Leveling up CSMs: Moving Beyond Adoption to Impact
Lessons from The Growth Signal Podcast on How CSMs Can Drive Strategic Value
Let’s get something clear: the Customer Success Manager (CSM) role isn’t dead.
But the traditional version—the reactive, product-focused, adoption-obsessed CSM? That version is quickly becoming obsolete.
In my recent conversation with Alyssa Nolte on The Growth Signal, we dug into how the CSM role has transformed, why it needs to keep evolving, and what success looks like in this new chapter.
Here are a few of the core insights.
From firefighting to forward thinking
Customer Success used to be about being helpful. Answering questions. Putting out fires. Ensuring customers knew how to use the product.
That mindset is no longer enough.
Today’s CSM must shift from being a helper to being a strategic partner—someone who deeply understands their customer’s business goals and maps their product or service to those outcomes.
The best CSMs today:
Lead with business acumen, not just product expertise
Understand internal dynamics and build influence cross-functionally
Ask better, braver questions that open up strategic conversations
Think in terms of retention, expansion, and long-term value - not just the next renewal
Stop sending slides. Start having strategic conversations
We talked about how the typical QBR, with its pages of slides and usage stats, often does more harm than good. It’s a backward-looking exercise in box-checking.
What’s more valuable? A strategic checkpoint. A meeting that looks forward, aligns on goals, and sets a shared plan of action.
This shift requires more preparation, stronger rapport, and the courage to ask direct questions - like: “If you had to renew tomorrow, would you?”
That single question has led to some of the most honest and productive conversations I’ve ever had with customers.
The human side of internal politics
Politics often gets a bad name. But at its core, it’s just about relationships.
If you’re only building relationships with customers and ignoring your internal peers, you’re missing a big opportunity. Sales, product, engineering, marketing - each team has context and influence that CSMs need to deliver results.
It starts with something simple: ask, “How can I help?” Get curious about what others are working on. Share your own wins and challenges. That kind of visibility and mutual support builds trust, alignment, and real collaboration.
Leveraging AI without losing the human touch
One of the most exciting parts of our conversation was around how CSMs can use AI tools - not as a replacement, but as an extension of their strategic abilities.
From synthesizing customer stories to generating scenario-specific recommendations, AI can help CSMs scale insights, uncover new opportunities, and ultimately have smarter conversations.
But here’s the key: none of it works if trust isn’t there.
Where we’re headed
If you’ve ever been told you need to “be more strategic,” but weren’t sure what that really means, this conversation will give you clarity and tools you can put into practice.
And if you lead a CS team, now’s the time to rethink rituals, technology, team development, and the very definition of success.
Customer Success isn’t about keeping customers happy anymore - it’s about keeping them successful.
Listen and Connect
You can catch the full conversation on The Growth Signal podcast.
I also touch on many of these ideas in my upcoming book, The Strategic Customer Success Manager: A Blueprint for Elevating Your Impact and Escalating Your Career. It’s packed with frameworks, exercises, and real-world tactics to help modern CSMs level up. To learn more about my launch you can join my launch team.
What’s your take? How is your team evolving the CSM role - and what’s working?
Let’s keep the conversation going.