In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Prashanth Jothi, Customer Success Manager at HubSpot about how to drive customer outcomes based on customer maturity.
The life of a Customer Success Manager (CSM) is never a dull one. Everyday you meet fascinating people, change how businesses operate (normally for the better), and even help a few get out of a hole. Sometimes it can even be a rollercoaster of emotions!
But how can a CSM make sure they are making the most of their precious time? What are the best tactical things a CSM can do today to help their customers? How can they ensure every customer in their portfolio continues to see success? And more importantly, how do you measure that success?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Prashanth Jothi, Customer Success Manager at HubSpot about how to drive customer outcomes based on customer maturity.
The life of a Customer Success Manager (CSM) is never a dull one. Everyday you meet fascinating people, change how businesses operate (normally for the better), and even help a few get out of a hole. Sometimes it can even be a rollercoaster of emotions!
But how can a CSM make sure they are making the most of their precious time? What are the best tactical things a CSM can do today to help their customers? How can they ensure every customer in their portfolio continues to see success? And more importantly, how do you measure that success?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
Hello everyone. I'm your host, Anika Zuber, and welcome back to the next episode of the Customer Success Channel podcast, brought to you by Plan Hat, the Modern Customer platform. This podcast is created for anyone working in or interested in the customer success field. On this podcast, we will speak to leaders in the industry about their experiences and their definitions of customer success and get their advice and best practices on how to run a c s organization. Today we are speaking with Prashant Joti, who is currently a C S M at HubSpot. His career trajectory into customer success has not been typical, but let's be honest, a unique trajectory into customer success is normal. Prior to being a C S M, he worked in product marketing and as a sales rep, he has worked across four different countries and continues to delight customers by being a consultant that focuses on driving customer outcome based on their maturity. Prashant shares a lot of tactical tips when it comes to being a C S M and how to constantly be proactive with your customers. Today we will be chatting all about his transition into customer success and how using his prior life experiences helps him build long-term relationships with customers and ensure that they're reaching their desired outcomes. Welcome, Bhan to the podcast. I am super excited to have you here with us today. But before we get into today's topic, can you please tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself, your role at HubSpot and who it is you are?
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me, Anika. I'm a big fan of the, the podcast, uh, is really stoked to be here. Well, well, I'm originally from India, but I've been in a few countries. I've gotten the opportunity to kind of work in four different countries now, and my career trajectory has really been like the flywheel, you know, the track engage in the light. So I started off as a product marketing manager, and then I moved on to sales. And then currently I'm a CSM in HubSpot. I'm based in Dublin at the moment, and I'm looking at UK and I mid-market. It's been, it's been good so far.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, there's so much there. I feel like I'm an expat as well, but four countries is a, is a lot. Where have you been? Where have you lived? Tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so after India, I actually moved to Singapore for my masters in international business, and then I was there for around almost eight years. And then I moved to Moscow for a year. Uh, did a, I did a shot gig at a startup, uh, working remotely. And then I moved to Dublin working for hubs for, yeah, so it's been two years now, uh, in Dublin. Have been, yeah, loving it so far.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Moscow, India, Dublin, it just feels like you're everywhere, which is awesome. But you also mentioned that you, you have quite a diverse experience when it comes to your background. You've not traditionally been in customer success, but this podcast is of course about customer success. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what inspired you to move from that product marketeer role that you were in, into customer success?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. But the, the funny part of this is that CSM was actually plan B for me. Okay. Uh, so my plan was actually after product marketing. When I moved to sales, uh, for a short time, my plan was to go back to product marketing and I did interview a couple of times. I, it just didn't work out Okay. Uh, so I sat down with my manager to see where I could kind of bring my product marketing and sales skills into and what role I would enjoy. And CSM made sense and hubs has a great culture where there are healthy internal mobility and growth opportunities. So, so I stepped right in and it's been remarkably, uh, rewarding. I really like the strategic consulting side of the role. I like to help people and how versatile the role is so I can literally move back into marketing or sales or product anywhere I want if I want to, but not at the currently. So, so yeah, enjoying it so far.
Speaker 1:I also love how you just mentioned how a lot of your skills in product marketing transferred into being the customer success manager that you are today. I think a lot of people that listen to this podcast or that are in customer success do some level of transition, customer success, has it been coined customer success for maybe more than 10 years? So a lot of people have come from different backgrounds. I myself have come from sales, you've come from product marketing. What are some of the skills that you think transfer from product marketing or sales, like you said, into customer success?
Speaker 2:I think especially sales, I would say Annika is the strategic consulting and just picking up that call and giving a call to the customer, uh, has been really helpful. And also on the expansion and upselling and cross-selling side of things has really helped me in my current role. And HubSpot, considering that it's a CRM platform, I get to bring in my marketing and and sales perspective into my consulting role where customers are trying to align their GTM strategy with marketing, sales, and customer service. So I can step in and bring that perspective and relate to them and advise a colleague.
Speaker 1:You also have seen a lot of success at HubSpot thus far. I know we talked about it already off this call. What do you think kind of contributed to your growth into your current role and your career progression thus far? You mentioned you were at startups before, you're now at a, at a larger organization running or a C S M there, so what, what kind of contributed to this career trajectory that you're on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so career growth, again, is very, very personal and his definition really differs from person to person. So what I did were, two things that I learned from one of my mentors is, first is reflect on my goals, whether that's certain, uh, designation or salary. And secondly is, you know, get crisp on what trade offs I'm willing to make or not in service of those goals. For example, you know, different seasons of life, like single against, you know, having a family, like what are the, those trade offs that I'm willing to make. And, and essential part of it is the company culture, like I mentioned, you know, HubSpot is, has a great culture with those, offering those growth opportunities. So that's key. And, and secondly, what I did was having that support, uh, supported manager, you know, like essentially making them my advocate and, and also not just my manager, but other managers and the other teammates from different teams as well. Like make them aware that this is my goal. So, so when an open role comes up, like I'm the first person that they think of, and at the end of it like having a proper plan, you know, keeping it updated, working along with the managers, I'm making sure that I'm not working on the things that doesn't actually help me to achieve my goals. So these are the things that I did and, and I'm, I'm a big believer in parentals principles. I always keep looking for the 20% input that results in 80% output, uh, whether it's professionally, personally, and, and that's really what's kept me going, uh, so far on the growth progression.
Speaker 1:I love how you've talked about career trajectory as a customer journey as well. Cause you were just talking about having a plan, for example, and knowing what your plan is based on, you know, the milestone of life that you're in. So that also comes back to success planning or account planning. You also mentioned not only making your main manager your advocate, which could be your champion in a customer call, but also multiple managers, which could be if you have multiple champions. So I do love how you're applying your career trajectory into, into customer success. I love it. Before we get into today's topic, which I, I'm really excited to talk to you about, you made some big leaps and, um, changes in your life moving abroad, being one of them, living from startups to, to larger organizations, moving from product sales to customer success. What are some of your learnings or, you know, what are some of the big moments that you're, you know, happy to share with our listeners? Or are there any regrets of, of moving abroad from your side?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's always lovely to chat with another fellow expat Anika. And so like I mentioned, like originally from in India, moved to these, uh, different countries. So one of the main motivators for me was I was really eager to learn other cultures and, and really experience new countries and, and living the expat life brings you to find out parts of your personality, you know, know that could easily have remained dominant is probably one of the most rewarding experiences one can have. But one of the main things that I learned is very precious is opportunity to cultivate fresh perspective. You know, living abroad brings a new perspective of yourself and the life around you, the change of pace and the quality of life depending on where you move to, can really equip you with brand new you. And on top of that, you're putting yourself into a brand new world into the unknown. So what, no matter what prejudice you had about the world before you moved, you'll now have gained a totally new perspective on the situation. So that has been a great journey so far. And, and it's not sunshine and rainbows, uh, throughout, I'm sure you can relate to it. It's lonely at first. And the downside really is being away from family and friends. So for example, like I have a one year old and because of covid travel restrictions, I had to miss his first birthday. I couldn't be there for him. So that was heartbreaking, but I survived somehow. But overall, I, I highly recommend people to experience that if they get an opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely agree. And I can resonate with a lot of what you've just said about being an expat missing moment, but also shaping who you are and how you actually look at life very much is a combination of your experiences in the different countries that you have lived in. And funny enough, I think that a lot of what you said, being an expat means being resilient in times and also having to pivot when things aren't going exactly as planned, which again comes back to being a customer success manager as well. I think you have to be resilient in customer success, and you definitely also have to pivot if, for example, your customers aren't doing exactly what you were expecting or aren't getting as much value as you would hope. So I do love how a lot of your, your personal story ties in so well to being a customer success manager, which is exactly what we're we're talking about today, really. How do you drive customer outcomes and based on your customer portfolio that you're working on and their maturity, you share a lot on LinkedIn about tactical things customer success managers can do day to day. Based on your experience, what are some of the best tactical things A C S M can do today to help their customers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's such an interesting question, Anika, like I was having a thinker about this and, and right now in the current climate, I thought like two things that comes that I've been experiencing in my book of business, and I'm sure a lot of the other businesses as well are those cancellation requests coming in. And, and two of the main reasons that I see are mergers and acquisition mna, uh, you know, the challenging macroeconomic climate are the two main reasons for those cancellation requests. So, so what CSMs, you know, while, while m and a are a part of business and not directly in our control, you know, uh, CSMs can definitely take a lead in understanding the nature of the merger and acquisition and, and making the business case for your products continued, uh, usage. So essentially trying to get ahead of the m and a in your book of business, for example, you know, and, and some of the, some of the signs that may indicate an acquisition in my experience has been maybe there's a drop in portal usage, maybe there's, has been unassigned, you know, uh, seats. The customer hasn't been using the product as much, the customer request a review of the contract, for example, change of decision maker, poc, et cetera. So keeping an eye on those things to try to stay ahead of a possible m and a is, is really crucial. And, and we can do, we can take a few proactive steps to identify m as some of those are pretty straightforward. For example, you know, Google news alerts for a set of customers, you know, setting periodic tasks to search the company on Crunchbase, you know, of course there's LinkedIn, following them on LinkedIn, working closely with the contract managers to be on top of, you know, a, a possible m and a is the options that we can offer the customers. And I totally understand that this is not realistic to do for all of all of our customers, but these strategy could, could help you proactively manage the m and a for a sub segment of your customers. You know, often a lot of my teammates do this for their top 10 Mr. R customers, for example, in their funnel, you know, companies that they know have a global presence and, and smaller, uh, or mid-size companies that are not as sticky. So these are some of the ways that we can tactically and proactively stay ahead of those requests coming in.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and I love that there's a lot of those pieces that you just shared are above and beyond the tool set that you normally use within a customer sales management, for example, a lot of times you're just looking at their usage data or the number of emails they're sending you or logins or everything that you've mentioned, but you were just saying, going above and beyond, falling on LinkedIn, Crunchbase, all those other bits where you can be a little bit more proactive to watch what's happening with the company. You mentioned macroeconomics and the changing world, which is really, really relevant right now and quite a hot topic as we go into not so stable of an economy. Are there any signs that you look for within your book of business for companies that might be struggling? Or are there any tactical pieces that you are doing to be proactive when it comes to companies that are possibly struggling and, and getting ahead of that churn that you just mentioned?
Speaker 2:It's very similar to the MNA in that sense, Anika. And one thing that I've been doing is, is I have a list of questions where I bring those up during my conversation. For example, you know, just being bold and asking like, Hey, has the macroeconomic climate been a topic of conversation at the company? What trends are you seeing throughout this conversation and et cetera. So just bringing those up during my conversations on top of the proactive work that I'm already doing. But one thing that I would like to kind of highlight and flag is being proactive is great, but we have to remain proactive without causing panic in the current economic environment, you know? Yeah. For example, you know, matching the customer's energy, for example, if they seem stressed about the macroeconomic climate, like let them lead the conversation. And if, if they seem comfortable with that topic, you know, we can go ahead and ask those discovery questions that are mentioned. And secondly, like, I like to start at very high level without assuming they'll need to lower costs. For example, you know, for instance, perhaps you using an open-ended questions, you know, how is your company navigating the microeconomic climate? And of course, like doing my research based on the proactive, uh, ideas that I mentioned. You know, spend time investigating the industry, how that industry is being impacted by the, by the market. And, and this essentially will allow you to be, uh, more thoughtful and show empathy towards the customer. And, and, and last but not least is ensuring these conversations are customer centric rather than your product centric. Like, like the goal is really to learn more so, so I can support them. And the goal isn't solely to learn more about the renewal intention or growth potential.
Speaker 1:I loved hearing all of those pieces super critical to keep your customer at the center of everything. Like you said, we day to day, we have business outcomes that we as customer success professionals are trying to reach, but at the end of the day, it's about your customer and, and what they're feeling and how they're going through. And I think some of the tips you just shared about being able to read the room or understand the tonality of your customer's voice and actively listening to what they have to say rather than causing panic can be very, very helpful. So I love that, actually, that's super important to remember when you are speaking to your customers. Um, speaking of your customers, you did mention you are a mid-market customer sales manager at HubSpot. Can you tell us a little bit more about your book of business? How do you service these customers? What sorts of call, what are you doing with your customers day-to-day to make sure they're, they're reaching their, their desired outcomes?
Speaker 2:So I look into, my segment is UK and Ireland mid-market. So in my book of business I have currently, I just checked in the morning, it's around 113 customers and our usual call cadence Anika is bimonthly. So that kind adds up to quite a few calls. Yeah,
Speaker 1:That's busy, busy
Speaker 2:<laugh><laugh>. So my day-to-day is a mix of, you know, uh, 80% proactive, I would say, and 20% reactive work. And we have a lot of autonomy in managing our book of business here at HubSpot. So the proactive work would include anywhere between three to five schedule deep dive meetings every day with customers and to review their progress, uh, make strategic and tactical recommendation and, and keep them update with the, with the latest and relevant features from UPS. And, and the reactive works, as you know, it runs the gamut, uh, from questions about invoices to how do questions escalations, everything. We actually have, when you mentioned about the different calls that we have, we actually have different teams that overall covers most of the different calls that we interact with our customers. So there are essentially six type of calls that we, uh, that we have. So first is introductions and account planning, then is product activation and strategy upsell and cross-sell value demonstration, renewal positioning, and difficult conversation, which I'm not a big fan of. But yeah,
Speaker 1:<laugh>, thanks for telling us a little bit more about kind of what you're doing day in the life of A C S M. I think a lot of people listening can relate to the 80% being as proactive as possible, but there is that firefighting that we all inevitably do. But good to hear that the majority of your time is on these types of calls, like you just mentioned, and, and building that rapport with your customers. I think it's awesome that you have these milestones of calls that you're having from account planning all the way to renewal or even difficult conversations, but maybe for those people who are either building customer success or not too sure what a product activation call is, can you just give us a little bit of background of what happens in, in that call and what type of customer is joining that call?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So product activation call, uh, Annika is, is the most common type of call for a CSM here. So it typically happens every six to 10 weeks, I would say, depending on your segment. And essentially after the introduction and account planning call. So you would essentially check in on how the customer is executing on the high level goals from the initial call and then, uh, spend the bulk of the call helping the customer drive adoption of a new tool that solves business challenge for them. So the outcome of this call is essentially to reconfirm business goals and, and drive expanded adoption of our HubSpot tools to support the customer's core business operation and really make them, essentially make them HubSpot implementation stick here. And one of the main best practices that we follow for these calls are, are firstly like pinpointing customer pain points and coming prepared with solutions. Of course you wouldn't have answers to everything, but having, uh, that different question asking tool and arsenal on your side to explore all the pain points that they, they might have and then practice active listening. You know, one of the quotes I recently heard was one of the most active thing A C S M can do is listening. And that's so true. You know, and, and then shifting your agenda based on what you listen to and based on the customer responses. And of course like being on the lookout for growth option B. So that's essentially how we approach the product activation call.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. And, and again, sounds pretty familiar to probably the majority of calls CSMs are having. Um, whether you're at a larger business or a smaller business, doesn't matter, you are trying to get your customers to get the most out of your product. Makes complete sense. But some of the other calls that you mentioned, whether it's, you know, the upsell or value demonstration call and the few other things that you mentioned, these all happen different phases of a customer life cycle and different maturity of how much your customer is actually using your product. How are you making sure that even in differing customer calls, whether it's again the upsell or renewal or whatever, that you're still driving customer outcomes in each one of these types of calls?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's an interesting question, Anika, like, so what we do on our side is, is essentially trying to explore and get that desired outcome that the customer want to start off with another code that it, it kind of reminds me of like you can focus on adoption. I think Lincoln Murphy mentioned this is you can focus on adoption, retention, expansion on advocacy, or you can focus on the customer's desired outcome and get all of those things. So I I, I try to see it, try to simplify it, so as desired outcome plus appropriate experience. So what we try to do is have a monthly progress report. So for example, if a customer comes in and this was their desired outcome, uh, outcome and we created a certain plan, and then after a quarter, what was the progress? What has the progress been made at times like, customer wouldn't be clear on their goal. So we, we try to, we try to ask them, for example, if you were, if you were to get promoted in 12 months, you know, what would be the metric that drove that? So trying to just explore and discover that goal and outcome is essential to start off with and have a proper follow up and deciding a timeline and budget in certain cases, after which of course you can identify those stakeholders and directly responsible individuals and, and loop them in, have that growth top of their mind and, and keep them throughout their progress.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Which great point about progress reports and measuring outcomes, cuz that kind of leads me perfectly into the next question that I do wanna ask you, which is how are you measuring the success of a customer? Like we said, we have our own business outcomes, things that we are hoping to get as customer success professionals, like you said, more usage of your, of the HubSpot product. As you said, your customers have different desired outcomes based on the time and what products they're using from you and you know, how long they've been a customer. So how do you keep measuring success for a customer over time and what sorts of calls do you have in order to make sure that these milestones are being reached with your customers?
Speaker 2:So in HubSpot, Anika, we use something called growth framework. I'll do my best to kinda give you a visual description of how it looks. Uh, so it essentially is, uh, to grow through the GTM functions of a business. So if you start off with the track stage, you have the inbound marketing engage, you have the inbound sales, and then you have the delight, customer empowerment, and lastly, fighting friction, which is the customer-centric alignment. So keeping those in mind, how we measure it is based on revenue. And then moving on to L T V and then moving on to L T V CAC ratio. And last but not least, revenue and GTM employees. So, so it's, it's one of the benefit that we have. We have a tool which kind of, uh, partners with this growth framework is called Growth Greater. So what we do often, uh, times with our customer is get on a call with the customer. It's essentially a tool that can help in, in three key ways, you know, uh, so firstly it'll provide you recommendation on how you can use your current product mix to gain leverage in your business and then showing you which areas of your GTM teams, uh, that have the biggest opportunity for growth. And last but not least, to help you build a roadmap to success, uh, with uh, HubSpot. And I do understand that not all the companies would have these frameworks or, or tools, but on top of this we have something called a lot of growth, but uh, we have something called growth consulting framework, which is essentially, uh, prepare, connect, understand, recommend, commit, and act. So this framework works really, uh, effectively, uh, to, you know, identify customers, high level goals and business objectives, you know, biggest challenges on a small and large scale and, and what I as A C S M need to have in order to make strong recommendation. So I strongly advise, you know, recommend this growth consulting framework and working to create a potentially, uh, growth framework relevant to your industry to really, uh, track those progress, uh, for a customer.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think it's super critical for businesses, no matter how far advanced you are in your customer success department, is to think not only of your customer lifecycle or the time your customer is with you, but also the maturity model, which is exactly what you are just describing there with your growth model. I think it's super key to have some level of maturity model of what your customers are doing with your product over time. You mentioned three different use cases or at least three that I heard, and that's super critical to measure success based on the maturity that they're in and also be a bit prescriptive to your customers. Cuz I think sometimes customers don't know how much they can or cannot do with your product, and it's critical to be a little bit prescriptive to your customers saying, Hey, based on our maturity and what we've mapped out of most customers doing with our product, this is kind of where we see you at. But these are the possibilities of other things you can use, like you said. So I think it's critical to have that maturity piece as much as, as it is to have a segmented customer journey as well. Um, so thank you for sharing that, that growth framework. Super helpful. I think you have so many tips and tricks that you share with the wider customer success community, which is super, super helpful. But what is your kind of biggest piece of advice to a customer sales manager that wants to drive customer outcomes based on that maturity model that we've been talking about?
Speaker 2:I would actually start off right in the first call of the customer with the customer time to first value is so important when it comes to our role. So every, every customer makes progress on their own cadence, on their own schedule, on their own timeline, Anika as you know, but we have to set a goal for them. So setting that goal, working with your customer right off the bat on the first call is so crucial. For example, you know, uh, you would like this segment of customer to achieve this value in, you know, X amount of time, for example, you know, and again, like they either get actual value from the relationship with A C S M or a real value potential in the, in the product itself. So starting off with that first call and setting up, having that timeline, that quantitative measurement so you can make that progress report in, in every month, every quarter, and show the effectiveness of your tool to their business and keeping that momentum essentially. Uh, the other one I would say is key stakeholders. One of the, when I started off, uh, I did a mistake of just how building that relationship with just one P O c, which was really challenging once, for example, they left the company. Uh, so it was really challenging. So having, making a relationship with key stakeholders, with diverse departments and getting that perspective and which will eventually like help you solve better for the customer because you're getting, getting different perspective from their businesses and essentially developing that accountable belief from each one of them to wrap things up and, and create that cycle, uh, while keeping that momentum.
Speaker 1:Very good point, because I wanted to ask you is how are you ensuring that these customers are continuing to see success at HubSpot? You mentioned the progress support, you mentioned checking in, you mentioned proactive calls and you know, value demonstration calls. Those are all a lot of things that you know, you're doing as a C S M, but how do you keep that momentum going? How do you ensure that these customers are continuing to see success at HubSpot as they become more and more mature as a customer?
Speaker 2:It's just building that accountability. Annika, for example, I would, I would say something on the line, like based on the discussion we've had, we have these action items for your team to begin working on. And, and I'll, I'll make sure that I mentioned that I also have my notes to her follow up on x uh, x things with, uh, with, uh, the stakeholder, et cetera, designing that timeline and budget and developing that accountability and at the same time using that maturity model. So, so what we use is for that growth greater that I mentioned, I frequently ask my customer to do that every six month because of the progress that they make and then follow up on the, on these progresses to make sure that they are, uh, they're aware of it first of all. And they know like, okay, you've achieved this goal and this timeframe and then what's next? Like what is the next goal? And just like keeping up with that momentum.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. You also just mentioned every six months or so you are grading that maturity level on that growth framework that you're talking about because sometimes we get really, you know, stuck into a renewal, for example, an annual marker of this is when we should review goals. But I think a great thing that you've just said is you've constantly keep up to date with your notes, with your timelines that you guys have discussed with your customers, and you're able to revisit that at any given time. There's no good or bad time. It's always good to realign on goals and continue to ensure that your customer is getting those value-based outcomes that they're, that they're talking about or that they have been talking about. So love that. Listen, we could keep chatting, I'm sure we could, but I wanna get to our quick fire questions with it, I think you're familiar with and the strategy behind this. But I am going to ask you these next few questions and my challenge to you is to try to answer them in one sentence or less. Are you ready?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll do my best. Danika<laugh>.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's do it. My first question is, what do you think is next for the CS industry?
Speaker 2:So this one, I think it'll be interesting to see AI enablement scale in the customer success space. Especially. I would love to see prediction analysis, you know, to, to analyze and forecast data. So, so I see that happening.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I agree. I think that having a little bit more AI into our data and how we also, you know, measure and, and look at that data would be very helpful. So completely agree. The next question is, what is your favorite app, either on your phone or your laptop that you cannot live without?
Speaker 2:So I'm not sure if you heard of this, Anika, the five minute Journal.
Speaker 1:Oh, I have. I I am an active five minute journaler.
Speaker 2:Oh, yay.<laugh>. So, so I love that. So I use the app instead of the journal, the, the hard copy. So that's like essentially the simplest way you can do to start and end your day happier in just like five minutes. I know myself. Uh, so I wanna remove all the friction and, and make it like the least time so that five minutes is the best for me. So I've been doing that yeah, every single day.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. I actually have the, the actual journal cause I still love writing physical notes, so, but I recommend that too. The five minute journal is great. The next question is, what sort of compensation do you think A C S M should have? Should it be just a base salary or a base salary with some sort of variable commission
Speaker 2:Base? Uh, plus variable component based on the revenue retention performance for sure, like on target variable earnings. You know, c s CSM should definitely be re rewarded for the, for their top performance, you know, uh, you know, because we commit to, to taking those right actions that lead to the long-term success for customers. So the reward system definitely should align to these actions.
Speaker 1:And my final question for you today is, what is your favorite part of being A C S M?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, there's so many Anika, but, uh, I would say customer relationships, helping those people, the versatility of the role, like I mentioned, and there's so much growth opportunities in csm. So yeah, that's, those are my favorite parts. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much Foran for sharing all your tips, insider trade tips I guess, of being a CSM at HubSpot. If our listeners have any other questions or wanna get in touch, what's the best place to find you?
Speaker 2:LinkedIn. I'm every day, all day on LinkedIn. So yeah, LinkedIn, Han Joti. Happy to connect with anyone and have a chat. All thanks CSM and Sure.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much Rashan. Really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:Thanks Anika. It was lovely to be here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Customer Success Channel podcast today. We hope you learned something new to take back to your team and your company. If you found value in our podcast, please make sure to give us a positive review and make sure you subscribe to our channel as we release new podcasts every month. Also, if you have any topics that you would like me to discuss in the future or you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please feel free to reach out. All my contact details are in this show notes. Thanks again for listening and tune in next time for more on customer success.