The Customer Success Economy

29Next Steps to Take

It's been a highlight of our careers to see so many people benefiting from Customer Success—from people pursuing their career dreams, to clients benefiting from more customer-centric vendors, to investors generating greater returns from shareholders due to stronger client retention and advocacy. Customer Success is truly one of those movements that has generated “Success for All.”

Take this story from Jane Graham, the VP Customer Success and Renewals at Kronos, Inc.

Less than six years ago, I was a senior manager of a $700 million publicly traded company, managing a team of 15 people. Fast forward six years, I am the vice president of a global team of 200 people managing $1 billion in recurring revenue across thousands of customers. And that happened because I started focusing my career on recurring revenue and Customer Success precisely at the time that I did, and I embedded myself in that discipline. When I think about my career trajectory, if I hadn't focused on that specific area in the technology sector, I don't think I would have had that kind of amplified growth and amplified career opportunity.

Graham isn't alone. This is a space that tens of thousands of people are betting their careers on and they've grown tremendously because of it.

Consider also the impact on the investment community. Mark Roberge, the former CRO at HubSpot, began investing in startups with the intention of betting on companies with higher retention even more than higher ...