Anyone have any advice on how to break into customer success? I've been a BDR for over 2 years now, and I've learned a lot from that role. My next step I feel is a CSM or CSA. I am more of a farmer than a hunter and I'm very customer-centric. I find my strengths are in CS but it seems like you need experience within CS to break into CS. Any tips or referrals? Thanks!
The role Customer Success varies greatly from one company to another. If you are looking to be more farmer, make sure you apply for roles that are account management based. Look at the job description and align success stories from past roles to the type of work you would be doing and skills needed in the posting. Titles are garbage these days and really what matters is if you have been doing similar work and can apply that learning to a new role. Also, lots of CS roles are more onboarding and delivery based, so make sure you know what the success criteria look like before you jump at a title. Some CS roles even work with new business but just a large book of existing business that is the focus. I have hired many folks from non-CS backgrounds into CS work. As long as they understand how to be successful, they can usually align to the new title.
Good luck! I had a woman I hired once who would do word clouds with job descriptions and then update her resume to use words that aligned better (she didn’t lie about anything, just found a more relevant way to frame it). Totally worked for her and I started doing it too.
Happy to chat about this. I’m a CSM and have helped a few BDRs transition into our team.
Hi! I would love to connect to get more insight about CSM and how one transitions into that role from a BDR.
Can someone explain to me what customer success does? Lol. They don’t deliver and they don’t sell. Thanks.
Completely varies. Like all good things, everyone wanted to put their own spin on it making titles virtually meaningless. There are CS that are basically account managers, some are onboarding and training…you just have to look at the JD.
When I first transitioned from sales to cs the suggestion was to start in implementation. I feel like this was extremely beneficial for me and have seen several sales folks do the same.
Search for Associate CS roles. Happy to chat if you want to DM me. Believe VMW is hiring, and a lot of folks I work with went BDR —> CSM
Do you do LinkedIn? If so feel free to find me there. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaebright there are also some great CS communities on LinkedIn and some that have job boards. Feel free to connect and check out my affiliations and follows.
Thanks all for the advice. I think I could probably use some of it in my own work.
Thanks for posting this and for everyone that provided feedback, really helpful. I was curious as well (used to be a bdr)and am looking to transition back to tech to be a csm/am!
Work with your manager to get contacts in customer success. Shadow their calls, be your own advocate and voice where you want to go. Learning that side of the business will only help you in your current role. Check with manager first though to make sure you don’t burn any bridges.
I actually just spoke with the CSSR manager Friday. We will see where that goes. They want someone with super high activity which I haven't had, but my revenue is definitely there.
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