How did you get into success?

Before I was a CSM, I was in Sales for a few years. My last Account Executive role is how I met my current CEO- I was selling him an analytics suite and we had a mutually positive interaction. A few months later the team was looking for a Founding CSM that specifically had an SDR and BDR background so we could build out a function that would delight someone who had been on the other side.

What do most people get wrong about success?

The thing most people get wrong is that Customer Success isn’t a Revenue generating role. The best Salespeople can not only discover pain and map a solution to business problems, but they can also drive the desired outcomes and share the narrative across an organization. Data never has and never will sell itself, the best CSMs are sellers at their core and that's how they’re able to generate and close opportunities for upsells, cross sells, and close multi-year renewals.

What's the most rewarding part of your role in CS?

CS allows you to solve problems that are beyond your product’s capabilities. Sometimes the true issue is in a complementary part of their tech stack or process that has nothing to do with your tool. Taking the time to understand, map out, and implement broader solutions really let’s you put on the “strategic partner” hat. When these solutions actually work, you can take a lot of pride in your work for doing the unscalable things and creating an outsized impact.

Who is your role model in the CS space?

Early in my career I had the privilege of working with Ryan Fields. As a fresh SDR with aspirations to shift into CS in a few years, I still think about his advice often.