Most of the work that Customer Success Managers do consists of collaborating with others, which is why communication and emotional intelligence are two of the top skills for highly successful CSMs.

CSMs should be able to speak to customers with confidence while maintaining a warm and comfortable environment. This way, Customer Success Managers can build relationships with the customers that they are trying to keep.

Not only do CSMs have to be empathetic and communicative, but they must also provide customers with tangible solutions to their business problems.

As such, the best CSMs are constantly striving to be proactive and have excellent problem-solving skills.

Moreover, a CSM who can analyze data can therefore make better predictions regarding customers’ needs and identify risks early. Remember, CSMs are responsible for having a profound understanding of the customers’ behaviors!

The most important thing to note is that CSMs don’t always need previous customer success experience!

Most of the key CSM skills are likely to be developed through previous jobs outside of customer success. Finding excellent CSMs from other departments or other industries is not unheard of.

Special thanks to Sean Ruane, founder of Mind Data for sharing this infographic to the customer success community.