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How to become a high paid CSM in 2024
Markus Rentsch
January 04, 2024
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Hi, Markus here. Welcome to a premium edition of the Customer-Value-Led-Growth Newsletter.
Every week, I share strategies, guides, and frameworks to help you create exceptional value for your customers and company.
If you are not a paid subscriber, here’s what you might have missed:
Customer Success Managers create more revenue than sales reps and it’s not even close.
Because they are the main force behind renewals, expansions, upsells, cross-sells, and referrals.
But few SaaS leaders get that as the salary gap between CS and Sales proves.
Not to mention the gap in recognition within the organization (growth engine vs. cost-center).
It’s unlikely that how leaders perceive it on their own anytime soon.
But that does not mean your salary can’t be raised significantly.
Yes, as a CSM you are likely not in for the money but you should be paid what you are worth, right?
In today’s episode, I’ll show you the 7 components to make a strong case for a significant pay raise.
Let’s go:
1. Customer Success Discoveries
Customer Discovery is the sales team’s responsibility. WRONG. The hand-off you get from sales is the starting point for your discovery.
Why? Your colleagues from sales must determine Customer-Product-Fit aka qualification.
That includes identifying customer goals, the problems they need to solve, and whether they are likely to succeed.
Well, at least if it’s taken seriously and their goal is not to acquire everyone with a pulse.
But they don’t have the knowledge and experience of working with customers to determine their needs.
Yes, customers need to solve their problems. But what do they need to do it successfully?
They need a customized mix of education, training, and consulting. Sure, you could throw everything you’ve got at them and hope for the best.
But your customers will rather get lost and quit than find the needle in the haystack that helps them move forward.
2. Dedicated success plans
As a CSM, your mission is to close the identified gap between where your customers are now and their desired outcomes.
This is not accomplished by teaching your customers all about your product’s features and functions. Technical knowledge is not their bottleneck.
You need to help your customers build the skills and knowledge to achieve excellence on the job they need your product for.
Because bad input will always lead to bad output. You need to make sure that the input is of high quality.
Never count on customers finding the way on their own.
Your customer success plan is essentially a training and education plan that works bottom up.
The services and inputs you provide help customers grow their skills and knowledge.
Armed with improved capabilities they can complete the tasks required to solve their problems, achieve each milestone, and eventually their overall goal.
