Almost every customer success manager I've met shares one defining trait: we're driven to win. We thrive on the gratification that comes from knowing our efforts helped something or someone succeed.

While this often translates to celebrating our customers' closed-won deals, pipeline growth, or revenue milestones, it also drives our individual career progression, both as individual contributors and as future team leaders.

But here's the challenge: due to the multifaceted nature of what we do—relationship management, churn prevention, internal coordination, support activities, and more—it can be difficult to identify which specific skills or activities truly move the needle in demonstrating we're ready to grow.

While countless professional coaches online offer varying perspectives (and some are certainly valuable), I wanted to share what a current, active CS practitioner knows actually drives career advancement.

3 Critical Skills Every CSM Should Invest Time In Mastering

Rather than overwhelming you with an endless list, let's focus on the three fundamental skills every CSM needs to master for career progression:

1. Closing Renewals

2. Risk Identification and Mitigation

3. Extreme Ownership

Closing Renewals

This might seem obvious, as CSMs, we're undoubtedly the front line for renewals and revenue retention. Yet many still feel lost when it comes to navigating and, more importantly, closing renewals.

Successful renewal management requires understanding several key components across a strategic timeline:

The key insight? Closing a renewal starts months before the actual renewal date. Ideally, you're beginning this process 8-12 months early. The more time you have to understand someone's renewal sentiment, the more opportunity you have to positively influence that sentiment.

8+ Months Before Renewal

We spend countless hours with our customers, often deep in the weeds: building use cases, solving tickets, conducting trainings. All that "heads down, hands on keyboard" time can make it an afterthought to actually gauge how they feel about the platform.

Take time for temperature checks. Ask the pointed question: "Would you renew if your renewal was today?"

Be prepared for negative responses, they will happen. When they do, ask follow-up questions. Then ask more. Keep digging until you understand the "why" behind their sentiment, whether negative or positive.

By the end of this phase, you should know:

• Whether they would renew right now

• Who will be involved in the renewal process (Legal, Procurement, Finance, etc.)

• How to develop an action plan addressing any concerns

4 Months Before Renewal

You've been executing your action plan, and ideally, your customer is seeing positive results. Now pricing discussions typically begin and this is where things get challenging.

To excel as a CSM, you must handle commercial conversations confidently, especially around renewals. This has been an area I continuously work to improve.

Strategy: Position longer-term commitments as better value. With time on your side, you can incentivize longer contracts, something many SaaS organizations have embraced.

Example Pricing Structure:

The positioning: "We want to continue partnering with you to grow your business. We've achieved so much together, and because of that success and our commitment to you, I was able to secure these terms for a two-year commitment."

Know your pricing levers and product inclusion options. Use them strategically to secure longer commitments, every business appreciates long-term customers.

3 Months or Less

This is crunch time. Ideally, you secure signatures 3+ months before renewal—it provides peace of mind, demonstrates your contract negotiation skills, and shows you've built beneficial customer relationships.

If signature hasn't happened yet, realign on:

• Why signature hasn't occurred

• What needs to happen to secure it

• Who owns which parts of the process

Finding and working with a Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) from your customer is absolute gold.