Career Paths in Account Management

By Amin Akbarpour

The world of Customer Success is still a relatively new one. Only recently have organizations begun to embrace customer success as a necessary division within an effective organization. There aren’t a lot of consistently defined details within the space. So, for those of us involved in account management there are many unknowns in terms of what your career trajectory can look like.

As someone who’s been doing this customer success thing for a while now, I’ve had questions on this topic multiple times. Outside of using your job in success as a springboard to go on to another team or division (think sales, product, marketing, etc.), where can you go? Luckily, there are opportunities to further hone your skills and continue upward within account management itself. Let’s dive into the two most common routes:

Strategic Account Management

You may start off as a low-touch representative working primarily with small to mid-sized businesses (SMB) with your main goals being to reduce churn and capitalize on up-sell opportunities. You won’t feel like you have much time as you’re constantly hopping from one customer to another. Staying organized and numbers-oriented is key. As you start to get the hang of account management, you can start moving up the ladder in terms of the size and type of customers you work with.

In the mid-market space organizations can have anywhere from 50 to hundreds of employees. Working with these companies, you’ll be able to develop and fine-tune essential skills (relationship building, sales skills, process detail, etc.) as you start diving into accounts. You will need to understand your client’s org chart, identify power users vs. decision makers, and learn their budgeting process. Be detail-oriented and patient here: these are fundamental building blocks that will be critical to your success in account management regardless of whether you decide to continue to move up the totem pole or go a different direction.

Last, but not least, is the top of the account management food chain – enterprise customers. In this role you’ll be a high-touch rep where you are responsible for managing no more than a few strategic accounts. Think organizations with multiple divisions and departments (Google, Apple, Visa, Coca Cola). They might even have an international presence! Hope you know some Mandarin or Spanish… Your job will be to understand the deeper details on each of your accounts, from the procurement process, to the distinct vocabulary they use, to each individual in the org chart, their responsibilities, and the role they play as it relates to your business. At this point, you become responsible for strategy as well as managing relationships with your champions and key decision makers. You will typically have a team of colleagues who help manage the day-to-day and execute on some of the strategic objectives you set out.

Leadership

So you want to be a leader? Leadership it isn’t for everyone and it also isn’t what many make it out to be. In most cases, a successful enterprise rep makes more money than, say, a manager of an enterprise rep team. Talis est vita…

You can move into leadership at any of the levels described in previous section – SMB, mid-market, or enterprise. It’s just a matter of when you find the desire to make the transition and have demonstrated success as an account manager. Going into leadership is a transition. You go from spending the majority of your time with clients to spending it with your team, spreadsheets, and internal meetings. It is far from a glamorous lifestyle, but it can fulfill a desire you might have.

That’s the desire to build and grow. Making the transition from building relationships with clients to becoming a great leader can be a challenging shift, and you’ll have a lot to learn about management. There’s also more at stake since you can’t just have a bad teammate the way you can have a bad client. A poor relationship with someone who reports to you can lead to both a toxic environment for others and a terrible experience for that individual. That said, growing your career in leadership can be incredibly rewarding, because you get to set the direction for your team and help others succeed.

If you do make the decision to go into leadership at the SMB or mid-market level, it can be difficult to move up into a different size account base while remaining a leader. Know that you’ll be competing with account managers in that segment who want to move into leadership and are more familiar with those kinds of customers. Make sure that you choose leadership at a segment that will work for you long-term.

To explore career options and prepare for your next career move, set up some time to talk with your boss, and spend some time networking with other customer success professionals. They will help you understand what different roles are like, and can give you tips on how to progress your career from their own experience. Take the time to set yourself up for success and happiness, wherever that might take you!

Are you an account manager or CSM who needs training to push your career forward? The Success League offers a series of live, online training classes that include topics like uncovering customer goals, building your selling skills, and handling difficult conversations. www.TheSuccessLeague.io

Amin Akbarpour - Amin is a customer success coach and architect. With relationship-building at the core of his practice, he molds teams by instilling the necessary principles to transform them into trusted advisors. Understanding what's needed for organizational change, he translates theory and ideology into practice and habit. In addition to his work with The Success League, Amin currently serves as an account manager for Persado. Originally from Southern California, Amin is a University of San Francisco alum who is grateful to still be able to call the Bay Area his home.

Top Skills for 5 Customer Success Roles

By Kristen Hayer

In most organizations customer success includes several different roles, each with its own function and critical skill sets.  Unfortunately, many companies still lump candidates into a single customer success bucket while they are recruiting, and search for the same skills across the board.

Over the past 6 years my teams have included customer success professionals from a variety of backgrounds, who had widely different strengths.  To get my arms around the talent I was working with, I adopted the practice of having members of my team take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment from the Gallup organization.  I tracked the results of everyone who worked for me during this period, and found some interesting trends among the strongest team members.  Here is my take on the critical skills and key strengths required in 5 common customer success roles.

Customer Success Manager

Key Strength – Communication

CSMs are the storytellers and advocates of a success team.  In order to be able to communicate effectively to clients, however, they also need to be great listeners and good at handling challenging conversations.  Speaking intelligently with customers requires strong general business acumen as well as industry knowledge.  Of course, busy CSMs also need to have excellent time management and organization skills.

Hiring Tip:  Hire people with some background in the food & beverage or retail industries.  They have experience communicating with lots of different types of people.

Account Manager

Key Strength – Positivity

For the purposes of this article, think of account managers as CSMs with revenue responsibility.  Like sales reps, they need to be incredibly positive and flexible in order to keep going in the face of rejection.  That said, solid selling and negotiation skills can help to limit rejection in the first place.  Account managers need to be good listeners and have business acumen in order to understand how best to serve their clients.

Hiring Tip:  Hire salespeople who also understand how business works.  Former entrepreneurs or people who have worked in organizations like Enterprise Rent-A-Car tend to work out well.

Support Rep

Key Strength – Learner

Support reps are often tasked with staying up-to-date on changing products and services, so being someone to loves to learn is a critical strength.  Related and also important are the ability to ask good questions and a gift for creatively solving problems.  Of course, technical aptitude is necessary, but so is being calm in the face of frustrating customer issues.  Being a team player means a support rep can comfortably share best practices with their peers.

Hiring Tip:  Look for people with creative hobbies like music or painting.  They tend to be creative in their approach to everything, including client problems and troubleshooting.

Implementation Specialist

Key Strength – Arranger

Anyone who manages onboarding, implementation or professional services needs to understand how to keep the trains running on time.  Project management and organization skills are critical.  Industry experience is also important because they need to understand how their solution fits into the industry ecosystem.  Finally, while an implementation specialist should be independent, they also need to understand how to build relationships with complimentary service providers.

Hiring Tip:  Consider people who come from product or marketing backgrounds.  Both are project-driven fields, so their skills can often translate well into this kind of role.

Team Manager

Key Strength – Strategic

People managers need to take a big-picture view of the team, goals, metrics, and how customer success fits into the overall strategy of the organization.  The ability to both understand and perform analysis helps leaders make good decisions for their team.  Being a great leader also involves the people side of things: Listening, showing emotional intelligence, and being willing to engage in difficult conversations are all important in a management role.

Hiring Tip:  Don’t assume that your best customer success employees will be the best managers.  Ask people what they want to do before you move them into this kind of role, and provide an alternate career path for those who want to stay on the front lines.

As you build your team, consider the different roles in your group and develop interview questions that uncover whether your candidates have the skills you really need.  Consider using the StrengthsFinder assessment with your current team to make sure you’ve got the right people in the right positions.  Doing so will make your team more productive and the people on your team happier in their roles.

Need a hiring kit that can ensure you recruit the best people for your team?  The Success League is a customer success consulting firm that can help you define your roles, build hiring kits and design a strong employee onboarding plan.  www.TheSuccessLeague.io

One-on-One Meetings for Customer Success

By Kristen Hayer

A weekly one-on-one (1:1) meeting with each of your direct reports is one of the best management tools you can employ. These meetings are critical for building relationships, understanding how team members are performing, and getting a feel for the challenges your team is facing. I’ve tried a wide variety of formats for 1:1 meetings in different leadership roles and with different kinds of teams. There were some wins and fails along the way, and through that I’ve found a format that works well for customer success groups. 

If you’re been promoted into a manager position, are heading up a new team, or are considering implementing 1:1 meetings for the first time, here’s my recommended approach to CSM one-on-one meetings.

Start with Goals

If you’ve been reading The Success League blog for a while you know that I strongly believe that solid goals are the basis of a highly effective team.  They are also the basis of a great 1:1 meeting.  A primary objective of this meeting should be to see how your team member is performing against their goals, and learn what you can do to help and coach them.  Without strong goals, you can still get the benefit of relationship building from these meetings, but they won’t be as productive.

A word about goals: Goals are something you’re responsible for as the leader of the team.  They aren’t something you sit around and wait to receive from your boss or executive team.  If you do get goals from your boss, wonderful!  You’re one of the lucky ones.  If not you’ll need to make your own team goals and work to align them with the goals of your company.  For ideas on how to get started here’s a post I wrote about goals for success teams.

Stick to a Schedule

This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way when I was a new manager.  As a busy leader, I would often reschedule or cancel my 1:1 meetings and assume my team would understand that my crazy schedule was a part of my job.  It took several brave team members telling me how they felt about it to help me understand that the most important part of my job was them.  Whenever I rescheduled or cancelled our meetings they felt undervalued and unappreciated; the opposite of what I was trying to accomplish with 1:1 meetings.

The second major objective of 1:1 meetings is building relationships with the members of your team.  In order to accomplish this, the meetings really do need to be weekly.  When was the last time you built a meaningful relationship with someone you only engaged with every other week or once a month?  Get these meetings on the calendar, every week, at a time you can really commit to.

Standardize the Agenda

Establishing a rhythm in your 1:1 meetings is important, to make them both efficient and effective.  If your agenda is the same each week, you and your team member will be able to plan for the meeting and be prepared with any materials you need to discuss.  The other advantage of a set agenda is that it shifts the emphasis from gathering information and presenting to discussing issues and problem solving together.  Over time, this will create a richer relationship and open the door to deeper discussions about career and personal development.

If you look online you’ll find many suggested agendas for 1:1 meetings.  More important than the specific agenda items is that you have an agenda and stick with it, so find what works best for you and your team.  One resource I really like is the Manager Tools podcast, and they recommend a slightly different agenda than mine.  I have found the following to be most effective with CSM teams:

1. Discuss goals and performance (CSM leads)

2. Discuss bottlenecks and challenges (CSM leads)

3. Discuss specific customer issues (CSM leads)

4. Coaching and problem-solving(Manager leads)

5. Career development (Dialog)

They Bring the Data

When I started doing 1:1 meetings as a new manager I would spend a tremendous amount of time preparing for each meeting, pulling metrics on each of my team members and building a document to show people how they were performing.  I would be really frustrated when, the very next week, they didn’t remember any of the data I had shown them and hadn’t accomplished the action items we discussed.

What I learned is that in order for your team members to feel ownership for their goals, and to truly understand their own performance, they need to be the ones bringing the data to you.  Come up with a format you both agree on, but give them some flexibility as well.  You’ll find that your team will often take a different approach than you would, which can provide new insights.  Let them walk you through their performance and you’ll find that they are more engaged in the meeting.

Include Career Development

As I’ve taught this 1:1 process to new managers, career development has been the area where I’ve gotten the most pushback.  “Why should I talk to my team members about their career development?  Isn’t this too personal/their responsibility/the HR department’s job?”  Managers are worried that individuals on their team won’t be open to talking about this topic or will expect to be promoted too soon.

I would argue that this is the most important part of the 1:1 meeting, and a part that can bring tremendous long-term value to your team.  Yes, it can take a few months for a new team member to warm up to you enough to have this be an honest dialog. However, in order for you to fully leverage the talent in your group you need to understand their career aspirations and commit to helping them get where they want to go.  If you are successful in making this a part of your 1:1 meetings you’ll find that it results in reduced turnover, increased job satisfaction and volunteers for side projects on your team.

One-on-one meetings are a major time commitment for a manager, especially if you have a large team.  However, they are such a powerful tool that they are worth every minute you invest.  Make that investment now and start reaping the benefits of better relationships and stronger performance.

The Success League is a consulting firm that works with executives who are ready to build and develop a top performing customer success team. We offer leadership coaching for new customer success managers who want to take their skills to the next level.  www.TheSuccessLeague.io

Delivering an Excellent Quarterly Business Review

By Ashley Hall

Ah yes, the Quarterly Business Review, or QBR. These are essentially the book report on your time partnering with a client. It’s been at least since a quarter since you started providing value, and now it’s time to showcase your progress and highlight opportunities for the future.

Why are QBRs important? They are the perfect opportunity for you to reinforce the value your company is providing, a time to tout some of the “wins” you’ve achieved with your customers, and a chance to strategically grow accounts. While lot of positives can come from a well-executed QBR, a lackluster meeting can lead to your client questioning the value you bring to the table.

Here are my tips for delivering a strategic and promising QBR.

1. Prepare

QBRs are always a bit simpler when you have worked with a client since the beginning of their partnership with your brand. The goals and metrics you decide on initially can provide you with a good outline for your QBR. If you inherited a client, then a QBR is a good time to reset expectations. Glean what you can from your predecessor and your CRM. Either way, review the progress of the client over the past quarter, pull relevant metrics and reports, and check on any outstanding issues.

2. Invite Executives

QBRs are the perfect time to pull in both internal and client-side leadership and provide them with visibility into your partnership. Be respectful of their time, and be sure to provide them a candid overview of successes and challenges so far. Having executives involved can help you get the resources you need to move things forward, and can set you up for success when renewal time rolls around.

3. Provide Data

Nothing speaks louder than metrics. Come to your QBR armed with data that highlight successes and provide insight into challenges. Be sure to have visuals like graphs and reports – more than half the population responds better to visual than verbal data. Always bring more information than you think you will need, that way you don’t get stumped by a tough question from leadership.

4. Discuss Performance

Be candid. Ask your client how they feel you’ve performed so far. This will give them the chance to provide you with honest feedback and let you know if their expectations are being met. In turn, be sure to share any concerns on your side: There are things your company needs to make the relationship a success. Finally, don’t be afraid to tactfully ask if you are on track to secure their contract renewal. It’s always good to gauge the temperature well in advance so you don’t end up with any surprises at the contract’s end.

5. Plan Next Steps

You’ve hosted an excellent meeting. You came prepared, provided important data and spoken frankly about the relationship. Ensure the success of your next QBR by creating a follow up plan for any action items and determining the right communication cadence for the next quarter. Double check that everyone is clear on next steps, and that’s a wrap – job well done!

Need help building a QBR format that drives client engagement?  The Success League is a consulting firm that works with executives who are ready to build and develop a top performing customer success team.  www.TheSuccessLeague.io

Ashley Hall - Ashley loves to lead account management teams; from training newbies to building processes out of chaos to working directly with customers. With an eye on the future she is a powerhouse in building scaleable frameworks that support and drive growth. Ashley serves as an advisor to The Success League, and is currently working for Sparkcentral as an account manager. She holds a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder and enjoys living in San Francisco, CA.