Is it time for a blank page in Customer Success?

Before we dig in, I feel compelled to share: My vision for a monthly newsletter dissolved quickly after two back-to-back hurricanes in Tampa completely derailed my focus. I’ve been meaning to get back here- a fresh new year seemed like the best time to jump back in. So, here we go- again! Thanks for hanging along for the ride.

One of my favorite quotes that applies to Customer Success (and helps explain the overwhelm, friction, burnout and frustration CSMs are experiencing) is this:

We focus so much on the doing, we lose sight of the being.?

We’ve engineered away the very art of the practice.?

We’ve lost touch of what it was that made Customer Success special (and valuable).?

We’ve made this practice more complex, yet aren’t seeing a consistent corresponding increase in value.?( I'm forever indebted to Mickey Powell for planting this concept in my mind)

I typically shy away from making mass generalizations about Customer Success professionals (I mean, the title of this newsletter is Success is Personal) but in this issue, I’m going there.?

Generally speaking, most of the people I’ve led and/or met in CS have similar traits. They identify as:

• Empathetic
• Impact driven
• Relationship centric?
• Curious
• GSDers (Get Sh!t Done-ers)

There it is. The doing. We are, often, GSDers.?

There’s way too much of that happening. And it’s energy-draining. Chasing down support tickets. Reporting bugs. Documenting feature requests. Prepping QBR decks. Following up on all the tasks…?

We’ve said “yes” to so many things that we’ve lost sight of where we could be spending our time. And- while I'm somewhat ranting- when did the role change from Customer Success to Company Success. Conceptually, when customers are successful, companies are successful as well. It’s an outcome of the work we do day-in and day-out to guide, steer and steward our customers to success. But it’s an outside-in approach, not the inverse.?Perhaps even a middle-ground win-win approach. Whatever it is, it's definitely not inside out.

Successful customers stay, or that’s the hypothesis from which the CS role was born. Revenue compounds (and, hopefully, expands over time). Boom- growth. Company Success.

So, on that same vein: If we were to get back to focusing on what matters most in our field- helping our customers succeed, what would we need to delegate, stop doing or let go of entirely? Where do we need to ask for help? How can we elevate the blockers, opportunities and alignment strategies and tactics needed to truly help our customers succeed?

And, in doing so, how do we help ourselves succeed? How can we get back to investing our energy, talents and effort into what really moves the needle for our customers and their businesses??

I don’t have all of the answers, but the first thought that comes to mind is a blank page exercise.

1. Get a stack of post-it notes. Write down where your time is spent, where you get stuck, what's frustrating, what's exciting, what's gaining momentum, what's blocking progress, gaps, needs, opportunities- all of it.
2. Put them into groups: what’s working, what’s not, where the bottlenecks and barriers to success are
3. Work as a team (or solo!) to synthesize and plan accordingly. Resources, tools, strategies- dump the ideas out on paper. And/or: use ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever your favorite AI Assistant may be to help analyze.
4. Decide and Commit to the most important things. No more than 3. Define who, what, where and why for each..
5. Put the rest away. You cannot do it all You'll fail trying. You have your list- once you finish one item, you can pick the next best thing to focus on and add it to the priority list.

And, where possible, don't do this exercise entirely in a vacuum. If you're doing it solo, share with leaders, teammates, etc. If you're doing it as a team, include sales, product, engineering and ops. Or, at minimum, share back learnings and findings.

Sounds like a great use of time for CSKO, no? Heck, it’s a great use of time anytime.?

Speaking of-? see you next time,

Jenny

PS-? I’d love to hear where you see the majority of your time and energy drain go- willing to share??