CSMs - Product Experts or Relationship Manager??
Contributor 
Hi everyone,
I am the Senior Manager of Account Management at a growth company in healthcare IT/SaaS. Our company is at an inflection point where we are growing very quickly due to the release of new products and rapid growth in our customer base. The current CSM structure is that each CSM serves as the designated point of contact for all of our customers for ALL products that customer has purchased from our company (currently 3 products). This means the CSM is expected to maintain a very in depth level of knowledge of all three of our products, which are very different from each other and solve very different problems for our customer base.
I went to leadership to propose that we move to a product specific CSM model so that our CSMs can continue to be subject matter experts and provide more value to our customers, without having to face the dilemma of being a "jack of all trades, but a master of none". The obvious downside to this model is that the customer no longer has 1 dedicated point of contact for all matters with our company, but now has the potential to have 2 CSMs vs. 1 CSM.
The majority of leadership liked the idea, with the exception of our CEO. Our CEO feels that it is important the customer has a dedicated point person at our company that manages the entire customer relationship. I don't disagree that that is important, but our CSMs can't play both roles - the relationship manager, AND the product expert on all products.
I'd love to hear how others have tackled this issue, or what type of structure you've adopted when you've reached a similar inflection point. Do we think providing a dedicated subject matter expert to assist with driving outcomes by product is more important than a dedicated relationship manager? Vice versa?
Really appreciate any insights and guidance on this topic.
I am the Senior Manager of Account Management at a growth company in healthcare IT/SaaS. Our company is at an inflection point where we are growing very quickly due to the release of new products and rapid growth in our customer base. The current CSM structure is that each CSM serves as the designated point of contact for all of our customers for ALL products that customer has purchased from our company (currently 3 products). This means the CSM is expected to maintain a very in depth level of knowledge of all three of our products, which are very different from each other and solve very different problems for our customer base.
I went to leadership to propose that we move to a product specific CSM model so that our CSMs can continue to be subject matter experts and provide more value to our customers, without having to face the dilemma of being a "jack of all trades, but a master of none". The obvious downside to this model is that the customer no longer has 1 dedicated point of contact for all matters with our company, but now has the potential to have 2 CSMs vs. 1 CSM.
The majority of leadership liked the idea, with the exception of our CEO. Our CEO feels that it is important the customer has a dedicated point person at our company that manages the entire customer relationship. I don't disagree that that is important, but our CSMs can't play both roles - the relationship manager, AND the product expert on all products.
I'd love to hear how others have tackled this issue, or what type of structure you've adopted when you've reached a similar inflection point. Do we think providing a dedicated subject matter expert to assist with driving outcomes by product is more important than a dedicated relationship manager? Vice versa?
Really appreciate any insights and guidance on this topic.