Explore every episode of the podcast Trust Me, I'm a CSM

Hosts Valerio and William discuss how market and industry challenges from 2020-2023 have influenced the evolution of the CSM role in 2024 and beyond.

Hosts Valerio and William are joined by Ty Friend to discuss value and value engineering, a relatively new concept in the world of SaaS and emerging technology. We cover questions such as: Is value subjective? Is engineering value an art or a science? Do all products and services have value engineering principles? Listen here to find out more!

Our guest this time around is Rebecca Wilde who has over six years in client-facing and Customer Success roles. Almost every CSM has their own take on QBRs, and we address some of the most common misconceptions in this episode, answering questions such as:

- What's in it for the customer?
- How can any decision maker attend all the QBRs from all of their vendors?
- How to make the most of your time with your stakeholders in a QBR

Valerio and William welcome Justin Bradley, a veteran of both cybersecurity and customer success. In this episode, we tackle such thorny questions as:

- Why do you need a Customer Success Platform?
- When is the right time for companies to start thinking about investing in them?
- What are these platforms trying to achieve?
- What role can an AI take alongside a CSP?
- Do all companies need a CSP, or are there alternative methods that achieve the same outcome?

Hosts William and Valerio speak to Carlynn McCarthy, a Professional Services Project Manager who has worked at a number of small and large, on-premises and SaaS companies working on large-scale enterprise customer implementations. 

We tackle the complex delineation of responsibilities of PMs and CSMs, especially when it comes to ownership of customer onboarding, executive relationships, project handover, escalations and more.

Tune in for an interesting debate, and to find out if Implementation Project Managers and CSMs are compensated on the same metrics or not...

In this episode, Ryan Noakes and Ramon Wiersema join Valerio and I to compare notes on working as CSMs for SaaS companies in various industries, from logistics and fleet management, through to Health & Safety compliance, cybersecurity and sustainability platforms - with a sprinkling of AI throughout!

Valerio and William welcome James Alliband, esteemed Product Manager in Cybersecurity on to the show for the first time. James lends his extensive experience to a lively debate about the do's & don'ts of product teams and CSMs who want to work together.

We know... How could three seasoned CS professionals even debate such a topic? 

Join Valerio and William as they welcome guest speaker Lauren Verby on to the show to discuss how companies make the transition to the cloud, to SaaS and to CS and the various pitfalls that can be found along the way. 

We also discuss when CS is and is not suitable for a company, and the role of CS in self-hosted platforms which are typically held in the customer's datacentre rather than the vendor's.

Join us for what is one of the most heated debates of the series so far!

Building on the theme of CS Culture, William Belcher speaks to Bhavika Khochhar about why people join communities, how it can help a CSM to be a part of the CS community,  and ways to contribute and support colleagues and peers within the Customer Success industry.

Valerio and William are joined by Bassam Khoreich - Bassam has been a CSM for a number of years and is a vocal and passionate member of the global Customer Success community. 

We discuss the ins and outs of building a culture of CS within your own organization, some things that work well, and from the perspective of a candidate for a CSM role, how you can tell if your potential employer truly understands CS before you join them. 

Tune in for a great discussion!

Our sales vs CSMs debate kicks into a higher gear in Part 2 as we discuss the Ideal Customer Profile, why it's so important, and why occasionally (!) Sales just ignores it and carries on regardless. Don't worry, we're all still friends by the end :-) 

Join Louise Lundgren, Jeff Heckler, Valerio Bianconi and William Belcher for a lively debate!

This episode pits Sales against CSMs in the first of our two-parter about how Sales and CS can collaborate, make money and avoid stepping on each other's toes!

Valerio and William are joined by Louise Lundgren and Jeff Heckler

In this bumper episode, we welcome Tim Nursall as our guest speaker. We cover a range of important topics such as :

How should you use user data points in  parallel to your 'gut' feeling about account health and required activities. 
Can you rely entirely on the user / adoption data that comes from your SaaS product? Or should you consider softer metrics and personal experience of the account?

In our View from Sales Engineering we discuss some of the frustrations CSMs have with SEs and vice versa. 

Tune in to find out more!

Valerio and I welcome Christian Jakenfelds to the show. Christian has a rich background in customer success, his tenure includes such companies as Tessian, and he is now at Planhat, fully immersed in all things CS.

We speak to Christian about key trends and some data points in customer success, as well as tackling thorny issues such as "What do you do when what your customer wants doesn't fit the CS model and metrics you are working towards?"

Tune in to find out more!

Are CSMs just Escalation Managers? Should CSMs respond to customers on support tickets? What can a CSM do to work well with the support team? Find out all of this and more when Valerio and William are joined by Geran Smith, who has spent time both as a CSM, in product management and who now leads a global support team.

Our guest speaker today is Murat Mendi, who has worked as a CSM as well as IT manager and a variety of different roles on both sides of the vendor/customer divide. Listeners can enjoy our views on :

Do non-SaaS IT companies need a Customer Success organization?
How do more traditional IT providers view customer success?
 Why do software companies decide not to invest in Customer Success?

In this lively episode, Valerio and I welcome John Tait as our guest. John has worked extensively in the world of Professional Services, which has given him a unique outsider's perspective on how software was shipped before and after the world of SaaS, as well as the growth of Customer Success teams in the last 10-15 years. 

This episode, Valerio and William welcome Marije Skobe-Pilley as their guest speaker. Marije has extensive experience as a CSM and Team Lead. Topics covered include:

Should CSMs be commercially driven?
Are Customer Success roles recession-proof?
How should CSMs manage stakeholders from across various teams in their account?

In our first ever episode, Valerio and I discuss the various challenges of being a CSM and running a CSM team. Some key topics covered include :
- What actually is a CSM?
- Should you spend more time with senior stakeholders or the team who actually uses your product day-to-day?
We finish with an industry spotlight by exploring what it's like to be a CSM at a cybersecurity company.