Customer Success Manager

Overview

You manage a portfolio of B2B software companies that use UserEvidence to collect customer stories, manage advocate relationships, and provide references. You work primarily with marketing and customer marketing leaders at mid-market and enterprise software companies. Your job is to keep them actively using the platform, prove ROI on their investment, and expand usage as they see value.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Early-stage (67 employees, likely Series A/B based on size)

Size: 67 employees

Growth: Small team means each CSM likely carries more impact and visibility

Market Position: Category creator - "customer evidence platforms" is relatively new, so lots of customer education required

GTM Reality

Your Book:

• Likely managing 15-25 accounts (smaller book given company size and need for high-touch)
• Customers are B2B software companies with 500+ end users selling expensive products
• You're the primary relationship owner post-sale

Internal Collaboration:

• Work closely with AEs on expansion opportunities
• Partner with product team on feedback and feature requests
• Coordinate with marketing on case studies from successful customers

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Point solutions (G2, reference management tools, advocate platforms), homegrown spreadsheets/processes

How They Differentiate: All-in-one platform for evidence + advocates + references vs. stitching together multiple tools

Common Objections: "We already manage this manually", "Do we really need another platform?", ROI proof on soft marketing metrics

Win Themes: Time savings for marketing teams, better buyer experience, data-driven evidence strategy

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Customer Calls/QBRs (35%) | Usage Monitoring/Outreach (25%) | Expansion Planning (20%) | Internal Work (20%)

Key Activities

• Weekly/Bi-weekly Check-ins: You're talking to customer marketing managers about how they're collecting evidence, which advocates are engaged, and where they're stuck. Lots of "have you tried..." conversations to drive feature adoption.
• Usage Monitoring: You're in the platform daily checking who's logging in, which accounts are going stale, and which features aren't being used. When someone hasn't logged in for 2 weeks, you're reaching out.
• QBRs and ROI Reporting: You build quarterly reports showing customers how many case studies they've collected, how many references they've coordinated, time saved vs. manual processes. You're proving value in a category that's still educating the market.
• Expansion Conversations: When customers are getting value, you're identifying opportunities to add seats, expand to other teams, or upgrade tiers. This means understanding their org structure and finding new stakeholders.
• Renewal Management: Starting renewal conversations 90+ days out, addressing objections, justifying budget when marketing spend gets scrutinized.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Category Education: You're constantly explaining why this deserves dedicated budget and headcount attention vs. "we'll just do it manually"
• Proving ROI: Marketing ROI metrics are squishy. You're building business cases around time savings and reference match rates, not clear revenue attribution
• Champion Turnover: Your main contact (customer marketing manager) might leave, and suddenly you're rebuilding the relationship with someone who didn't choose the tool
• Usage Variability: Some customers go all-in, others buy it and barely use it. You spend a lot of time trying to re-engage dormant accounts
• Small Company Dynamics: At 67 people, there's less process, more ambiguity, and you'll wear multiple hats

What Success Looks Like

• Maintaining 95%+ gross retention (customers renewing)
• Achieving 110-120% net retention (expansions offset any downgrades)
• High feature adoption rates across your book
• Customers actively submitting case studies and advocate stories through the platform
• Proactive expansion conversations leading to upsells

Who You're Working With

Primary Contacts:

• Customer Marketing Managers (day-to-day users)
• Marketing Directors/VPs (budget owners at renewal time)
• Occasionally Customer Success leaders (if they use the reference matching features)

What They Care About:

• Making their job easier (less spreadsheet wrangling)
• Looking good to their VP by having proof points ready
• Response rates when they need customer references for deals
• Having fresh customer stories for content and campaigns
• Justifying budget spend with concrete outcomes

Requirements

• 2-4 years CSM experience, ideally with marketing or sales tools
• Comfortable talking to marketing leaders about campaign strategy and content
• Experience managing a book of 15-25 accounts with retention and expansion goals
• Able to build business cases and ROI reports for renewals
• Comfortable in early-stage environments with less structure
• Understanding of B2B buying process and how proof points influence decisions
• Willing to get hands-on with customers in the platform (not just strategic calls)