Customer Success — M6
CUSTOM1.CUSTOMERBDCB.M6
Management track for Customer Success leaders who direct CSM teams executing onboarding, adoption, value-realization, and renewal across customer portfolios, owning retention/expansion outcomes (NRR, GRR, churn, NPS/CSAT). Distinct from individual-contributor CSMs (including Principal/Staff CSMs) who personally own named accounts and author the playbooks/frameworks, and from Sales/Account Management which owns net-new acquisition and quota-bearing pipeline.
Management track for Customer Success leaders who direct CSM teams executing onboarding, adoption, value-realization, and renewal across customer portfolios, owning retention/expansion outcomes (NRR, GRR, churn, NPS/CSAT). Distinct from individual-contributor CSMs (including Principal/Staff CSMs) who personally own named accounts and author the playbooks/frameworks, and from Sales/Account Management which owns net-new acquisition and quota-bearing pipeline.
Focus — Customer Success
Management track for Customer Success leaders who direct CSM teams executing onboarding, adoption, value-realization, and renewal across customer portfolios, owning retention/expansion outcomes (NRR, GRR, churn, NPS/CSAT). Distinct from individual-contributor CSMs (including Principal/Staff CSMs) who personally own named accounts and author the playbooks/frameworks, and from Sales/Account Management which owns net-new acquisition and quota-bearing pipeline.
Material PAY and SKILL differential vs the function baseline.
Responsibilities by level
What this person actually does at each level on the management track — escalating scope, not one generic blob. Your level is highlighted.
- Lead a team of CSMs who own customer accounts end-to-end, directing execution of the standardized success processes (onboarding milestones, value reviews, renewal playbooks) against short-term retention targets
- Review customer-health indicators across the team's book to spot detractor and churn-risk trends, and direct CSMs to create action plans on at-risk accounts before renewal
- Coach CSMs on QBR/EBR delivery, product-adoption initiatives, and surfacing upsell/cross-sell opportunities to forward to sales
- Resolve escalated account conflicts the team cannot close, collaborating with support, product, and sales for timely solutions
- Mentor junior and mid-level CSMs, reviewing account-status reports and CRM recommendations to build core competencies across the team
- Oversee multiple CSM teams or a critical customer segment (e.g., enterprise plus mid-market), aligning portfolio coverage and engagement models with business retention and expansion objectives
- Translate customer-success strategy into segment-level playbooks and KPIs, applying the principal-IC frameworks (health-scoring model, renewal-forecast methodology, EBR template) consistently across teams
- Own the renewal and NRR forecast for the segment, defending the number in leadership reviews and steering interventions on accounts whose loss could jeopardize the revenue base
- Engage senior leaders across sales, product, and support on cross-functional priorities surfaced from customer-health, adoption, and expansion-signal data
- Establish hiring profiles, ramp standards, and mentoring structures, developing CSM team leads across the segment
- Direct the customer-success function across the division through subordinate managers, owning division-wide GRR/NRR, churn, and time-to-value outcomes
- Define the division's customer-success operating methods — segmentation model, engagement tiers, and the standards under which CSM playbooks and health-scoring frameworks are adopted org-wide
- Influence executives and major customers on strategic retention, adoption, and roadmap priorities, representing CS in company-wide planning
- Set the division's CS budget, headcount, and tooling investments across the CRM/CS platform stack (Salesforce, Gainsight, Totango, ChurnZero) including AI predictive-health and sentiment-analysis capabilities
- Resolve complex, recurring escalations that span functions, defining standards that prevent systemic churn drivers from recurring
- Lead the customer-success organization across multiple functions or divisions through senior managers, owning the long-term retention and expansion strategy tied to company success
- Define the multi-year customer-success operating model and value-realization strategy, shaping how post-sale engagement and the supporting tool stack scale as the company and product portfolio evolve
- Negotiate with executives and strategic enterprise customers on critical retention, roadmap, and partnership matters
- Influence company policy on customer-lifecycle economics, advising leadership on NRR/churn trajectory, investment trade-offs, and AI-driven engagement strategy
- Establish the cross-functional governance that aligns CS with sales, product, and support on the abstract, org-wide problems affecting customer outcomes
Level guidelines
The universal leveling rubric applied to this function — how scope, complexity, collaboration, and experience step up across levels.
| Level | Knowledge & Application | Complexity & Problem Solving | Collaboration & Interaction | Typical Degree & Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M3 | Applies deep CSM craft (onboarding, adoption, renewal playbooks, health interpretation) to direct a team's day-to-day execution; impacts short-term retention goals and team operations. | Resolves diverse account and team issues, evaluating health-trend signals across the book to direct interventions before renewal. | Leads a functional CSM team and engages support, product, and sales counterparts on account-level escalations and expansion signals. | 5-7+ years in customer success including managing CSM professionals and team operations. |
| M4 | Sets segment-level strategy and renewal-forecast discipline aligned to business objectives; failure to retain could jeopardize the segment's revenue base. | Translates strategic retention policies into multi-team playbooks and KPIs, resolving issues spanning multiple CSM teams or a critical segment. | Manages multiple teams or sections and engages senior leaders across sales, product, and support on functional CS strategy. | 8-10+ years with complex multi-team or critical-function leadership in customer success. |
| M5 | Defines division-wide CS operating methods and program standards; decisions impact overall division retention economics and tooling investment. | Solves complex org-wide retention and adoption problems, defining the segmentation and engagement methods that govern the function. | Leads through CS managers and influences executives and major customers on key strategic retention and roadmap issues. | 10-12+ years including second-level management and CS strategy work. |
| M6 | Defines the long-term, multi-division customer-success operating model and value-realization strategy with lasting effect on company retention and growth. | Tackles abstract, cross-functional lifecycle-economics problems, setting strategy where outcomes carry company-wide consequence. | Leads through senior managers across functions/divisions and negotiates with executives and strategic customers on critical matters; influences company policy. | 12-15+ years with deep leadership across CS departments or divisions. |
Skills
Focus-specific skills the role applies — the relevance layer beyond the occupational base.
- Metrics fluency
- Speaks fluently in renewal rate, NRR, GRR, churn, NPS/CSAT, and time-to-value to forecast and defend retention outcomes at leadership reviews.
- Health scoring interpretation
- Reads multi-signal scorecards combining adoption, support trends, billing, NPS/CSAT, and sentiment to direct teams toward account risk before renewal.
- Business acumen
- Aligns customer-success programs with customer business objectives and company revenue strategy, proving ROI across the portfolio.
- Problem-solving
- Anticipates systemic churn drivers proactively and defines standards and interventions that ensure issues do not recur across the book.
- Communication
- Explains complex retention strategy and customer value simply to CSM teams, senior leaders, and executive customer stakeholders.
- Data literacy
- Analyzes portfolio telemetry, usage data, and health scores to draw insights that drive coverage, intervention, and investment decisions.
- AI tooling
- Leverages predictive health scoring, sentiment analysis, and AI copilots to scale risk detection and engagement across a growing book.
- Time management
- Balances competing priorities across teams and segments, allocating coverage and attention to the highest-risk and highest-value accounts.
- Empathy
- Understands customer and team needs and perspectives to coach CSMs and shape value and adoption messaging to stakeholder interests.
- Technical aptitude
- Maintains solid product understanding and uses SaaS technical vernacular to guide teams and engage technical customer stakeholders on adoption.
Provenance
The evidence base behind this profile — every layer is sourced; quality is scored by an adversarial review panel (1–5; passes at ≥4 on the minimum dimension).
Level — M6 — Vice President
Owns a major function or division; accountable for organization-wide outcomes.
- Scope
- A major function or division
- Autonomy
- Accountable for division strategy and outcomes
- Complexity
- Enterprise priorities and external factors
- Impact
- Division-wide / organization-wide
- Decision rights
- Owns strategy, budget, and org for a division
- Leadership
- Leads the leadership of a division
- Typical experience
- 15–25 yrs
Adjacent roles
Nearest roles by structural coordinates (level + taxonomy). Distance 0 → 1; each carries its 3-state match band. How coordinates work → · Compare side-by-side →
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O*NET / SOC
- code=11-2022source=jfm-factory.resolve