Sourcing CSM salary range!

Joseph Champion

Hi all!

Does anyone have any resources they can recommend that have proven to be accurate/reliable when it comes to researching current industry-wide CSM salary ranges?

I know there is lots out there (and also lots of range...especially when filtered by location!) but wondered if folks had experience of something they found most efficient/helpful!

Thank you!

Joe

Harsh Shah

Hi Joseph,

That's a great question and I believe this would be really helpful for anyone who is trying to start their career in the Customer Success industry. Before I answer this question, let me mention that there is no accurate way because there are different ranges in the market based on various parameters. Still, below are my experiences or ways to find the closest reliable salary range. 

1. Based on job location, try to find the most used salary calculator (I am from India so here we use Glassdoor to get a salary range based on different individuals inputs)
2. Connect with people from similar industries, roles, experience & location 
3. Ask some of your HR friends or HR agencies that operate in a similar region
4. Connect with company employees/friends to know about the Payscale (This is the most difficult one if you don't know anyone from the company in which you're trying to get hired so you have to be extra careful)
5. Ask some of the industry leaders
   

With the above ways, you can get an idea about the salary range but most importantly one should have a clarity about the salary expectations based on his/her experience & knowledge.

I hope this would be useful!!

Jordan Silverman

@Joseph Champion good morning! Totango puts together a really awesome report each year.

Here is a link to 2021's report -

https://www.totango.com/whitepapers/2021-state-of-customer-success-industry-and-salary-report

Kelsey Peterson

@Jordan Silverman - holy smokes this Totango piece is fantastic.  I just pinned to my team's channel for sharing learnings.  The salary ranges feel right to me, though a bit low in today's climate (particularly for individual contributor CSMs).

@Joseph Champion - if helpful, our CSMs have their base salary then variable comp (a set % of flat renewals and an increased % on upsells/uplift at renewal).  They stand to earn about $10-15k per year in their variable (assuming they hit their targets, which most do).

Julia Weinstock

Hey Joseph, 

Catalyst, a Customer Success Saas platform, recently put out a Customer Success Compensation Report that you may find useful as well! 

Best,
Julia

Jeff Heckler

https://www.totango.com/whitepapers/2021-state-of-customer-success-industry-and-salary-report

@Jordan Silverman thanks for sharing, however, a 404 error displays when trying to access the link.

I was able to access via Google search.  Odd...

Jordan Silverman

Thanks @Jeff Heckler - just tried to update the link hopefully working now!

Joseph Champion

@Julia Weinstock @Jordan Silverman thank you both for the Totango and Catalyst reports you shared, I'll definitely check these out!

Part Two of my question (!) would be: do you guys (or anyone else) have a pulse/feel/understanding for how the industry is typically handles salary ranges across different states/regions?!? Obviously many SaaS companies are now open to fully remote/asynchronous work environments so working out of state might now be more of an option for employees...wondering if anyone has experience of how compensation might get adjusted?

Jordan Silverman

At MarketMan we are 100% remote so salaries are based on role not location (entry level CSM in NY, CA, or KS all make the same).

Two examples of how other companies do it:
1) Buffer - https://buffer.com/salaries
2) Twitter
- Tier 1 makes base (think NY, San Fran, London)
- Tier 2 (Chicago, LA, Miami, Paris) make 5% less
- Tier 3 10% less
- Etc.

I am making up the % and cities on Twitter but should give you some insight into how they think about it.

Hopefully this helps out!