customer success managers: the unicorns of the professional world
TRANSCRIPT
How did I get here?• Anjanette Hill-Mendoza, Glassdoor
VP of Customer Success
• Almost 2 decades experience leading Customer Success teams• Multiple verticals, platforms, services, and
companies such as Cisco WebEx, Hightail, Extole, and Advent Software • Literally thousands of interviews with
candidates
Reviews
Salaries
Benefits“Exceptional benefits package”
Interviews
Photos
CEO Approval
+JOBS
Powerful Combination
We Are• People First• Passionate• Humble• Innovators• Authentic• Scrappy• Integrity Based• Respectful• Collaborative• Courageous• Accountable• Playing to Win!
• Sell-outs• Superficial• Arrogant• Unimaginative• Fake• Bureaucratic• Deceptive• Mean• Territorial• Afraid• Irresponsible• Playing for second
We Are Not
The easy answer
•Hire people with Customer Success experience
•Who can deliver business value and delight the customer
Experience aligned to purpose & goals
What purpose does Customer Success serve in your
organization?
Determining purpose
•What is your company trying to do?
•What major problems are you facing as an org?
•What are your customers saying they need?
•What support do cross-functional teams need for customers’ success?
• Answers could be grow, nurture, retain, react…
The good news
•While supply hasn’t equaled demand and many years of specific experience are hard to come by
• Aligning by purpose opens the door for other professionals to dip their toes in Customer Success
Cross-functional integrationsTotango’s Customer Success Salary Survey & State of the Profession
• 2013: No conversation re background of CSMs
• 2014: 17% Sales; 19% from Account Management and Support Services
• 2015: 95% of CSMs responding came from other professions and backgrounds
Areas with biggest impact
• Customer DNA at their core
• Alignment with your Company and Culture are essential
• Believe in and really care about the value you provide to your customers
• Fit in to your company culture
Think functionality• Actions taken to perform a task; transferred from job to
job• Killer CSMs have:• Amazing task and time management• A+ organizational skills• Excellent communication, listening, speaking, writing• Innate ability to facilitate meetings and lead discussions• Ability to analyze data, define, and execute a plan based on that• Outstanding project manager• Think and qualitatively and quantitatively
Sorry, Elon’s already taken but…• Entrepreneurial mindset•Works super hard• Love of and hunger for learning• Sky is the limit - literally• Invests in themselves• Collaborative team player• Excited and excitable•Motivated, self-starter• Non-political & thick-skinned• Creative, doesn’t care about keeping up with trends