Customer success is your most visible representative to your customers. They are the ones closely monitoring usage, resolving customer issues, and relaying success metrics to executives. The best CSMs have both the technical chops, the soft skills and the executive presence to speak to all levels of management. But are you giving them all the support you can?

Throughout my two-decade tenure spanning SaaS and On-prem roles across multiple organizations, I've found that top-tier Customer Success Managers prioritize understanding their customers' concerns. They delve deep into comprehending every aspect of their customers' needs to provide proactive support, bolster customer retention and engagement, and uncover growth opportunities. However, these efforts are time intensive and difficult to scale across all allocated accounts. Without solving the scaling challenge, it is difficult to transform CSMs from reactive to proactive. 

Transitioning from a reactive supportive role to a proactive strategic advisor involves a shift in mindset, approach, and skill set. Here's how a skilled CSM can make this transformation (with some help from the CloseFactor platform):

Gain Deep Understanding of Customers: Invest time in thoroughly understanding each customer's business, industry, goals, challenges, and pain points. This deep understanding forms the foundation for providing proactive, strategic advice. To do this, use CloseFactor’s Account Mapping functionality to have on-demand critical research into each customer including business model, competitors, product & market expansion, business initiatives, recent news, financial performance, and leadership challenges & quotes. This single source of truth allows the CSM to proactively anticipate their customer needs rather than waiting for customers to reach out with issues or questions. You become their trusted advisor! 

Multi-Thread Relationships: Build relationships with stakeholders across different levels and departments within the customer's organization. By understanding the perspectives and priorities of various stakeholders, you can more effectively advocate for the customer's needs and drive alignment internally. The CloseFactor HomePage and Multi-Channel Alerts proactively tells the CSM when there is a stakeholder change within their accounts as well as making recommendations on new contacts with strong buying indicators that are similar to your current closed won engagements. CloseFactor meets the CSM where they work–whether that is in platform, Slack, or Email. You will never miss a crucial update! 

Identify Growth Opportunities: Actively seek out opportunities for expanding the relationship and driving additional value for the customer. This could involve identifying upsell or cross-sell opportunities, introducing new features or services, or offering strategic advice on how to leverage existing resources more effectively. CSMs can use CloseFactor’s Recommended Contacts to identify key roles and potential users within those customers that are not aware of their product/solution yet to aid in upselling efforts.  

Establish Thought Leadership: Position yourself as a trusted advisor by sharing thought leadership content, industry insights, and best practices with your customers. Offer strategic guidance on how they can stay ahead of emerging trends and capitalize on opportunities in their market. 

Measure and Communicate value: Regularly measure and communicate the value your organization delivers to the customer in terms of outcomes achieved, ROI, and other key performance indicators.Note that the value of your solution can be at multiple levels and it is best to think of this as a pyramid. When communicating value, it should be aligned with the customer’s top business priorities - automatically done by the CloseFactor value pyramid. This reinforces the strategic partnership and demonstrates the tangible impact of your advisory role. 

By adopting these strategies, a skilled CSM can transition from a reactive supportive role to an engaged and proactive strategic advisor, driving long-term success for both the customer and the organization.