Jan Young, MBA, CSPO, CSM

Project Manager

I help Heads of CS become VPs and get a seat at the Executive Table | Customer-Led Growth Advisor | 2X Top 25 CS Influencer | Top 50 CS Influencer | Top 50 Women Leaders in CS | Top 100 CS Strategist | Investor

Why do some CS leaders command executive respect, while others, despite strong results, keep fighting to be heard?

I've been in Tech for 20+ years and been through two exits as VP Client Services. Here's what I've learned:

✨ EVERYTHING has changed.

The speed. The AI transformation. The business models. The way we need to lead.

I see CS leaders working until midnight, delivering great results... and still getting told "we need to cut CS headcount."

Sound familiar?

The old playbooks stopped working.

AI is reshaping how we work, how we go to market, how we serve customers. Your 2023 playbook is irrelevant.

Today, you need SYSTEMS.

Here's what I know from coaching hundreds of CS leaders:

Those who break through have mastered The Modern CS Growth System, 4 pillars of executive impact:

💡 Modern Management & Change Leadership - Lead in the AI era  
💡 AI Fluency, Automation & Autonomy - Transform operations, pricing, GTM
💡 Business & Customer Economics - Speak profitability, not just retention  
💡 Repeatable Customer Revenue & Team Systems - Build scalable frameworks, not heroic firefighting  

This is a systematic approach to demonstrating executive-level impact in the language your fellow executives understand.

👉👉 This is what CS Business Leaders master. Not pieces. The whole system.

-----
WHO I WORK WITH

CS leaders who've built a department but aren't getting traction:

✔  You deliver strong results, but executives still see CS as a cost center
✔  You're excluded from strategic decisions where your insights would be valuable
✔  You’re told "do more with less" instead of getting resources
✔  You know modern CS should look different, but you're stuck in outdated frameworks

-----
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER

⚡️ CS BUSINESS LEADERSHIP ACCELERATOR - Master the 4 pillars and build the Modern CS Growth System specific to your goals/challenges through executive peer community + project-based frameworks + personalized coaching.  

🔗 https://go.stepupxchange.com/csbl-accelerator

📬 NEWSLETTER:  I publish a weekly newsletter on modern CS strategies

📧 DM me and I'll share which resources fit you

-----
RESULTS

✅ Become an award-winning executive
✅ Reposition your team as a strategic revenue driver
✅ Transition from firefighting to repeatable, scalable systems
✅ Innovate with AI to drive profitable customer revenue growth

The modern CS leaders who succeed aren't keeping up with change: They're leading it. 

-----
📬 Newsletter: janyoungcx.com/#newsletter  
📧 DM me: discuss your challenges  
🎯 Follow for daily insights

Founding Member

RevRoom is a trusted space where curious revenue leaders are collaborating on the future of B2B Go to Market alignment and GTM-Led-Growth.

I've been this CS leader. Sitting on the side of the road, looking at a map, trying to figure out where I went wrong.

Not because I didn't have data. Because I was watching for the wrong things.

I had NRR. Churn rate. Ticket deflection and resolution. "Health score."

But all of those metrics told me where I'd been. None of them told me where my customers were going.

And by the time I saw it, it was too late to change anything.

I was working with a CS leader recently who had the same problem. 
She knew every account's story. 
And that was the issue.

Everything felt like an anecdote. No pattern emerged. Just a series of one-offs.

The problem isn't the data. 
It's that we measure what's available instead of what actually matters.

Without knowing which stops matter and when you should get there, you won't know you're off track until you've arrived somewhere you didn't intend to go.

What most dashboards show:
→ NRR, churn rate, ticket volume, "health score"

What actually tells you if a customer is on track:
→ Are they doing what your best customers do at this stage?
→ Are they hitting the moments that move them toward their goal?
→ Are they progressing on time, or quietly falling behind?
→ Have they actually achieved what they came for?

Once you've defined those milestones, AI does the watching for you. It surfaces who's falling behind early, so you can act while there's still time.

Without that foundation, you're just watching the gas gauge on a car with no map.

Do you know what "on track" looks like for your customers at each stage?

📝 This week's newsletter walks through how to build the map.
🔗 [https://lnkd.in/gBrhN3As

 Want faster results and a room full of CS leaders building alongside you? 
🚀  Doors are open for the StepUpXchange CS Business Leadership Accelerator through the end of this week. 

→ It's a guided, project-based community where we build these systems together. 

→ DM me if that's your kind of room.

StepUpXchange
JanYoungCX

Customer Success Leadership Coach | Transforming CS Leaders into AI-First Business Leaders | Modern CS Strategy + AI + Systems | 3X Top 25 CS Influencer | Get weekly CS strategies: Subscribe to my newsletter

What if Preventing Churn is the Wrong Goal?

The idea that the primary job of Customer Success is to prevent churn is the single biggest reason why most CS teams are treated like a cost center.
 
It's a fundamentally reactive and flawed way to view your customers.

Look, I completely understand why this belief is so common. Churn is a terrifying, revenue-killing metric. 

Every executive and board member is watching it, so it makes perfect sense to build your entire strategy around stopping the bleeding.

But "preventing churn" is just playing defense. 

It defines success by the absence of a negative. 

True Customer Success isn't about preventing failure; it's about actively engineering your customer's victory. 

When you become essential to their business outcomes, churn becomes an afterthought because successful partners don't leave.

Instead of playing defense, you go on offense by architecting customer growth with a proven system. 

It's about defining what “success” means for your customer and then using leading indicators to guide them there, turning their progress into your revenue.

So let me ask you... do you want to continue playing defense, constantly fighting to justify your team's existence by pointing to the disasters you prevented? 

Or are you ready to go on offense, becoming a proven revenue driver by architecting the growth you actively create?

If you’re ready to transform your CS team from a defensive cost center into a proactive growth engine, come learn the systems that make it possible.

👉  Comment “Modern CS Growth System” or DM me and I’ll share the info.

StepUpXchange
JanYoungCX

We're at a crossroads in CS and most leaders don't see it yet.

AI has changed what's possible. We can analyze data we couldn't touch before. Automate work that used to take hours. See patterns we used to miss.

But when it's time to scale? Most CS leaders still go back to the same place: "I need to hire another person."

That instinct made sense in the old era. It's a trap in this one.

Because the leaders pulling ahead aren't asking for more headcount. 
👉  They're redesigning how their teams create value.

I've seen it firsthand. Accelerator members have had their teams cut by 60 to 75% and still scaled their programs with better results. 
Not by working harder. 
By building differently.

Here's the thing: 
Depending on your business stage, your CS team is contributing 70 to 95% of your company's bottom line.

But most CS leaders are still acting like they're in the engine room. 
 - Burnt out. 
 - Stretched thin. 
Working overtime on a function that drives the business without claiming the influence to match.

The ones in strategic conversations? 
--> They've moved to the captain's deck. 
-->  Not because they asked for a seat. 
Because they own the metric that matters most: Customer Revenue.

The gap isn't experience. It's a model.

In the StepUpXchange CS Business Leadership Accelerator, we build that model: the Modern CS Growth System.

It has three parts:

👉  Customer Revenue Expertise. 
Stop hoping customers renew. Build a system that earns it.

👉  Business Expertise. 
Walk into executive conversations without needing a translator.

👉  AI Fluency. 
Not another tool to figure out alone. A strategic layer that multiplies what your team already does.

When these three come together, you stop being a cost center and start doing what CS was always built to do: 
🚀  Drive the revenue that grows the business.

You've heard "stop being a cost center" before. What you haven't had is a system to make it real.

Will you keep negotiating for budget to execute your vision?
Or build a model that earns you the influence you've already worked for?

Join us for the next StepUpXchange NexGen CS Leadership Masterclass:
📌  How You Can Drive Growth & Exec Impact 
       Even if You're Not in the Boardroom
📆  Tuesday, Feb 24
🕘  9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm UK

StepUpXchange
JanYoungCX

If you've ever had a great idea for a CS tool and watched it die in a backlog, you know the feeling.

😣 That slow frustration of seeing exactly what your customers need, and having zero path to build it.

A renewal risk dashboard that updates in real time. An onboarding flow that adapts to each customer's tech stack. A health score calculator built around the metrics you actually care about.

All sitting in a ticket queue. Waiting on engineering. Going nowhere.

👉 Here's what most CS leaders don't realize yet:

💡 You already have everything you need to build those tools yourself.

Not because you've learned to code. Because you're closer to the customer than anyone else in your organization. You know which problems are worth solving and which ones are noise.

You know what customers actually struggle with. Which interventions move the needle. The gap between what executives say they want and what actually drives retention.

🧠 That knowledge is the strategy. AI is just the builder.

If you're a CS leader watching AI evolve and wondering how it actually applies to your work and your role, this is where it clicks.

I built an interactive CS assessment app in 4 hours with no coding background. Here's exactly how I did it, why building with AI is simpler than you think, and why your domain expertise is the unfair advantage that makes all of it work.

🗞️ Read it below 👇

If you want strategies like this hot off the press, join thousands of CS leaders at JanYoungCX.com/#newsletter - If you've ever had a great idea for a

Open article: That CS Tool You Wanted to Buy? How CS Leaders Are Building Them With AI Instead by Jan Young, MBA, CSPO, CSM • 7 min read

That CS Tool You Wanted to Buy? How CS Leaders Are Building Them With AI Instead

The best conferences don't just inform you. They change what you do on Monday morning.

I'm speaking at CS Summit NYC on March 10, and in my session we're going to reflect and take action. 
👉 CS Confessions: Vent, Share, Solve

Here's how it works...

By the time you get to me, you'll have spent the morning absorbing some seriously good content:
🔸  Customer data as strategy, 
🔸  Scaling CS without losing trust, 
🔸  Cross-functional alignment...

My session is where we stop, surface what hit home, and turn insight into ACTION.

We'll bring the real challenges to the table.  
Share with each other. 
And together we build an Action plan. 

Not "notes to revisit someday," but focused priorities you can act on now.

Then the afternoon shifts to AI in CS, and we'll go in primed. 

Because knowing WHAT to solve makes it a lot easier to figure out HOW AI can help you act faster and smarter.

Day Two continues that momentum. 
Every session, every conversation, every hallway connection becomes material for what you'll act on when you get back to your desk.

That's the point. 
Not just learning. 
Taking ACTION.

If you're in the NYC area, there's still time to register.
👉 https://lnkd.in/gpM7p6jA

What's one insight from your last conference that you actually turned into ACTION, and what made it stick?

Drop it in the comments. 
Let's build a resource thread right here.

So excited to partner with Customer Success Collective and Liza Shtilbans! 🚀

StepUpXchange
JanYoungCX

Rachel Provan

I spent 15 years leading Customer Success teams, and I learned this the hard way: a great CSM is terrible training for leading a revenue-generating department.

Most CS leaders are stuck proving their value to executives who expect them to generate revenue the way sales does, without understanding what post-sale revenue actually requires. You're told to drive expansion, reduce churn, and prove ROI - but no one taught you how to do that without morphing into Account Management or BDRs.

That's where I come in.

I HELP CS LEADERS DO THREE THINGS:

🔹 Build & Scale a Revenue-Generating CS Department 
🔹 Get Promoted 
🔹 Land Your Dream Job

Here's how:

🔹 CS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (CSLA)
For anyone leading (or about to lead) a Customer Success team - from founding CSMs and team leads to managers, directors, and VPs.

✔ Build a revenue-generating CS department without turning your team into "Sales 2.0"
✔ Get promoted - over one-third of clients get promoted within 6-12 months
✔ Prove your value to executives who don't understand Customer Success
✔ Get out of reactive mode, build scalable processes, and strengthen your executive presence

Built on behavioral psychology and neuroscience, not corporate management theory.

🔹 DREAM JOB PROGRAM
For CS leaders who need to land their next role.

✔ Access the 80% of roles never posted online - optimize your LinkedIn so hiring managers reach out to YOU
✔ Executive resume makeover that shows revenue impact (even without exact numbers)
✔ Figure out exactly what's holding you back in interviews
✔ Master final presentations and salary negotiation - clients average $10k-15k above initial offers

🔥 WHY I'M DIFFERENT:
I don't teach theory. I teach what works in the messy, real world - the psychology that lets you influence cross-functional leaders and the executive suite, the strategy that drives retention and expansion, and the systems that let you scale without burning out.

👉 LET'S WORK TOGETHER:
📧 Apply to CSLA or Dream Job (links in Featured section)
💡 Grab my free CS Leader Onboarding Checklist
🎯 Subscribe to The CS Psycho for weekly CS leadership insights - backed by psychology

Founder and CEO

1-on-1 Customer Success Leadership coaching, Customer Success Job Hunting and Career Counseling

On my worst day as a CS leader I had 11 meetings. Back to back.

I couldn't go get a drink, use the bathroom, or eat without disrespecting someone's time. (Did I respect my own? Nah. Hadn't occurred to me.)

I thought that's what managers did… had meetings!

We forget sometimes that it's NOT reasonable for someone to ask us to work that kind of a day.

And that most of the time… no one is asking us to!

I was the one who kept her calendar open. It never occurred to me I had the right to say:

"You know what? That's enough meetings for one day. I won't be productive if I do more."

I was an absolute zombie working that way. I couldn't remember a thing I had talked about all day.

The truth is - you're a grownup. Yes you should leave time on your calendar for people to meet with you, but you can still dictate how you do your best work. And if that doesn't look like 9 hours of meetings with no break, that's completely valid.

That's why the VERY first thing I teach CS leaders is how to manage their time - without pissing anyone off.   They learn how to get back 10 hours per week so they can actually work on strategy.  Want to know what they learn next? 

Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eaV8nXfz

How many meetings can you handle before your brain turns to mush? For me... honestly it's 2-3.

Rachel Provan 🧠

Dear AI - you can be a woman and not have huge knockers.

I know, blasphemy. 

So I tried making an AI model of myself a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you… 

Not great for the self-esteem.

Why?

Well despite having 15 different pictures of me from different angles, it decided I was: 
5'10 
Perfect hair 
28
And of course - Big Boobied.

I hate to break the illusion folks but I am none of these.

In the end I got something that did a pretty good job of looking like me, but I kept having to add notes to the prompts.

No! She is short. 
Her hair is slightly frizzy. 
She is flat chested. 
No seriously. 
Flat chested. 
FFS. 
Add texture to her skin. 
Her nose needs to be bigger. 
Just… she is a bridge troll!!  Okay?

Would it be nice to look like this woman? I'm sure.

But she's not me.

It took me a VERY long time to feel this way, but I actually want to look like me. Not a femmebot.

So whoever is building these models…

You can be a woman and not have big boobs. 
You can be a woman and not be beautiful. 
You can be a woman and be short, imperfect and f*cking delightful.

Because we're people. Not decoration.

Rachel!  Put your eyebrows down!

My work bestie used to DM me this during cross-functional zoom meetings.

Why?

Because every time someone said something idiotic my eyebrows practically shot off the top of my head.  

I was unaware of this.  Turns out it’s a bit of a hindrance in the business world.

I hereby propose: Company sponsored Botox.  

Pay for my shots or deal with my face.  You pick.


.

I help Customer Success leaders build the kind of department that makes the C-suite pay attention, and then use that track record to advance their career | 15 years leading CS | Psychology of Customer Success Podcast

It's wild how many of you creep my husbands Linkedin profile. 👀

His entire network is Honda dealerships. He cannot help you.

What’s your “Get off my lawn” phrases with Gen Z? 

Mine are:

In my day you had to HAND WRITE the notes from all your meetings.  Five hours of them!  

And we did the customer journey on POST ITS!  Do you even know what those are?

12 years ago today I stopped drinking alcohol.  

Despite it being the day after St. Pattys, there was no whiskey fueled debaucherous tale.  My love affair with alcohol ended much more with a whimper than a bang.  

You don't have to wait to hit rock bottom.  You can just know that pouring a depressant on your brain every day isn't fun the way it used to be. That it stopped being fun a long time ago.  

I was very functional, just very sad.  My world was small.  

Even though it was an adjustment, quitting was more weird than anything else.  I still go to parties.  I still go to bars.  And I have a blast.  Because it turns out it's the people that cause you to have fun. 

Since then I've gotten all sorts of wonderful things. 

I grew closer to my favorite people that I had pushed away. 
I got married.  
I had my kids.  
I started posting on here.  
I started my business and it took off, and here I am four years later still loving it.  

I don't think I could have done any of those things well if alcohol was still in the picture.  At least not as happily.

And I also dealt with some really hard stuff since then. 

I went through 2020 lockdown with two kids at home. 
I experienced layoffs and unemployement.
I've had major health challenges that have impacted my daily life.
I have a child on the spectrum

People ask how I can handle that stuff without alcohol and the answer - for me - is that I would have been so much more screwed in each of those situations if I had been drinking.  It would have gotten dark - fast.  

But it didn't.  

So if you're questioning whether it might be time to break up with alcohol - I can confidently tell you that life on the other side is better.  

--
PS - wondering if alcohol is an issue for you?  Think about it this way:  Do you lie awake at night wondering if you have a problem with sandwiches?  No right?  

If you're asking yourself the question, it's worth the science experiment of seeing if your life improves with out it.  You can always go back.

I spent six months convinced I was bad at my job.

Back to back meetings. Constant fires. Strategic work that kept sliding to tomorrow, then next week. Then somehow six months were gone.

My customers were fine. My team was okay...

But I hadn't made a dent in anything that would actually move the needle on revenue.

And somehow it still shocked me when my boss said:

"What have you even been doing all this time???"

Cue the shame spiral.  

What I didn’t realize at the time was that the real problem was the Player-Coach model.  It sets you up to fail.

Now, nobody intended it that way.  

Because most people outside of CS don’t know what we DO all day - and it’s hard to quantify - they figure we should be able to do both.  And that staying close to the customer can only be a positive, right?

But that’s just not the reality

Customer work will always be more urgent than strategic work. Someone is always waiting on you - impatiently. Strategy always feels like it can wait one more day. And then a year has gone by and nothing has been built.

So how do you get out of it??

Here’s what we teach in the CS Leadership Academy:

You need to have a conversation with the executive team,  
But you can't walk in there and say you're overwhelmed…

You need to show them the math isn’t mathing.   

They’re not getting two for the price of one… they’re just getting a more expensive CSM, and no one at the helm of the ship.  

👉  Before CS leadership is about strategy, it's about psychology. 

You have to win hearts and minds first. Show them the money. Then show them the logic, and somehow it becomes their idea...

This is one of the first things I teach -- the exact playbook for that conversation. 

Because you can't build a revenue-generating CS department if you're stuck in the weeds.

What do you think about player/coach?

I've been a CS leader for 18 years. Here's what I wish I had known back in 2008

(Beyond "Don't get bangs!"):

1️⃣ You are speaking to different audiences all day long.

Your CSMs, your cross-functional partners, and the C-Suite all need to hear about CS differently. If you're using the same language for all three, you're losing most people.

2️⃣ Embrace the CS Community. 

It's the most welcoming one I've ever been a part of. Jump right in. No one is getting picked last for dodgeball.

3️⃣ You don't have to do everything yourself. In fact, you can’t.

Let your CSMs lead projects and give them guidance. They might even do a better job than you would have - and that's a good thing. Make sure to give them credit - loudly.

4️⃣ Everyone has imposter syndrome.

There has been no mistake. You belong here. Even if you don't know everything. No one ever thought you did, and they're fine with it.

5️⃣ Get a coach or a mentor.

Figuring it out alone is not free. Every mistake you make without guidance is a data point someone else is collecting about you. That costs you credibility, raises, and promotions - long before it ever costs you the job.

If you want all of this at once, that's what the CS Leadership Academy is for. https://lnkd.in/eaV8nXfz

What do you wish you'd known when you started?

Your job might not always be fulfilling, and that's okay.

You can go to work, do your job well, earn a paycheck, and come home, and it doesn't mean you are missing some secret to life.

Your life can be fulfilled through: Friends. Family. A hobby. Hell, even a good meal, a good book, and a walk.

We're living through the Great Stay right now. People aren't leaving jobs the way they were a few years ago. The market is tighter, the risk feels higher, and a lot of CS leaders are grinding through every day.

That's just reality.

So if work is just kind of blah - try to find ONE thing you can look forward to: 

The savage look you give your work bestie during a Zoom call. 
The fancy coffee you snuck in from home. 
The customers who are a genuine pleasure to talk to.

This is what I tell my clients, “Blah is sustainable. Blah with small joys is actually fine.”

But if you're dreading Sunday nights, absorbing blame for things outside your control, or losing yourself to survive your environment - that's not blah. That has a cost.

And at some point, the cost is too much.

The Great Stay is real. 

But there's a difference between riding it out and running out the clock on your own career.

If you're in blah, I hope this helps. If you've crossed into suck - let's talk.

Sick of hearing that CS needs to “drive revenue” without anyone actually telling you how?

Same.

Most CS teams are told to focus on revenue, so they do. By pushing renewals and upsells.

But that's not how CS works.

Revenue isn’t a goal. It’s an outcome.

Customers don’t buy more because you gave a good QBR.
And sorry to tell you They don’t renew because they like you.

They do it because they experience undeniable, measurable impact.
(I know, snore, you know this...) 

BUT...  Let's talk about how you actually CREATE that impact. 

There are clear, repeatable behaviors that predict renewal and expansion. Things your customers do (or don’t do) long before renewal time.

I break it all down (what to track, what to fix, and how to make revenue a natural byproduct of great CS) in my next newsletter.  Don't miss it!

https://lnkd.in/ebjAMghf

"The other candidate just had more experience." This is almost always a lie.

It’s the "It's not you, it's me" of the business world.

Not because hiring managers are jerks... They just don't want to argue with you.

Think about it:

What's the upside of giving you honest feedback?

If they tell you the REAL reason you didn't get the job...

You're not going to say "Gee, thanks for the insight!"

You're probably going to defend yourself. Explain why they're wrong.

Tell them how PERFECT you actually are for the role.

And they just don't have time for that conversation.

They're already exhausted from:
- Their normal workload
- Covering the open role
- Interviewing people all week

So they default to the polite brush-off.

"More experience."

Case closed. Moving on.

The problem?

This keeps you stuck making the SAME mistakes in every interview without realizing it.

Because you can't fix what you can't see.

So if you really want to know:

-  The things you're saying that are getting misinterpreted.  

-  The camera issues making you look like a weirdo.

-  The question you're asking that gets you automatically rejected...

These are the SUBTLE things that make hiring managers go "eh, next candidate" without you ever knowing why.

If you've been getting interviews but not offers… 

You're probably making at least one of these mistakes.

https://lnkd.in/ex-GBc6b

The truth might sting a little. 

But it's better than another "more experience" rejection.

.

When I was a kid taking piano lessons, I hated scales.

I had a bit of a natural talent for music and could play a lot of it by ear. So practicing felt like punishment. Slow. Repetitive. Pointless.

So I never did it. And I never got better than okay.

Years later, I took up ballet. Starting much older than everyone else in the class who had been doing it since they were toddlers.

I wasn’t flexible. I wasn’t graceful. I was deeply aware of that.

And ballet is basically 90% doing the same movements over and over in front of a mirror while confronting all your weaknesses.

Point your foot.
Again.
Straighter.
Again.
Hold your turnout.
Again.

There is no shortcut. There is no “fake it til you make it” version of ballet.

And this time, I didn’t fight it.

I stopped trying to get to the impressive part.
I let myself obsess over the basics.

And I progressed faster than I ever had at anything physical in my life, not because I had talent (I absolutely did not), but because I stopped resisting repetition.

That’s when I realized: Boredom is a skill.

If you can’t find a way to stay engaged with the repetitive parts, you will plateau.

Fast.

And if it’s true in life, it’s true in CS. In CSLA, I’ve worked with leaders from seed stage to multi-billion dollar companies. And any time something isn't working, we go back to the fundamentals. 

What are they trying to achieve?
Are they getting that result?
What does value mean to them?

Has any of it changed?  M

The fundamentals are never finished. Not because you're impossible to satisfy. 

Because things never stay the same.

The best leaders don't outgrow the boring parts.  They build a relationship with them.

No alternative text description for this image

Is FOMO still a thing?

Because in the 30 days since the last cohort of CSLA started, we’ve had:

A member closed the largest enterprise contract in her company's history last week.

(After they lost the executive sponsor).

Another one got called out by her CRO in front of the entire revenue leadership team for being "on fire lately."

Three people got new jobs. THREE.  One of them wasn't even looking.

These aren't people who've been in the program for a year…

This is 30 days in. And it’s par for the course.

I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying it because I want you to understand something:

The reason CS leaders stay stuck isn't a lack of effort. It isn't even a lack of budget.

It's the absence of a real framework... and people in your corner who've actually done this in the messy real world.

That's what the CS Leadership Academy is.

https://lnkd.in/eaV8nXfz

What's a quick win you've had lately?

Yeah yean AI is cool for productivity… but what I love is: 

It actually helps mefocus on what someone ISN’T saying. 

• A customer crossing their arms when you ask about renewal

• A CSM's eyes repeatedly darting away at the mention of one of their peers.

• Ops shaking their head no while telling you the data is in pretty good shape. 

These aren't random. This is the real story of what’s happening in an organization that nobody is going to tell you yet -  because they don't know if they can trust you.

Now, you still have to actually listen to what people are saying!  If someone is giving you their time, they deserve your full attention.

What I'm talking about is a deeper level. The words are one layer. The body is a completely different conversation happening at the same time.

AI handles the surface faster than ever. But the subtext is still all you. 

And now you have more bandwidth to focus on it.

—
I've been meaning to start recording more episodes of my podcast - "Psychology of Customer Success" and thought this might be a fun one to deep dive into.  

Would you want to know what body language cues to look for in CS and what they mean? 

What do you think?  Should I break out the mic?

You can't measure something that didn't happen.

And that makes it nearly impossible to take credit for it. 

Let's say you spend months overhauling your onboarding. 

Fixing the handoff from sales.  Tweaking trainings so they are more interactive. Building playbooks that incorporate change management.

You know this is the single biggest lever you can use against churn.

When you report what you're working on, the CEO seems vaguely bored.

Time to first value improves.  Adoption improves.  Customers start hitting their goals with the product instead of dismissing it as a PITA.

Twelve months later, churn is down 20%. The CEO stands up in an all-hands and praises the product team.

And you want to throw something.

Here's what I don't see anyone really talking about:

Financial results in CS can lag by as much as 9 to 12 months. The work you do today shows up long after anyone remembers you did it. By then, someone else is standing closer to the number.

But here's what I want CS leaders to understand about their own value, because most of you are underselling it badly.

You are not just the team that keeps customers from leaving. 

And you are not just mini BDRs!

You are the ONLY people in the company who can tell leadership what is actually going to happen with the customer base 9 months from now. Whether a new initiative will land or flop. Whether the feature product is building actually matters to the people you're trying to sell it to.

That's not account management. That's business intelligence. 

And it helps your company run cleaner. Better margins, leaner operations, departments that aren't accidentally working against each other.

But you have to know HOW TO TALK ABOUT IT so that it's valued instead of seen as complaining and passing the buck.

That's what we teach in CS Leadership Academy. The strategy to build a CS function that actually works, and the influence skills to make sure the right people understand what it's worth.

Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eaV8nXfz


.

The player-coach trap is real.

You're so deep in the weeds that leadership doesn't see a strategic leader. They see someone who's really good at putting out fires.

And you wonder why you're not getting a seat at the table.

Here's what actually changes things:

It's not working harder. It's not proving yourself by doing more.
It's learning to lead differently.

✅ Communicating up in a language executives actually respond to 
✅ Making the case for what your team actually needs 
✅ Getting out of reactive mode long enough to think strategically 
✅ Trusting your team to handle things without you double checking

When Walter came into the CS Leadership Academy, he was buried.

Three months later:

Out of the player-coach role
Three additional headcount approved
Presenting at board meetings

Same person. Same company. Different approach.

If you're carrying your entire CS function on your back right now, that's not dedication.

That's a ceiling.

Here’s how we fix it: https://lnkd.in/eaV8nXfz

.

There's the one move that’s made me successful in the first 30 days of every leadership role I’ve taken.

Before I touch strategy…
Before I change process…
Before I analyze churn…

I book 1:1s with every department head.

These relationships will make or break your success in the role.

Meet with:

→ Sales to understand how we position our product.

→ Marketing to learn how we attract and nurture leads.

→ Product to see how we prioritize features and fixes.

→ Support to hear what issues customers are facing.

With each conversation, you'll gain a new piece of the puzzle.

You'll start to see how all the parts fit together, and where the gaps and opportunities are.

And you'll build the cross-functional relationships that are so critical to success in this role. All because you took the time to listen and learn from your colleagues.

Don't try to go it alone. Schedule those 1:1s, ask lots of questions. 

It's the fastest way to become the strategic partner your customers AND your company need you to be.

Want a step-by-step checklist of everything to do in your first 30 days to find quick wins, set strategy and impress the C-Suite? 

Grab it here:

https://lnkd.in/dUCpr2Cr


.

Confidence isn’t a “soft skill”.  It’s the difference between manager and executive.  

There’s this assumption that confidence comes after you’ve “made it.” After the promotion or title, after you get to the top of your team.

That’s really not how it works. 
Confidence actually comes from: 

1) Being scared, and speaking up anyway

When you see you didn’t die or get fired, it gets easier every time.

2) Sense checking with others in your industry.  

When you know more about something than the rest of your company, it can make you feel like you know less!  Getting confirmation from experts that  yes, you really do have it right, gives you the courage to explain things instead of playing it safe and staying silent..

3) Knowing HOW to speak up so it lands well

You can be right all day long - but if you don’t think what your audience cares about - it will backfire.

There are VERY SPECIFIC ways to discuss customer success so that you get buy in from the C-Suite and cross functional teams. 

That’s why I focus so hard on the behavioral psychology aspects of customer success and leadership.  Because strategy without psychology will grind your career to a halt, no matter how smart you are.

Learn how strategy, psychology and leadership all play together here: 

https://lnkd.in/eaV8nXfz


There’s a reason my students are making VP in under 2-3 years, on repeat.

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The Battle

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