Customer Success Manager: What They Do, Skills and Career Path [2026]
A Customer Success Manager is the professional responsible for ensuring the company's customers achieve the results they were looking for when they contracted the product or service. It's not technical support. It's not sales. It's the person who connects customer needs with the company's capabilities to generate real and sustained value. In a SaaS model where revenue depends on renewal, the CSM becomes the piece that determines whether a customer stays or leaves.
The Customer Success Manager role began consolidating in the early 2010s, when companies like Salesforce and Gainsight understood that acquiring customers wasn't enough: they had to ensure customers obtained value before renewal time arrived. Since then, the position has evolved from a profile of "account manager with empathy" to a strategic function that combines data analysis, relationship management, and business vision. According to Gainsight, companies with structured Customer Success teams reduce churn by 15 to 30 percent compared to those without them.
If you want a broader view of the concept, check out our complete Customer Success guide. To understand the model's foundations, start with what is Customer Success.
Main CSM Functions
The Customer Success Manager has a broad scope of responsibility. These are the six functions that define the role's day-to-day.
1. Onboarding new customers. The CSM guides the customer during the first weeks after contracting. Configures the account, trains key users, and establishes the measurable goals that will define success. Poor onboarding execution is the first cause of early abandonment in SaaS.
2. Proactive follow-up. Doesn't wait for the customer to complain. Reviews usage patterns, identifies accounts with declining activity, and contacts BEFORE the problem escalates. This is where a good customer success specialist separates from a reactive profile.
3. Health Score analysis. The Health Score is a composite metric that combines product usage data, satisfaction (NPS, CSAT), communication engagement, and invoice status. The CSM interprets these signals to prioritize their portfolio. A red health score isn't an alert: it's an immediate action order.
4. Upsell and cross-sell. A customer who obtains value is a customer predisposed to expand their investment. The CSM detects expansion opportunities naturally, without sales pressure. Identifies functionalities the customer doesn't yet use that would solve additional problems.
5. Renewal management. Before the contract expires, the CSM has documented the value delivered, resolved friction points, and prepared the renewal conversation with concrete data. It's not a last-minute negotiation: it's the consequence of a quarter's work well done.
6. Advocacy programs. Transform satisfied customers into active promoters: success stories, reviews, event participation, and referrals. A customer who recommends is worth more than any marketing campaign.
To design these functions within a coherent strategy, check out Customer Success strategy.
Required Skills
A Customer Success Manager needs a hybrid profile between soft and technical skills. Here are the six fundamental competencies with the percentage of job offers in Spain that mention them as requirements according to LinkedIn Talent Insights 2025.
| Skill | Why it matters | How to develop it |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | The CSM translates technical needs into business language and vice versa. If you don't communicate clearly, the customer doesn't perceive value | Practice QBR (Quarterly Business Review) presentations and request direct customer feedback |
| Empathy | Understanding the customer's reality without confusing it with agreeing with everything. Operational empathy, not complacency | Active listening in real calls. Analyze your own recordings |
| Data analysis | The CSM who doesn't read data makes blind decisions. Health score, adoption metrics, NPS and churn rate are your daily language | Master dashboards in Gainsight or Totango. Basic training in SQL and advanced spreadsheets |
| Project management | Each customer is a mini-project with milestones, stakeholders and risks. Without structure, chaos takes over | Agile methodologies adapted to CS. Tools like Notion, Asana or Jira |
| Technical knowledge | You don't need to be a developer, but you do need to understand APIs, integrations and basic architecture of the product you sell | Internal training. Accompany product and support in technical sessions |
| Negotiation | Renewals, expansions, conflict resolutions. The CSM constantly negotiates, even if it's not their official title | Role-playing with the sales team. Read "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss |
A CSM's Day-to-Day
A typical day for a Customer Success Manager at a SaaS company is structured in three blocks.
Morning: review alerts and prioritize. First thing, the CSM opens their Health Score panel and reviews accounts that have changed status. An account that goes from green to yellow requires immediate attention. Responds to urgent customer messages and updates notes in the CRM.
Midday: customer calls. Time for one-on-one meetings with at-risk accounts or those in onboarding phase. Quarterly QBRs are also scheduled here, where the CSM presents the customer with a value report including usage metrics, achieved goals, and recommendations for the next quarter.
Afternoon: internal management. The CSM reports to the product team recurring feedback patterns, collaborates with sales on expansion opportunities, and prepares materials for the following week. It's also time to update internal playbooks with what was learned in the day's interactions.
In companies with mature teams, a customer success coordinator assists the CSM with operational tasks like report preparation and meeting coordination, freeing the manager for strategic work.
Career Path
The career trajectory in Customer Success has a clear path with well-defined jumps.
Junior CSM / Customer Success Coordinator. Managing low ARR (annual recurring revenue) accounts. Supporting the senior team. Focus on learning the product and internal processes.
CSM / Customer Success Specialist. Own portfolio of mid-market accounts. Direct responsibility for retention and expansion. This is the position where impact capacity is demonstrated.
Senior CSM. High-value enterprise accounts. C-level customer interlocution. Direct influence on product roadmap through strategic feedback.
Team Lead CS. First people management role. Coordinates a team of 4-8 CSMs, establishes processes, and is accountable for team KPIs.
Head of Customer Success. Defines CS strategy at company level. Budget, hiring, tools, portfolio segmentation.
VP Customer Success / Chief Customer Officer. Seat on the management committee. Aligns Customer Success with the company's global strategy.
For concrete data on how much is earned at each level in Spain, check out CSM salary Spain.
CSM Tools
Tools define the operational capacity of the Customer Success Manager. These are the five platforms that dominate the market in 2026.
Gainsight is the industry reference: health scoring, playbook automation, QBRs and predictive churn analysis. The most complete but also the highest cost.
Totango stands out for flexibility and accessible pricing for mid-market. Behavioral segmentation and trigger-based automation.
ChurnZero focuses on churn reduction with real-time alerts and aggressive proactive follow-up automation.
HubSpot Service Hub integrates CS within the HubSpot ecosystem, ideal if you already use their CRM.
Salesforce Service Cloud is the enterprise option with the most customization and integrations.
For a detailed comparison of these platforms, check out Customer Success software. If your CS team manages conversations on channels like WhatsApp, an AI-capable contact center can complement these tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does CSM mean?
CSM is the acronym for Customer Success Manager. In some organizations manager customer success or customer success lead is used as an equivalent title.
Is technical experience needed to be a CSM?
You don't need to be a developer, but you do need the ability to understand the product at a functional level. Knowing how to interpret integrations, basic APIs and product usage data marks the difference between a mediocre CSM and one who generates technical trust in the customer.
Is Customer Success Manager the same as Account Manager?
No. The Account Manager focuses on the commercial relationship and revenue. The Customer Success Manager focuses on the customer obtaining value from the product. In practice they collaborate, but their metrics and priorities are different. The CSM measures adoption, health score and NPS. The Account Manager measures revenue and pipeline.
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