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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Lead Customer Success Manager

💰 $110,000 - $160,000

Customer SuccessSaaSManagementClient Services

🎯 Role Definition

The Lead Customer Success Manager is responsible for owning the post-sales relationship lifecycle for strategic and enterprise customers, translating product value into business outcomes, and scaling customer success processes across the organization. This role leads a team or cohort of Customer Success Managers, sets success metrics, develops health models, drives renewal and expansion motions, and partners closely with Sales, Product, Support, and Marketing to create a differentiated customer experience that reduces churn and maximizes lifetime value.

Key SEO/LLM keywords: Lead Customer Success Manager, customer retention, churn reduction, enterprise CSM, SaaS customer lifecycle, customer health scoring, renewals and upsells, customer advocacy, NPS improvement, revenue expansion.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Customer Success Manager (Enterprise / Strategic accounts)
  • Customer Success Team Lead / Manager
  • Account Manager or Client Services Manager in SaaS

Advancement To:

  • Head of Customer Success / Director of Customer Success
  • VP of Customer Success
  • Chief Customer Officer (CCO) / Head of Customer Experience

Lateral Moves:

  • Strategic Account Executive (Sales)
  • Product Manager / Customer-Driven Product Lead
  • Customer Experience / Operations Leader

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own the end-to-end customer lifecycle for a portfolio of strategic and enterprise accounts, ensuring customers achieve their desired business outcomes, maintain high product adoption, and realize measurable ROI.
  • Lead renewal and expansion strategies across assigned accounts, including forecasting renewal risk, coordinating pricing and contract negotiations, and driving upsell/cross-sell opportunities to increase net revenue retention.
  • Build, implement, and continuously refine customer health scoring models (adoption metrics, usage patterns, support indicators, NPS/CSAT) to proactively identify at-risk accounts and trigger targeted success interventions.
  • Develop and execute account plans and success plans for strategic customers that include business objectives, milestone timelines, risk mitigation actions, stakeholder mapping, and value realization KPIs.
  • Mentor, coach, and manage a team of Customer Success Managers and/or CSMs-in-training; set performance goals, conduct regular 1:1s, evaluate performance, and lead hiring and onboarding for the team.
  • Establish and operationalize playbooks for onboarding, adoption, renewal, and advocacy motions to scale consistent, repeatable post-sales processes across the CSM organization.
  • Partner closely with Sales and RevOps to create seamless handoffs, define success criteria at deal close, and align on expansion targets and contract structures that support long-term retention.
  • Coordinate cross-functional engagement with Product, Engineering, and Support to expedite customer escalations, influence roadmap priorities based on customer feedback, and ensure service level objectives are met.
  • Execute quarterly business reviews (QBRs) and executive reviews with C-level customer stakeholders to demonstrate value, review KPIs, and secure executive sponsorship for renewals and expansions.
  • Drive customer advocacy programs, including references, case studies, customer advisory boards, and public-facing testimonials that help marketing and sales accelerate pipeline and brand credibility.
  • Analyze customer usage data and derive actionable insights; present data-driven recommendations to customers to increase product utilization and ROI while informing internal prioritization.
  • Implement churn-prevention frameworks and playbooks that include win-back strategies, tailored adoption plans, and contract remediation where appropriate.
  • Partner with Support and Professional Services to coordinate implementation, training, and escalations; ensure a high-quality, consistent onboarding and implementation experience for new customers.
  • Define and track team-level and individual KPIs such as renewal rate, expansion rate, gross and net churn, time-to-value (TTV), customer health scores, and customer satisfaction (NPS/CSAT) to ensure accountability and continuous improvement.
  • Lead pricing and packaging feedback loops to Sales and Product leaders; recommend commercial motions and packaging changes informed by customer value perception and market demand.
  • Plan and manage customer enablement programs, including webinars, certification tracks, and best practice content to accelerate adoption and reduce time-to-value.
  • Facilitate executive escalation and resolution for high-touch accounts, acting as the customer's advocate internally while ensuring organizational commitments are met and relationships are preserved.
  • Design and manage segmentation strategies to determine service levels (e.g., enterprise vs. mid-market) and allocate resources effectively to maximize ROI and retention across customer cohorts.
  • Build and maintain an accurate renewal and expansion forecast in collaboration with Finance and RevOps; regularly communicate risks and opportunities to senior leadership.
  • Drive continuous process improvement by documenting playbooks, SOPs, and institutional knowledge; champion tools and automation (CS platforms, CRM integrations) that improve productivity and visibility.

Secondary Functions

  • Lead ad-hoc data requests and collaborate with analytics to develop dashboards that highlight adoption trends, churn signals, and expansion opportunities.
  • Support product launches and feature rollouts by developing enablement materials and coordinating targeted customer outreach to drive early adoption.
  • Contribute to the organization's customer success strategy and roadmap by surfacing customer-derived insights and prioritizing operational initiatives that reduce churn and increase NRR.
  • Collaborate with internal stakeholders to translate customer feedback into clear product requirements and engineering tickets, ensuring alignment on delivery timelines.
  • Participate in sprint planning or agile ceremonies as a business stakeholder for customer-facing features, ensuring the customer impact is represented and prioritized.
  • Manage select professional services engagements for complex onboarding or implementation projects, ensuring scope, timelines, and customer expectations are met.
  • Maintain up-to-date documentation of key account history, contractual obligations, and escalation processes within the CRM to ensure transparency and continuity across the organization.
  • Drive cross-functional workshops (onboarding, roadmap alignment, escalation post-mortems) to improve handoffs and customer outcomes.
  • Oversee customer segmentation reviews and recommend adjustments to support levels, pricing tiers, or engagement models based on usage and business value.
  • Support the recruitment, interviewing, and training of new CSM hires; design interview frameworks and candidate scorecards aligned to role expectations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Customer Success Management (CSM) best practices: onboarding, adoption, renewal, and expansion motions for B2B SaaS.
  • Renewal and upsell negotiation experience, including contract renewal calendars, commercial motions, and expansion playbooks.
  • Customer health scoring and metrics design: building and maintaining health models that combine product telemetry, support signals, and financial indicators.
  • CRM and Customer Success platforms: advanced proficiency with Salesforce, Gainsight, HubSpot, Totango, or similar platforms for lifecycle management and forecasting.
  • Data analysis and reporting: SQL or analytics tool familiarity (Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Excel pivot tables) to analyze usage, churn drivers, and ROI.
  • Net Revenue Retention (NRR), Gross Revenue Retention (GRR), churn rate, ARR/MRR forecasting, and other revenue/health KPIs.
  • Experience with professional services and implementation lifecycle or strong coordination skills when PS resources are involved.
  • Familiarity with product management workflows and the ability to translate customer requirements into product/engineering tickets.
  • Executive-level presentation and QBR facilitation skills with the ability to present ROI and KPIs to C-suite stakeholders.
  • Knowledge of customer advocacy program management, case study creation, and reference process execution.
  • Understanding of contract structures, SLAs, and service level commitments in enterprise agreements.
  • Hands-on experience with customer success automation tools, integrations, and playbook engines to scale motions.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic and outcome-oriented mindset focused on delivering measurable customer ROI and lifetime value.
  • Strong leadership and people-management skills: coaching, mentoring, performance management, and hiring.
  • Excellent stakeholder management and executive presence; comfortable engaging with C-level sponsors and cross-functional leaders.
  • Exceptional communication and storytelling skills; able to translate data into compelling narratives for customers and internal stakeholders.
  • High emotional intelligence, empathy, and conflict resolution skills to manage escalations and long-term relationships.
  • Problem-solving and critical thinking with a bias for action and a continuous improvement mentality.
  • Project management and organizational skills to manage complex implementations and multi-stakeholder initiatives.
  • Influence without authority: ability to mobilize Product, Sales, and Support to deliver on customer commitments.
  • Customer-obsessed mindset with strong attention to detail in account plans and documentation.
  • Adaptability and resilience in fast-paced, high-growth SaaS environments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or advanced degree in Business/Management or relevant certifications in Customer Success or Project Management.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing / Sales
  • Computer Science / Information Systems
  • Economics
  • Data Analytics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 6+ years in Customer Success, Account Management, or related customer-facing roles with at least 2–3 years in a leadership or lead role focused on enterprise accounts.

Preferred:

  • 8+ years experience in B2B SaaS environments with demonstrated success reducing churn and growing ARR through renewals and expansions.
  • Proven track record managing enterprise or strategic customer portfolios, leading CSM teams, and partnering closely with Sales, Product, and Support.
  • Experience with Customer Success tooling (Gainsight, Totango, ChurnZero), Salesforce CRM, and analytics platforms (Looker, Tableau, Power BI).
  • History of building playbooks, health scoring models, and scalable processes that improved NRR and customer satisfaction metrics (NPS/CSAT).
  • Experience conducting executive QBRs, developing customer advocacy programs, and contributing to product roadmap decisions based on customer insights.
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