4The CSM Skills Required in an Ever-Evolving Business World
In this chapter, we will focus on knowledge mastery, which includes attaining proficiency in your industry, category, and product. Knowledge mastery is particularly important for you as a Customer Success Manager, especially if your company's product is in the early stages of maturation. In those formative years, a broad understanding of the industries and category your company serves will enable you to see associated pain-points, how your target market is evolving, and how your product aims to solve real problems.
The ability to comprehend these subjects goes a long way toward winning over early customers. However, as your knowledge matures along with your company, you may find the need to move from a broad and general understanding, to a more focused, specialized view. This could mean becoming more technically savvy with your products and evolving your industry and domain expertise. It is also important that you find mentors and use other methods of educating yourself to become the best CSM for your company, with your products, for your customers and the industries they serve.
How to Develop Your Industry and Category Knowledge
To begin, let's give some definitions.
- A category is a sector of an industry that includes a cluster of companies that are solving a recognized problem within it.
- An industry is a slice of the economy that includes business entities, knowledge workers, products, and services.
Categories ...
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