We have a winner....

🚨 Cover Reveal Time! 🚨 and an excerpt from the book

After receiving feedback from well over 100 of you (thank you!), I took everything into consideration—every comment, vote, and suggestion helped shape what you're seeing today. I wanted a cover that not only stood out but also reflected the heart of the book: the crisis that is going on in customer success and specifically with customer success managers

So… here it is: the official cover of The Strategic Customer Success Manager! 👇

When I started writing The Strategic Customer Success Manager, I knew the cover couldn’t just look good—it needed to say something. The color choice wasn’t just any color; it was a signal. A signal that customer success, as we know it, is in trouble—and it’s time for a strategic shift.

Introducing the final cover for The Strategic Customer Success Manager

Red signals urgency and transformation in the customer success industry. It symbolizes the passion that I have for it and the desire to help improve it. This wasn’t an easy decision, and I had such a divided audience between the darker cover and the white version. All of them had their merits. I don’t expect everyone to like or agree on the cover choice, and that’s fine. It definitely represents customer success well as the phrase “it all depends” seems to be the only thing we can agree on. :)

Excerpt from Chapter 9: How to Create Unbreakable Customer Relationships

Provide value in every interaction

No more check-ins

A mistake I see CSMs make consistently is sending a check-in email to their customers—you know, the ones that begin with “Just checking in” or “How can I help?”. This mistake inevitably leads to customer disengagement, as there is no compelling reason for them to respond. The antidote? Ensure every interaction delivers meaningful value. It’s time to ditch the “check-in” language, which only serves your needs, and give your customers something of value that demonstrates you care about theirs.

Proactively designing specialized reports that uncovered hidden insights in my clients’ information was a successful strategy. This created a moment of surprise and delight for my customers. Another successful approach was to send a personalized product release update to certain clients that described how the new features would help them achieve their business outcomes. When possible, personalize what you send to your customers and explain why it’s important to them.

Don’t let important information get lost in the marketing shuffle. Share customized updates that speak directly to your customers’ needs. And don’t hesitate to resend it—they might have missed your first one. Just be mindful not to inundate them with too much noise, as they’ll tune you out. For scaled CSMs who serve higher volumes of customers, segment your customers by industry, product, persona, or use case, and tailor your updates to these segments so you can deliver relevant updates en masse.

The golden nugget

A valuable strategy I learned from Paul Teshima during my time at Eloqua involved keeping an insightful golden nugget that I could share during client conversations or through personal outreach. A golden nugget is like a hidden gem—it provides your clients with fresh knowledge they hadn’t considered, establishing you as a trusted advisor.

That golden nugget could be product best practices that your clients can immediately leverage and benefit from. It could be a recently released product feature that’s flying under the radar but could significantly impact their operations. Whether drawn from their own product analytics or from emerging market research, any meaningful intelligence that adds value can serve this purpose. It can even be a relevant client story that could inspire your client to take action.

Since you want to have two or three of these nuggets at the ready to inject into client conversations, work with your colleagues to create a list of possible golden nuggets, so you keep replenishing and refreshing your nugget stockpile. Try to generate weekly or monthly nuggets that everyone can use, and you can even create a goal for yourself to communicate it to a certain number of customers.

What sets this approach apart is its proactive nature, which provides customers with unexpected benefits. The key is customizing these insights for each client’s unique context, for instance by distilling relevant articles or research findings in a way that directly connects to their business outcomes, making them more likely to act on and value your expertise. This creates a better overall experience and separates you from your competitors. You can also consider delivering these tips at scale by crafting these messages for specific segments and leveraging technology such as in-app messaging.

By adopting a mentality of no more check-ins and focusing on always providing value, you’ll strengthen your client relationships.

****

I would love to hear from you - What emotions does this cover evoke for you?

****

Book process update: The book has completed two rounds of edits and is now off to a proofreader for a final review. I’ve been quiet as of late as I’ve been doing the tedious task of going through the book yet again, making adjustments from the last editor review. I’m now in the process of collecting advanced endorsements. I will start an official launch team in 10 days with an anticipated launch of late June.

Comment below if you would like to be part of the launch team and thanks for joining me on this journey.