Customer Success Managers, the three things they actually deliver?
There has been a lot of debate around charging for the customer success manager function in the industry of late. This question is related to why I chose to work in customer success.
Before moving into Customer Success I ran a renewals team with a renewals book of $200M. Previous to this, I ran a sales territory with a renewal book of $30M. In this role, I managed 400 client renewals per year with an ACV/ARR between $50 and $2M.
I learned fairly early on in a territory renewals role that there are a number of gates or jumps that impact the client purchasing the renewal and expanding.
Turn up. The client says they haven’t heard from anyone in the organization since the last renewal.
Features. The client says they need the product to do X. The client does not know that the product has been able to do X for the last six months
Tactical. The client says, we purchased the product to do ABC. We haven’t thought about using it to do XYZ
As a renewals leader, I saw these problems come up again and again so I moved into CS so I could solve these problems while reducing churn, and improving client satisfaction and advocacy.
A customer success manager defends the vendor against these three objections:
Turn up. The CSM turns up regularly and delivers value to the client on a regular basis.
Features. Knowing the client's current and future needs & showing them how other clients use the product keeps the perception of the product as being fresh and exciting.
Tactical. Showing the client that the tactical solution can be expanded to add value to the wider organization as a strategic solution.
What do you think?
