Customer Success Managers: The Unicorns of

the Professional World

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

to help people everywhere finda job and company they loveMission:

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

We are a BYOD* culture*Build  your  own  desk

*A  build  your  own  desk  culture

It’s an employees’ market

>2000 CSM jobs posted on Glassdoor right now

Our #1 Challenge

The easy answer

•Hire people with Customer Success experience

•Who can deliver business value and delight the customer

Don’t give up yet

The formula is actually that simple

Experience + Soft Skills = Excellence in Customer Success

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

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

- Albert Einstein

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

Hire on Personality too

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

When all else fails

Use the Airplane Test Compliments Tom Gimbel, Founder & CEO of LaSalle Networks

Would you want to spend 4 hours on a plane in coach sitting beside this person?

Your unicorn is out there

Q&A

Interesting other topics:Interview questions

Company cultureEmployer branding

For more information see Glassdoor.com