⭐ GOOD CSM and BAD CSM

FROM Luca Manara

I spent a good amount of time on what I think is a successful CSM. What I expect from all of you meanwhile you manage projects for our customers. I know it is a long email, but please read it carefully and ask me everything that is not clear.

Remind that we are a lean and agile team, we are a startup and something completely different on what our customers are getting used to working with (like Accenture or conventional advisory companies).

We support our customers. As an Agile team, for what Agile means, the customer is ALWAYS in our mind. We work for him, and we are the servant to make him successful with AQ technology. Please take into considerations the theory underneath the Agile mindset (if you have any kind doubt, we have a training course you can apply for).

Please, recall what I wrote about the ultimate role of a CSM: a good customer success team literally is responsible for making or breaking the company.

Please read also the CSM role description

GOOD CSM and BAD CSM

Good CSM know the market and the product, the product line, and the competition extremely well and operate from a strong basis of knowledge and confidence. A good CSM is the CEO of the customer. Good CSM takes full responsibility and measures themselves in terms of customer success. They are responsible for right customer satisfaction, and all that entails. A good CSM knows the context going in (the company, our revenue funding, competition, etc.), and they take responsibility for executing a winning customer, a customer that buy our product (no excuses) again. Bad CSM has lots of excuses. Not enough time, the product is not working, customer Is an idiot, customer is demanding, I’m overworked, I don’t get enough direction. As a CEO I can’t make these kinds of excuses, and neither should the CEO of customers. Good CSM doesn’t get all of their time sucked up by the various meeting but, quite the opposite, they work to save the time of the team and for the customers. They transform customer engagement from a traditional ‘reactive’ to a ‘proactive’ mindset. They are not part of the process; they manage the process. CSM teams don’t consider sales managers a “sales resource.” Good CSM is the execution counterparts to the sales managers. Good CSM crisply define the target, the “what” (as opposed to the “how”), and manage the delivery of the “what.” Bad CSM feels best about themselves when they figure out “how.” Good CSM communicates crisply to the sales team in writing as well as verbally. Good CSM doesn’t give direction informally. Good CSM gathers information informally. Good CSM creates collateral, FAQs, presentations, and white papers that can be leveraged by salespeople, marketing people, and executives. Bad CSM complains that they spend all day answering questions for the sales force and are swamped. Good CSM anticipates the problems with customers and builds real solutions. Bad CSM put out fires all day. Good CSM takes written positions on important issues (competitive silver bullets, customer decision makers list, available budget and new opportunities, and markets to attack or yield). Bad CSM voices their opinions verbally and laments that the “to much work and it’s another responsibility” won’t let it happen. Once bad CSM fail, they point out that they predicted they would fail. Good CSM focus the team on revenue and customers. Bad CSM focuses the team on how difficult the relationship with the customer is. Good CSM creates a relationship to help execute heavily. Bad CSM asks for products and tools that can’t be executed or let engineering build whatever they want (that is, solve the hardest problem). Good CSM thinks in terms of delivering superior value to the market and achieving market share and revenue goals crowing the relationship with customers. Bad CSM gets very confused about the differences among delivering value, manage a problematic customer, pricing, and ubiquity. Good CSM decomposes problems. Bad CSM combines all problems into one. Good CSM sees an opportunity in every problem. Bad CSM sees a problem in every opportunity. Good CSM thinks about the story they want written to create a differential business case. Bad CSM thinks about covering every detail of their project and being absolutely technically accurate with the press. Good CSM asks the customer questions. Bad CSM answer any customer question. Good CSM assumes customer employees and tech customer team are really smart. Bad CSM assumes that customers employees are dumb because they don’t understand the subtle nuances of their particular work. Good CSM errs on the side of clarity. Bad CSM never even explain the obvious. Good CSM defines their job and their success. Bad CSM constantly wants to be told what to do. Good CSM sends their status reports in on time every week because they are disciplined. Bad CSM forgets to send in their status reports on time because they don’t value discipline.