Looking for top CSM's? Put them in a crunch

This may be obvious but can't be overstated - talent is the key to solving massive challenges.

When it comes to finding the right people for your customer success team, it really is something you can't spend enough focus on doing well. I was rather fortunate to start my career in talent acquisition before getting hooked into the CS world, so in a way I felt already inclined to spend more emphasis in finding the right people to build teams. This definitely takes time and practice and I haven't always gotten it right; but one thing I can say is that I've picked up a couple methods along the way that have proven successful.

With that in mind, I thought I would share one of the key techniques I've found in finding top talent within customer facing competencies. And it's pretty simple really....just get your candidates in a tough situation to expose whether they have the right instincts. It was how I got my career started in CS (thanks @Roli!). You may even have someone that aces the situational and/or panel interviews but if they can't shine for this and make a compelling case - you may want to be careful before making the hire.

I briefly touched on this in a series with Adam O'Donnell from Successly.io. Take a look, hope you find this simple interviewing technique as useful as I have.