turn into a CCO: 4 buyer leaders share how they leveled up

Fast Abstract: Wish to turn into a CCO? Begin by shifting from execution to technique. These 5 key classes from CS leaders will allow you to prioritize like an govt, align together with your gross sales and product counterparts, and navigate the IC-to-leadership leap.

Management in buyer success isn’t nearly shifting up; it’s about leveling up. That shift from managing a staff to main a corporation calls for extra than simply expertise. It requires a mindset change.

As Abby Hammer, chief buyer and product officer at ChurnZero, put it at ZERO-IN 2024: “As a supervisor, you’re execution and timelines. However as a pacesetter, you’re considering: the place are we going? What’s going to break in six months? And the way do I get forward of it now?”

This type of strategic foresight—the power to anticipate friction and steer via ambiguity—is what separates operational excellence from govt impression. It’s one among a number of classes gained from ZERO-IN 2024’s keynote panel of seasoned CS leaders: Polly Speros, chief income officer, Gasoline Cycle; Jo-Ann Chiam, chief shopper officer, AudienceView, and Nikki Briggs, chief buyer officer, Scaled Agile; with Abby Hammer moderating.

Discover out extra about ZERO-IN, the important buyer development convention, and our 2025 agenda.

turn into a CCO as a buyer success chief

With an viewers of a whole bunch of buyer leaders, these execs shared the teachings they’ve discovered on their option to the C-suite. Listed below are 5 of probably the most impactful takeaways, with video clips to convey their recommendation to life. You may watch the complete dialogue on the finish.

1: There’s an enormous distinction between execution and technique.

Managing is about hitting identified objectives. Main is about determining learn how to get to the unknown ones. As Jo-Ann places it, management is imagining what’s potential and being the one on the accountability block to make it actual. It means stepping again from the day-to-day, unlocking the white house, and harnessing your staff’s concepts—not simply driving duties.

2. Resilience is desk stakes. Prioritization is the multiplier.

There’s no model of senior management with out adversity. However resilience alone isn’t a technique. The leaders on stage all harassed one operational behavior that separates the excessive performers: prioritization

“In the event you can’t prioritize,” says Polly, “you’re going to have hassle getting issues completed.” Success isn’t about doing extra; it’s about deciding what to not do, and creating methods that scale. This implies:

1. Begin from outcomes, not exercise
Polly provided a sensible body: There are 12 weeks in each quarter. The place do you wish to be on the finish of these 12 weeks? Work backward from that reply. Let it form the way you construction your staff’s work, calendar, and communication. Deal with motion, not movement.

2. Delegate with intent
When requested what function delegation performs in prioritization, Polly didn’t hesitate: “Eighty %.”

Leaders who fail to delegate are likely to mistake management for high quality, and keep caught in IC mode. Delegation isn’t abdication; it’s an funding in readability and scale.

3. Construct methods, not workarounds
In the event you’re fixing the identical drawback each quarter: a hearth drill on renewals, a late-stage enlargement that fails attributable to lack of CS involvement, a help backlog spilling into QBRs, cease. Step again and design a greater system as a substitute. Sturdy CS management is constructed on repeatable, predictable progress, not heroic efforts.

3: Your title issues lower than the impression you make.

Discussing a current re-org, Polly shared what she tells staff members who really feel unsure about their new titles:

“If you wish to discover a nook of the universe and conquer it, I’ll write up a enterprise card that claims ‘Emperor of This Nook.’ I don’t care what your title is.”

As an alternative, she says, give attention to the work that basically issues.

4: Adapt and align to the broader enterprise construction.

Your staff doesn’t function in a vacuum, so adapt to your organization’s present constructions. Nikki shared how structuring her CS staff to reflect the gross sales group has helped her drive impression at scale.

“We’ve regional gross sales territories, so I mentioned: our CSMs are going to be assigned like that,” she says. “It truly units up a very good expertise for the shopper.”

This construction promotes day by day collaboration throughout useful traces, with stronger outcomes all over the place.

5: Your greatest govt ally depends upon your small business objectives (however the CFO all the time issues).

In the course of the session, we requested our panelists: In the event you might solely choose one “BFF” on the manager staff, who wouldn’t it be: the CMO, CFO, CSO, or CPO? Whereas a fast ballot of the shopper leaders within the viewers favored the CPO, our panelists responses have been extra nuanced.

Polly picked the CPO, emphasizing alignment on innovation vs. buyer want.
Nikki selected the CSO, citing the worth of seamless collaboration in entrance of the shopper.
Joanne, deep in budgeting season, went with the CFO, underscoring the operational necessity of monetary readability.

The takeaways for CS leaders: choose your relationships strategically, and put money into those that transfer the enterprise ahead, not simply your operate.