Customer Success Glossary

Customer Success, like a lot of corporate jobs, has a lot of jargon. In this post I’ll define categories and terms I use, or that you might run into in an application or in an interview.

Haters will say “you should know this stuff already!” And now, you will 🙂 

Job Categories

Experienced Customer Success Managers

These jobs generally require 2-5 years of experience as a CSM, and are best suited for experience with Mid-Market, SMB, Scaled Programs.

Senior, Enterprise and Principal Customer Success Managers

These jobs generally require 4+ years of experience as a CSM, and/or specific Enterprise, Named Account, or Fortune 500 experience.

Leadership

These jobs generally require 2+ years of experience managing a team or teams, as well as individual contributor experience. I share leadership over Customer Success Teams, Ops Teams, Strategy Teams etc.

Onboarding and Implementation

These jobs are specifically for functionally project-based onboarding and implementation. Customer Success roles that are also responsible for onboarding are posted in the “Experienced” and “Senior” categories.

Account Management, Renewals, Commercial

These jobs are specifically for functionally commercial roles. Customer Success roles that are also responsible for upsells and renewals are posted in the “Experienced” and “Senior” categories.

CS Engineering, Consulting, Analysts

These jobs are specifically for functionally technical and analytical roles. Customer Success roles that are also responsible for process building or internal strategy are posted in the “Operations & Program Management” category.

Operations & Program Management

These jobs are specifically for functionally operational and strategic internal roles. Operational and strategic roles that also manage a team are posted in the “Leadership” category.

Acronyms

CSM

Customer Success Manager. Typically, CSMs are the point of contact for a customer, advocating for their customers to leadership and Product, managing the health over the lifecycle of an account. Some CSMs may be responsible for onboarding, customer training, and renewals, while some organizations may separate these into different roles. CSMs are generally accountable to product adoption and renewals.

AM

Account Manager. In some orgs, an Account Manager is functionally a CSM, though typically is more like a post-sales AE (see below), managing the commercial relationship of an existing customer. They may be responsible for upsells, cross sells, and renewals. In some orgs, the duties of an AM may be split between a CSM and AE or wholly owned by one or the other. AMs are generally accountable to upsells, cross sells and renewals.

AE

Account Executive. A typical sales organization has teams of SDRs (see below) and AEs, where AEs are responsible for the demo and closing the account. AEs are generally accountable to closing new business.

ISR

Inside Sales Representative. Functionally similar to an AE, but focused on inbound leads, so typically the sales cycle is shorter and they handle more volume.

SDR

Sales Development Representative. SDRs are typically responsible for generating outbound leads, via email, phone, or other means, and convincing them to book a demo. May be used interchangeably with BDR (see below). SDRs are generally accountable to booking leads onto calls with an AE.

BDR

Business Development Representative. Functionally the same as an SDR across the industry, but the term may be used interchangeably. It may also be used interchangeably with MDR (see below).

MDR

Marketing Development Representative. Similar to an SDR, MDRs are responsible for book leads to a demo, but they are generally focused inbound, on leads generated from marketing content and activities. MDRs are generally accountable to booking leads onto calls with an AE or an ISR.

CX

Customer Experience. Used to broadly describe all post-sales functions, like Success, but also may include Support, Onboarding, Education, Professional Services, etc.

QBRs

Quarterly Business Review. CSMs with a smaller book of business may hold these meetings every quarter, where a larger book may have to prioritize. A good QBR should communicate the value of the product and how much ROI the product and CSM have helped drive.

OTE

On Target Earnings. Used in job descriptions to represent total compensation, including potential bonuses and the value of equity offers. Used primarily in a role that has a performance based bonus ie CSMs have to hit a certain renewal percentage every quarter to achieve their full compensation.

EMEA

Europe, Middle East, and Africa. It’s an abbreviation used in Sales Territories that occasionally spills over into Success. You may see it in job postings if they are looking for specific geographic coverage.

APAC

Asia-Pacific. It’s an abbreviation used in Sales Territories that occasionally spills over into Success. You may see it in job postings if they are looking for specific geographic coverage.

LATAM

Latin America. It’s an abbreviation used in Sales Territories that occasionally spills over into Success. You may see it in job postings if they are looking for specific geographic coverage.

NA

North America. It’s an abbreviation used in Sales Territories that occasionally spills over into Success. You may see it in job postings if they are looking for specific geographic coverage.

ROW

Rest of World. Usually used in conjunction with NA (see above). Not typical, but the first time I encountered it was a head scratcher!

TCV

Total Contract Value. The total amount a customer is paying your company over the contract term.

Job Terms

Renewals

Generally, the reason most companies have a Success org is to manage renewals: the practice of retaining a customer and getting them to sign a new annual contract.

Enterprise

Each organization defines Enterprise differently, but it is usually one of if not the highest Success segment, with companies representing a very large spend, generally Fortune 500 or larger. Most Enterprise CSMs have a small book of business with a high TCV.