What Is a Client Success Manager? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Client success managers onboard customers and develop relationships with them to ensure they get the most out of a product or service. Here’s what to know about a client success manager’s salary, needed skills and how to become one.

What Is a Client Success Manager?

Client success managers are the main point of contact for new customers and are in charge of making sure customers remain happy with a product or service.

What Do Client Success Managers Do?

Client success managers guide customers through the onboarding process, teaching them about product features and explaining the value of a product. As the main point of contact for customers, client success managers foster customer loyalty and encourage companies to build customer-focused products.

Client Success Manager Responsibilities

• Help new customers through the onboarding process.
• Reveal the lasting value of a product or service to customers. 
• Make sure customers remain satisfied with a product or service. 
• Keep track of common complaints to predict potential problems and turnover. 
• Push for design and product teams to make customer-friendly product updates.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of a Client Success Manager

• Teach new customers about a feature helpful for their projects. 
• Check in with customers to make sure they’re using a product. 
• Meet with customers to discuss renewal and upgrade options. 
• Address customer inquiries and complaints about a product. 
• Meet with product and design teams to advocate for product upgrades based on customer complaints and requests.

Client Success Managers Within a Company

Client success managers take over where sales teams leave off, assisting customers through the onboarding stage. As managers, they often oversee teams of client support reps and specialists. Client success managers report to executive roles like director of client success or vice president of client success.

Importance of Client Success Managers

Client success managers help customers continue to find value in a company’s products and services. Because of their efforts, businesses can retain more customers over time and maintain revenue streams as a result.

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Client Success Manager?

Qualifications to Be a Client Success Manager

• Proven success in a client success role. 
• Familiarity with sales and marketing strategies. 
• Willingness to learn about a company’s products and services.
• Ability to lead a team of client success reps and specialists.

Client Success Manager Prerequisites

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing or a related field. 
• At least four to six years working in a client success position.

Client Success Manager Hard Skills

• In-depth knowledge of company products and services. 
• Skilled in researching customer needs to tailor products to each client. 
• Ability to track common customer complaints to discern product trends.  
• Mastery of cross-selling, upselling and other sales techniques.  
• Training in how to handle a range of customer inquiries and complaints.

Client Success Manager Soft Skills

• Excellent communication and persuasion skills. 
• Strong listening skills for addressing questions and complaints.
• Leadership skills for overseeing teams of client success reps and specialists.
• Analytical approach for uncovering product issues and recommending solutions.
• Customer-first mentality for advocating for customer-friendly product changes.

Tools and Programs Client Success Managers Use

• Online meeting platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. 
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software like Zoho, Salesforce, monday.com and HubSpot. 
• Business intelligence tools like Crunchbase, G2 and Tableau. 
• Data analysis tools like Airtable, Microsoft Excel and Sisense.  
• Communication platforms like Slack, Asana and Zendesk.

How to Become a Client Success Manager

Client Success Manager Education and Experience 

While it’s not always required, a bachelor’s degree is highly recommended for a client success manager role. Many client success managers possess a four-year degree in business, marketing or a similar field. Once entering the workforce, professionals often start in an entry-level role like client success rep before being promoted to client success manager after four to six years.

Client Success Manager Certificates and Courses

• Sales training courses to learn selling techniques.  
• Leadership training courses to prepare for leading client success teams.
• Customer success courses on Udemy and other learning platforms.
• Customer success certifications via groups like Success COACHING.

Client Success Manager Career Path

After completing their education, incoming professionals commonly start in an entry-level position, such as client success representative, inside sales rep and account executive. Client success managers who perform at a high level can go on to pursue an executive role like VP of client success or director of client success.

Client Success Manager Salary and Job Outlook

While the position of customer service rep may decline by 4 percent between 2021 and 2031, the related managerial role of sales manager is expected to increase by 5 percent within the same period. 

The full compensation package for a client success manager depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average client success manager salary.