Markus Rentsch’s Post

Ever wondered why CSMs are superheroes in the business world, yet companies sometimes miss the memo on their full potential? ✅ Why CSMs Rock: * Voice of the Customer: They're your customers' best advocates, driving product improvements and happy vibes. * Money Makers: CSMs prevent customers from jumping ship and spot upsell opportunities, boosting revenue. * Relationship Gurus: They build rock-solid connections, making customers stick around and sing your praises. ❌ The Catch? * Not Seeing the Gold: Some companies overlook how crucial CSMs are for success. * Resource Crunch: Limited resources hold back CSMs from shining. * Goals Out of Sync: Departments aren’t always on the same page about how to keep customers happy. * Short-Term Blinders: Focusing solely on getting new customers can lead to missing out on long-term success. ✨ Unleashing CSM Magic: * See the Big Picture * Invest in CSM Tools * Get Everyone Aligned * Put Customers First As a passionate CSM, I’m actively seeking a new journey where I can make a genuine impact. I never thought I would find my calling in the corporate world, but I can honestly say that I love being a CSM, and I whole-heartedly care about what I do and the contributions I make. I’m excited to bring my expertise to a forward-thinking organization that prioritizes customer success. Let’s connect and drive exceptional customer experiences together! 🤜🤛 #CustomerSuccess #CSM #CustomerExperience #JobSearch #CSMCareers

CSMs, if you are following the standard playbook you will get the same results as everybody else. Including but not limited to - being stuck in reactive work - long hours and high pressure - high churn rates - no growth opportunities - no career advancement - sitting on the lower end of the salary list - getting laid off to reduce expenses I’m sick and tired of all the excuses without addressing the elephant in the room. The poor state of CSM is the direct consequence of “best practices” Practices that are built based on wishful thinking, disconnected from the customer. Spearheaded by - obsessing about adoption and usage - measuring health scores, NPS and CSAT - prioritizing scalability and efficiency Doing more of the same and rebranding it as “Customer Value Realization” is not going to change your results btw. Want to know what works? Building an end-to-end process that is all about the customer 1. Discovering customer needs 2. Building dedicated success roadmaps 3. Enabling customers to solve their problems 4. Tracking progress with outcome metrics 5. Demonstrating value to every stakeholder 6. Identifying customer growth opportunities It works completely independent of the state of the economy, trends, and your tech stack. It puts you in a proactive role by design (>80%). It’s the catalyst for all the things that make CSM great. PS: Here are the strategies and tools --> https://lnkd.in/ecph-KjF

Something Dannii Mathers said on Scale Sessions last week has stuck with me. "In CS, you’re handed a product and a value proposition." It’s so true. Throw in a prayer and you’ve got the CSM starter pack, 2024 edition. The thing is, that value prop isn’t a one size fits all job. Every customer interprets it differently, shaped by their own circumstances. That’s where discovery comes in, again and again throughout the customer lifecycle. New customer onboarding? Discovery.  -> Ensure the subsequent stages are built on solid understanding Change of Decision Maker? Discovery.  -> Are there new expectations or strategy changes compared to their predecessor? Expansion opportunity? Discovery.  -> Who else is affected by (insert pain point)? Who else could benefit from (insert an outcome your product provides)? Renewal? Discovery.  -> Whatever the sentiment, ask the tough questions Sales teams are typically trained extensively on it but many CSMs are left to figure it out on the job, to mixed results. Here's a simple discovery framework for CSMs that goes a long way to inspire action and maintain accountability: - Business Goal(s): the 'what?' Ensure to capture measurable outcomes, current state vs desired state - Trigger: the 'why now?' Understand the urgency and context for the goal(s) - Impact: the 'so what?'  Uncover the consequence of achieving (or not achieving their goal(s) Discovery isn't a checklist of questions It’s the art of conversation Shifting a CSM from ‘fixer’ to ‘solver’ (to quote Dannii). CSMs, what is your experience of discovery training (or lack of it?)

I don't see this talked about enough for CSMs - Your success as a CSM is *directly* proportional to your ability to be Danny Ocean internally. Hear me out: You work for your company. But the savvy CSMs know that when you take on a customer, you now work for the customer. ...and there will ALWAYS be moments when they want or need something that falls outside of process. Or outside of Support SLA. Or outside of the product roadmap. Your ability to deliver for them is 100% dependent on the willingness of internal stakeholders to go out of their way for you. (Boundary-drawing & process can follow afterwards, of course) Make it easy for yourself, do the work early: Know who you need to do your job well. Set up time with them. Get to know them.

Want to build a high-performing CSM team? Here are the 3 most critical success factors: 1. Protect your team from distractions. Tracking open invoices, running demos, or chasing support tickets. A lot of CSM teams have become the “miscellaneous crew”. If they spend half their time doing non-CSM work they can’t deliver enough value to customers. Push back on outside distractions even when they are coming from the C-suite. Saying yes to everything might please your leadership for the moment but it will certainly not keep you from getting fired due to an underperforming team. 2. Address customer and product issues CSM teams often get the blame for a high churn rate. Yes, customers are leaving because of insufficient education, training, and guidance. But that’s far from everything.  You need to address churn that happens due to the ongoing acquisition of bad-fit customers and unresolved issues. Both put your CSMs in a defensive position and they (unsurprisingly) can’t solve it. And many customers are not leaving before you've wasted a ton of resources on fighting lost causes. 3. Education & Training It’s terrifying how many CSMs lack the very basic skills and knowledge to deliver customer value. On the other hand, it’s not a surprise considering the education they get. Your CSMs don’t need to know 357 ways to boost engagement, adoption, and usage. They don't need to know all 287 proxy metrics for customer success. They need to master the 6 core disciplines of CSM ✅ Customer Discovery ✅ Success Planning ✅ Content and Service design ✅ Tracking customer progress ✅ Demonstrating value ✅Monetizing value and the skills they require (active listening, problem-solving, etc.) The stage is set for CSM teams to shine. But you will not get into the spotlight by doing more of the same. Act accordingly. PS: Join 6.4k+ CS professionals and sign up for my weekly newsletter if you like this post --> https://lnkd.in/dtC7MEjP

High performance in CSM is not built upon guessing and assuming. It's built on solid discovery, analytics and meaningful feedback. 1️⃣ Understanding what value means for your customers to deliver what they actually care about. 2️⃣ Learning what keeps the from getting there to provide the right content and services in the right order. 3️⃣ Tracking their progress by benchmarking their actual vs. projected results. 4️⃣ Measuring the effectiveness of your efforts by the % of successful adaptions from your customers. 5️⃣ Having Customer Value Reviews to learn what worked, what did not and why to either double down or correct the course. Customer Success does not happen by accident, it’s engineered. Act accordingly. PS: Start your ascension to high-performing CSM here --> https://lnkd.in/eHeA2GkR

“Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day.” ~ Rory Vaden (NYT Bestselling Author) “There is only one boss - the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” ~ Sam Walton (Founder of Walmart) I believe these 2 quotes adequately summarize the domain of "Customer Success Management" which is vital for any SaaS business, in fact any B2B enterprise. Last month, I discovered this certification, and was immediately impressed by its rich updated content and structured methodology. It felt like an ideal way to deepen both theoretical foundations and practical skills—especially through its focus on key concepts and case studies. So yeah, invested some time and managed to pass the exam to get certified 😊✌️ #CustomerSuccess #Certification

CSM: I absolutely want to contribute to the success of our business by being more accountable for revenue. Leader: Great! CSM: But "go get 'em" doesn't constitute enablement. Leader: Sorry? CSM: New objectives require new skills and techniques. So how about it? Can we get some training? Leader (checks sofa cushions): Sorry - no budget! ===== With the above dialogue, I'm channeling and paraphrasing part of the robust conversation on Jan Young, MBA, CSPO, CSM's CxXchange Success Hours yesterday. Lack of enablement budgets hold back so many CS teams from delivering what they're asked. But here’s the bigger problem…. When CS teams can’t do their job properly, like: → keeping customers engaged → reducing churn → growing customer revenue The cost is ALWAYS bigger than the price. You think you’re saving $20k for your company by not finding or fighting for better tools or training. Great. But without those tools and training, customers leave or don’t grow in revenue. Meaning that the costs are months or years of revenue (10 - 100x the $20k you "saved"). I trained a CS team and one CSM asked 1 disruptive question and turned a 1 year renewal convo into a 3-year expansion. Without that question, 6 figures of $$$ would have been left on the table. And that’s just 1 client. 1 CSM. 1 customer. 1 question. Imagine if that was repeated DOZENS of times. So the truth is... Not investing in your CS teams is more expensive than your company can afford. ===== For insights, tips and solutions to help post-sales teams generate more revenue, visit www.boblondon.co.

🚀 Transform Your Career with CSM Essentials Certification! Are you an aspiring Customer Success Manager? Our CSM Essentials Certification Course is your key to success! For a limited time, enjoy special pricing: 🔹 Basic: $92 (was $197) 🔹 Comprehensive: $138 (was $412) What’s in it for you? ✨ Affordable yet comprehensive training ✨ Certification to boost your CV ✨ Expert-led courses with structured learning ✨ Development of both technical and soft skills Elevate your career with knowledge from industry veterans and a recognized certification. Don’t miss out! https://lnkd.in/gEMKp-ee #CustomerSuccess #CCSMP #ProfessionalDevelopment

The biggest difference in CSM performance are not the ⛔️ Years of experience ⛔️ Number of certifications ⛔️ Tools in the tech stack but the individual mindset. Here are 20 ways high-performing CSMs think differently: 1️⃣ They don’t have a fixed mindset and are open to new ideas and practices 2️⃣ They build their own best practices and don’t copy & paste what the other 95% are doing 3️⃣ They see commercial responsibility as an opportunity, not a burden 4️⃣ They are pursuing the maximum possible outcome, not the minimum viable one 5️⃣ They are leading customers to the promised land all the way 6️⃣ They build the foundation of their work on discovery and analytics, not guessing and assuming 7️⃣ They are telling customers what they need to hear and not what they want to hear 8️⃣ They don’t spread their resources all over the place, they prioritize ruthlessly 9️⃣ They are not doing the work for their customers, they are enabeling them to do it themselve 1️⃣0️⃣ They spend way more time on listening than talking in their conversations 1️⃣1️⃣ They are acquiring valuable skills, not shiny certifications 1️⃣2️⃣ They invest in building genuine „unscaled“ H2H customer relationships 1️⃣3️⃣ They don’t wait until things are going south to react but are always a step ahead 1️⃣4️⃣ They don’t throw random tactics at a problem but act strategically 1️⃣5️⃣ They treat QBRs as a strategic asset, not a chore to check-off a list 1️⃣6️⃣ They measure success with the metrics customers care about 1️⃣7️⃣ They let the customer choose when and how to give feedback 1️⃣8️⃣ They don’t settle for superficial answers and get at the bottom of things 1️⃣9️⃣ They use every opportunity to demonstrate value to their customers 2️⃣0️⃣ They focus on growing their impact and not the number of activities What's keeping you from growing your performance? PS: Here are 50 resources to support your ascension to a high-performing CSM à https://lnkd.in/eHeA2GkR #saas #customersuccess #customervalueledgrowth