of the most successful?
- The exercise works only if you go deep on the "why" — mapping out every dimension that matters and spending real time (30+ minutes per customer) rather than rattling off quick answers.
- Done well, the comparison reveals the gaps between your best and worst accounts and gives you the insight needed to close them.
Welcome to our blog series CSM from the Trenches, a community for frontline Customer Success Managers (CSMs) that discusses trends, best practices, and advice for the frontline.
Being on the CSM frontline allows us to directly influence the success of our clients. I love that; as our clients are successful, we’re successful. Each day we learn from the trenches what it takes to make clients happy and successful.
Guest Feature
We're excited to share some insights from Ian Robson, Founder at Success Methods. With over 25 years of customer success expertise in consulting, software and technology, Ian has held leadership roles for some of the world’s most admired companies including Siebel, Oracle, Salesforce, SDL, Veracode, Fuse Universal and PA Consulting.
In this post, he encourages frontline CSMs to level up their game by asking themselves 3 questions and to go deep as just rattling off the answers won't effectively make us better customer success professionals.
Let’s get started with this week’s post!
From: Ian Robson, FounderCompany: Success MethodsLocation: United Kingdom
Question 1
Who is my most successful customer and why?
Go deep on the "why". Get a sheet of paper and map it out, all of the dimensions that matter and where that customer is on each of those dimensions. Spend 30 minutes at least until you have a really clear picture of exactly why they are successful.
Question 2
Who is my least successful customer and why?
Once again - go deep on the "why". Do exactly as you did for question 1. Dig in.
Question 3
What do I need to do to move my least successful customer up to the same level of success as my most successful customer?
This last question is all about identifying and then closing gaps. The exercise, done right will reveal all the gaps between the two AND in the process give you much of the insight and material you need to move your less successful customers up towards your most successful.
Conclusion
Answering these questions will also provide you with a clear view into how well you actually know your customers! I can pretty much guarantee if you spend an hour on this and really commit to it you'll uncover all sorts of valuable information to help you become a better CSM.
About Success Methods
Success Methods offers training and consulting services for customer success professionals and companies committed to excelling in customer success. Contact or connect with Ian to learn more!
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Here are other customer success resources:
Customer Success eBooks:
Customer Success as a Culture: Customer Success Leaders Edition
Ultimate Guide to SaaS Customer Success Metrics
Other CSM from the Trenches Posts:
Steve McDougal, Preqin Solutions / Dynamo Software, How to Land Your Dream Job in Customer Success
Himanshu Patel, Icertis – 3 Key Takeaways from My First Two Years as a Customer Success Manager
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.
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