Customer Success is a relatively new field, and it isn't always easy for Customer Success Managers to know what the best strategies for career advancement are. Moreover, urgent day-to-day fire-fighting responsibilities often stand in the way of long-term priorities such as career growth. Nils Vinje has gone from a Customer Success Manager position to Team Lead, Director, and finally VP in less than 2.5 years. Thanks to the expertise he's gained from his first-hand experience, Nils will share with us the 3 key strategies that will help you earn your next promotion in Customer Success.

1. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Expert Advice: How to Grow Your
Career in Customer Success
Nils Vinje, @NilsVinje
Partner, Glide Consulting

2. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Housekeeping!
Get your tweet on and join the conversation!
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Q&A at the end – ask your questions in the chat box!
We will send the slides to everyone soon

3. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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A little bit about me - personally

4. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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This is where we live

5. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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This is what we love to do in the winter

6. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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This is what we love to do in the summer

7. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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How to Grow Your Career in
Customer Success

8. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Who is this webinar for?

9. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
One simple question for you…
Are you the CEO of your career?

10. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
A little bit about me - professionally
• Have done every job from software engineer to sales rep and failed miserably
• Got an MBA in Management and Organizational Behavior
• Became a professional coach in 2012 and have over 400+ hours of training
and 1:1 client work to date
• In 2.5 years, went from CSM to team lead to Director to VP
• Within a year, I worked myself out of my VP job
• Started Glide Consulting in January of 2015 to help CS teams make renewals
and expansions predictable

11. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
A little bit about Glide Consulting
• We have worked with everyone from early stage start-ups to Oracle
Marketing Cloud
• Our expertise is in taking customers through the 4 P’s framework - People,
Purpose, Process, Platform
• We deliver predictability in renewals and expansions
• If you want to benchmark your team against the best in CS, take a look at
the CS Strategy Power-up
• To learn more, check out http://glideconsultingllc.com/services/

12. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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Nils, how did you do all of that???
I did it with a mindset and an investment
philosophy…

13. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Nils’ Mindset
“Never settle, always push”

14. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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Nils’ Investment Philosophy
Investing in yourself is the only investment guaranteed
to pay a return!!

15. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
My Investment in Myself
From 2007 - 2016 - Personal $’s invested in myself:
~$100,000
From 2000 - 2007 - Personal $’s invested in myself:
Negligible
What’s the ROI?

16. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
3 Strategies to earn your next promotion and
advance your career in CS
• Set expectations because clarity shall set you free
• Take control by planning instead of reacting
• Master your time by automating your actions

17. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Strategy 1: Set expectations because clarity
shall set you free

18. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
What happens when you don’t set
expectations?
Uncertainty!

19. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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What does uncertainty lead to?
• Uncertainty leads to questions which lead to doubt and fear
• Uncertainty leads to missed opportunities
• Uncertainty leads to a bad reputation
• Uncertainty leads to churn
• Uncertainty leads to not earning a promotion

20. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
One technique to set expectations from the
beginning:
The CSM Stump Speech

21. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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How did you introduce yourself and set expectations
about your role with a recent customer?

22. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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What about a stump speech for a Director
or VP, does it still apply?
Yes!

23. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
3 Strategies to earn your next promotion and
advance your career in CS
• Set expectations because clarity shall set you free
• Take control by planning instead of reacting
• Master your time by automating your actions

24. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Strategy 2: Take control by planning instead
of reacting

25. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
What happens when you don’t take control
and plan?
Firefighting!

26. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
What does firefighting lead to?
• Frustration
• Lack of control
• Spinning your wheels
• Being “busy” but not necessarily “productive”

27. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Don’t expect to earn a promotion if you are
constantly firefighting.

28. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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One technique to take control and plan:
Create an account plan for your most
important accounts

29. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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What does an account plan do?
It answers the question:
Where do I need this account to be 3/6/9/12 months from now?
and then
Holds the actions to take to move towards those goals

30. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
If you don’t know where your accounts need
to be in 3/6/9/12 months…
… any road will get you there and
everything will be a priority

31. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
What about an account plan or something
similar for a Director or VP, does it still apply?
Yes!
Rename it as a team / department plan and
answer the same question

32. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
3 Strategies to earn your next promotion and
advance your career in CS
• Set expectations because clarity shall set you free
• Take control by planning instead of reacting
• Master your time by automating your actions

33. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Strategy 3: Master your time by automating
your actions

34. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
What happens when you don’t master your
time by automating your actions?
You waste your most important asset!

35. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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What does wasting time lead to?
• Inefficiency
• More work
• Letting a task fill the amount of time you have instead of the time
it should take
• Not being able to focus on the important things

36. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
A few techniques to master your time and
automate your actions

37. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Technique 1 for mastering time and
automation:
• Use calendly.com or something similar to create different links
for your calendar accessibility.
• Use 1 for clients, one for internal teams, one for your CS
team etc.
• Define the times you are available for each group and then
use the link to protect your time by only being available when
you decide to be available.

38. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Technique 2 for mastering time and
automation:
• Automate your common emails with TextExpander.
• Have your most common emails, sentences, phrases etc.
accessible by any key combination you want.
• How many times have you copied/pasted your conference
line details into a meeting request or forgotten to do it?
• Don’t waste time doing the same thing over and over.

39. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Technique 3 for mastering time and
automation:
• Build templates for your regular customer engagements
• These could be email, meeting setup, documentation
resources, meeting follow-up, kickoff/QBR ppt’s etc.
• If you are spending time preparing for a meeting by creating a
new ppt deck from scratch, you are wasting your time.
• Build templates for the common things you do and then
customize it for each scenario.

40. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Technique 4 for mastering time and
automation:
• Sign up for a virtual Time Mastery Course
• We created CSM Time Mastery specifically for CSM’s
• There are many other courses available, find one that’s right
for you

41. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Do the same techniques apply to
Directors and VP’s?
Yes!

42. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
3 Strategies to earn your next promotion and
advance your career in CS
• Set expectations because clarity shall set you free
• Take control by planning instead of reacting
• Master your time by automating your actions

43. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
You are the CEO of your career …
… and the only one that can decide
where you will go

44. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Request a demo with Amity
getamity.com/demo

45. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
#CSwebinar @GetAmity @NilsVinje
Q & A

46. Expert Advice: How to Grow Your Career in Customer
Success
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Thank you for being here!
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