Customer Success Managers play a pivotal role in the company, which leads them to develop a wide range of skills and can open the door to many different paths later on. So it's worth helping people picture how they could progress within the company, whether in the CS team or in other departments. Claire Connor, Senior Operations Manager, explains the method used at Trustpair and the best practices they've put in place.
Could you briefly introduce Trustpair?
Trustpair is a payment fraud prevention solution for large companies. Founded in 2017, the company has around a hundred employees and serves more than 200 customers. We raised €20 million in 2022, which we've put towards expanding into the United States and into R&D to stay one step ahead of ever-evolving fraud techniques.
When did you realise you needed a career path policy?
I was hired as the team's first Customer Success Manager, and after a year a Junior CSM joined me to manage the customer portfolio. The question of my own career progression at Trustpair started to come up a year later, when the team began to grow. In the meantime, we'd hired 2 more CSMs, each with a different level of experience and bringing different value: it became important to clarify roles so we could start mapping out career paths for everyone.
What were the main stages in structuring career paths at Trustpair?
When the need arose, we created a career path within the CSM team. It has 4 seniority levels: Junior, Intermediate, Senior and Lead. Seniority wasn't necessarily based on years of professional experience, but rather on the CSM's maturity and their ability to work autonomously on assignments of varying complexity.
For each level, we spelt out the skills expected in the CSM role. These include the ability to run a project autonomously, the ability to manage the customer relationship and the ability to propose solutions suited to the customer's use case, among others. Naturally, expectations vary from one profile to another. Under "customer relationship", a Senior CSM looks after strategic accounts that involve navigating a complex organisation with multiple stakeholders. A Junior CSM manages smaller (mid-sized) accounts with 1 or 2 key contacts.
We shared a first version with the team and iterated on it together to fill in gaps or clarify points. Then each person in the team was placed at a level based on how well they'd mastered the role. Finally, we set goals together to support progression in the role.
When did you realise the original framework needed to change?
This path, which at the time applied only to the CSM team, was enough to clarify roles at first. Meanwhile, Trustpair kept growing, and from around 60 people, the need for career visibility became a major issue for every team. That's when Céline Gallon joined us as VP People, bringing a wealth of HR experience to Trustpair.
She supported all the managers in building a standardised 8-level career path (Junior, Intermediate, Senior, Expert, Lead, Head of, VP and C-level). Each manager had to fill in the expected skills to help people picture how they could progress within their own team. A salary grid, based on internal and external benchmarks, was also defined at that point.
Finally, Céline helped us map the cross-functional skills that could lead to internal mobility, opening up another kind of career progression across different roles.
What are the main possible paths in a Customer Success career?
Since a CSM has a wide variety of transferable skills (interpersonal, technical, commercial, operational), the possible paths in a CS career are actually quite broad.
The first option, of course, is to progress within the CSM team, either by becoming a subject-matter expert or by taking on a more people-focused role, as Team Lead for example. But internal mobility is also an option.
Product Management suits those with more technical profiles, and Account Management those with stronger interpersonal and commercial skills. Product Marketing is a good option for people who are strong at communication and at showcasing the product's value. Finally, Operations suits those drawn to continuous process improvement across the company. That last path is the one I chose!
How do you identify these interests and, above all, make sure the CSM is on board with this vision?
Once again, our VP People did a lot to support managers on this: as well as working on the career path with each team, the annual review format was also overhauled. Previously, each manager ran reviews in their own way. As the company grew, Trustpair invested in an HRIS (HiBob), and the review format was standardised and documented for all employees.
The format allows for a deeper, more structured conversation about everyone's career aspirations. At the end of the year, the manager and the CSM discuss their wishes for progression, so they can align on goals for the next 12 months and identify together the areas for improvement, the situations that will support that progression, and so on. All of this, along with feedback gathered from peers as part of the 360° review, is used to define an individual development plan that gives both manager and CSM a clearer direction.
How do you support these transitions?
In many cases, the development plan involves building skills in certain areas. For example, a goal for a Junior CSM might be to move on to more complex accounts, positioning themselves for a more senior role in the team. A Senior CSM might want to become a "Lead", i.e. take on a coaching or training role for other team members.
A wish for internal mobility requires other factors to be assessed, such as the actual needs of the team the person wants to join, the timing of the move and the fit with the manager and existing team.
Whatever kind of progression someone wants, what matters is having transparent conversations and giving the person visibility on the opportunities within the team and beyond. It's important to be open if external factors (budget, the receiving team's needs) affect the timing or feasibility of the plan. You also need to give constructive, honest feedback if certain skills need developing to get there. That translates into set goals and support (internal or external) to help the person get where they want to be.
Any final thoughts?
- A CSM's skills are varied, and some skills are often stronger depending on the profile, which opens up different possible career paths for each person.
- As a CSM or Head of CS, it's important to talk regularly and openly with each member of your team about their career aspirations.
- As the team's manager, don't hesitate to draw on in-house expertise (a VP People or HR) to structure your processes and better support your CSMs in their professional development.
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