Hire Customer Success Talent in 2025

Why Smart Companies Prioritize Customer Success Hiring

Let’s clear the air on something important: when you hire customer success talent, you’re not just filling another support role. You are making a direct investment in the long-term health and revenue of your business. For years, many companies treated this function as a cost center, but the most forward-thinking leaders now recognize it as a powerful growth driver.

More Than Just Relationship Management

A top-tier Customer Success Manager (CSM) does far more than just keep clients happy; they act as strategic partners who actively prevent churn and identify new opportunities for expansion. A good CSM doesn’t sit back and wait for a support ticket. They integrate themselves into a client’s workflow, learn their business goals, and make sure your product is central to achieving them.

This proactive approach can turn a content customer into a vocal champion for your brand. It’s the difference between a client who passively renews and one who champions adding more seats or upgrading to a premium tier. This is precisely why the competition for great CS talent is so fierce—companies understand these professionals have a direct impact on the bottom line.

Calculating the True ROI of a CS Hire

The return on a great CS hire goes well beyond saving a handful of at-risk accounts. Their true value is measured in their ability to boost Net Revenue Retention (NRR), a critical metric for any subscription-based company. When a CSM guides a customer to their desired outcome, that customer is far more likely to expand their use of your product.

Consider this: a mere 5% improvement in customer retention can increase profitability by an astounding 25% to 95%. This isn’t just about saving revenue; it’s about actively generating it from your most valuable asset—your existing customers.

A Clear Shift in Hiring Priorities

This isn’t just a theory; it’s a measurable trend unfolding across industries, particularly within tech and SaaS. As businesses place a greater focus on retention over acquisition, especially during economic shifts, customer success hiring is set to continue its upward trajectory through 2025. This is backed by a booming market for CS tools, with the global customer success platforms market projected to hit $3.1 billion by 2026.

To give you a better idea of how this plays out across different sectors, here’s a look at some hiring trends.

As the table shows, while the need for CS professionals is universal, the specific skills and hiring urgency differ. Fast-paced industries like SaaS and FinTech demand a more technical and revenue-focused skill set, leading to a more competitive hiring environment.

It’s essential to distinguish this proactive, strategic function from traditional customer service. While both are critical, customer service is generally reactive, focused on resolving issues as they happen. Customer success, on the other hand, is about proactively delivering value to prevent those issues in the first place. You can discover more compelling customer success statistics to build your case, or learn how to build a world-class reactive team in our guide to hiring customer service professionals in LATAM.

What Today’s Customer Success Roles Actually Look Like

Before you can even think about how to hire customer success talent, we need to get one thing straight: the role has completely changed. Forget the old idea of a Customer Success Manager (CSM) as a glorified support agent, rushing to put out customer fires. That’s a relic of the past.

Today’s CSM is a proactive, strategic partner. They operate much more like a business consultant than a traditional account manager. Their main job isn’t just to keep customers happy; it’s to make them genuinely successful with your product. This means they get deeply involved in their clients’ business goals, guiding them on how to use your features to crush their own KPIs. This shift from simple relationship management to delivering real value changes everything.

From Putting Out Fires to Driving Strategy

I like to think of a modern CSM as a true extension of your client’s team. Instead of sitting back and waiting for a help ticket, they’re constantly digging into usage data, looking for both risks and opportunities. For instance, if they see a client isn’t using a key feature that could skyrocket their ROI, they’ll set up a strategy call to walk them through its value in a way that connects directly to that client’s goals.

This isn’t just a small shift; it’s a complete overhaul of the function. The entire field is moving from conversations about product features to partnerships built on value delivery. In fact, many experts predict that by 2025, customer teams will increasingly own growth targets, working alongside clients to hit shared business goals. They are becoming ‘success architects’ who map customer needs to tangible solutions. You can explore the full forecast on these evolving CS trends to get a better sense of where the industry is headed.

Key Skills That Drive Business Impact

Since the role is now much more strategic and analytical, the skills you’re looking for have changed, too. When you’re looking at candidates, a friendly personality is great, but it’s just the starting point. The best CSMs have a powerful mix of commercial smarts and people skills. You want someone who can build a solid relationship while also driving account growth and product adoption.

Here are the core skills to look for:

• Commercial Acumen: They need to understand how businesses work and be able to spot opportunities for expansion (like upsells and cross-sells) that feel helpful, not pushy.
• Data-Informed Decision Making: They’re comfortable getting their hands dirty with data, using product analytics and customer health scores to decide what to do next.
• Consultative Communication: They can confidently lead a strategic business review with an executive because they speak the language of ROI and can connect your product’s value directly to what the customer wants to achieve.
• Proactive Problem-Solving: They don’t just solve today’s problems; they see tomorrow’s coming. They build success plans and anticipate roadblocks to keep customers on the right path.

Finding Customer Success Talent in Unexpected Places

Let’s be honest, the A-players you truly want aren’t spending their days refreshing job boards. They’re busy excelling in their current roles. While posting on the major platforms is a decent starting point, the real art of how to hire customer success professionals lies in finding these passive, high-impact people before your competitors do. It’s about shifting your mindset from filling a vacancy to exploring a community of talent.

Search for Skills, Not Just Titles

Some of the most effective CSMs I’ve ever worked with didn’t have “Customer Success” on their resumes before they joined. Their secret weapon was a set of transferable skills they had perfected in other demanding, client-facing jobs. When you stop looking for a perfect 1:1 resume match, you discover a huge pool of candidates who have the exact qualities you need.

For instance, think about the natural talent coming from fields like:

• Account Management: These professionals are masters at building relationships and spotting opportunities for growth.
• Hospitality Management: They have unrivaled experience in managing client expectations and solving problems under pressure, always with a positive attitude.
• Teaching or Corporate Training: They are experts at clear communication, showing empathy, and guiding people to that “aha!” moment of understanding.
• Project Management: These individuals are incredibly organized, skilled at juggling timelines, and keeping everyone on the same page.

These backgrounds are breeding grounds for people with immense relational intelligence and a proactive approach—two things that are very hard to teach but are essential for a great CSM. Your next superstar hire could easily be an account manager seeking a more strategic role or a teacher ready to apply their guidance skills in a new environment.

Engage Talent Where They Learn and Connect

Instead of the old “post and pray” method, you need to go where top talent actually spends their time. This means becoming an active participant in the online communities where they share knowledge and build connections. This is particularly true when sourcing from regions like Latin America, where local tech communities are incredibly vibrant and engaged.

Try joining industry-specific channels on Slack or Discord. Follow and interact with influential CS leaders on LinkedIn—not with a generic sales pitch, but with thoughtful comments on their posts. The objective here isn’t to recruit on day one; it’s to build your network and position your company as a great place to work.

When you spot someone consistently offering smart, helpful advice in a forum, that’s your cue. These are the passionate, knowledgeable people you want. A simple, casual message like, “I really appreciated your take on X, have you ever thought about applying that skill in a SaaS environment?” is worlds more effective than a cold recruiting email. This method helps you create a pipeline of warm leads, so when it’s time to hire, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re simply choosing from a list of pre-vetted, high-potential individuals you already know.

Interviewing Customer Success Candidates the Right Way

The interview is your single most important tool for finding the right person. To hire customer success professionals who actually move the needle, you need to toss out the generic interview script. Your goal is to see how they think, solve problems, and build strategic relationships when the pressure is on—not just who rehearsed the best answers.

A well-run interview uncovers a candidate’s potential to create real value for your customers, which goes far beyond just being likable.

Go Beyond Standard Questions

Let’s be honest, asking “Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult customer” is a waste of everyone’s time. Every candidate has a polished, pre-packaged story for that one. Instead, you need to dig deeper with questions that reveal their fundamental approach to the customer success role. These questions force them to think on their feet and show you their process.

Here are a few examples of behavioral questions that actually tell you something useful:

• “Describe a time you had to proactively identify a customer risk before it exploded into a major problem. What data did you look at, and what happened?”
• “Walk me through how you would prep for a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) with one of our most important accounts. What information would you bring to that meeting?”
• “Tell me about a time you convinced a customer to adopt a new feature or change their workflow. What was your strategy to get them on board?”

These questions directly test for proactivity, data-driven decision-making, and consultative skills—the essential trio for any modern Customer Success Manager (CSM).

Test for Strategic Thinking with Real Scenarios

Give your candidates a realistic challenge they might face on the job. Present them with a short summary of a fictional client who is at risk of churning. Include a few key data points, like low product adoption and an upcoming renewal date. Then, ask them for their 90-day plan to save the account.

Pay close attention to how they structure their response. Do they immediately suggest calling the customer? Or do they start by analyzing the data to understand what’s really going on? A top-tier candidate will always diagnose the root cause before they start prescribing solutions. This exercise is one of the best ways to separate strategic thinkers from purely reactive problem-solvers.

Another critical element is their comfort with technology. With over half of CS teams expected to use AI by 2025, adaptability is key. This tech isn’t replacing CSMs; it’s freeing them up from routine work to focus on strategy. For instance, AI chatbots can handle 70% of basic queries, and predictive analytics can identify potential churn 50% faster. A candidate who shows curiosity about these tools is a major green flag. You can discover more insights into CS technology trends to stay ahead of the curve.

Watch out for red flags, too. Be wary of candidates who talk a lot about building personal relationships but can’t connect those relationships back to business value. If they stumble when asked about metrics like Net Revenue Retention (NRR) or customer health scores, that’s another warning sign. The best hires are always focused on customer outcomes, not just customer happiness.

To bring structure to your interviews, we’ve developed a framework. This helps you consistently evaluate every candidate against the skills that truly matter for customer success.

Customer Success Interview Assessment Framework

Structured evaluation criteria for CS candidate interviews

By using a framework like this, you move beyond gut feelings and intuition. You start making data-backed hiring decisions that directly support your company’s goals for customer retention and growth.

Closing Deals With Customer Success Professionals

You’ve made it through the interviews and have your sights set on the perfect candidate. Now it’s time to make the offer, but this is where many companies stumble. When you want to hire customer success talent, you have to understand what truly drives them. They aren’t wired like sales reps chasing the next commission, nor are they motivated by the pure technical puzzles that an engineer might love. To get a “yes,” your offer needs to resonate with their unique professional identity.

Beyond the Paycheck: What CS Talent Values

The best Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are fueled by making a real impact. They need to see, with their own eyes, that their efforts are helping customers succeed and find value. While a competitive salary is a basic requirement, it’s almost never the single reason a top candidate accepts a job. They are hunting for a role where they can genuinely make a difference.

This means they’ll be reading between the lines of your offer, looking for clues about your company culture and their own growth potential. They want a career trajectory, not just a job. A vague mention of “future opportunities” is a red flag. They need to see a clear path from CSM to Senior CSM, Team Lead, or a more strategic position. Just as important are the resources you provide. A fantastic offer can lose all its appeal if a candidate suspects they’ll be stuck with clunky software or have to beg for the basic tools to do their job well.

Crafting a Compelling and Competitive Package

The offer you put on the table should directly reflect the immense responsibility a great CSM holds. Think about it: a single CSM often manages a book of business worth between $1.5M and $2M in ARR. Your compensation package has to recognize that you’re not just hiring for a role; you’re investing in someone who will protect millions in revenue.

To make your offer impossible to ignore, build a package around benefits that feed their professional ambitions and set them up for success:

• A dedicated professional development budget: Go beyond just mentioning it. Offer to cover specific certifications, tickets to industry conferences, or relevant online courses. This is a clear signal that you are serious about investing in their long-term growth.
• Access to a modern tech stack: Name the tools they’ll be using. Mentioning that they’ll have access to a platform like Gainsight or ChurnZero shows that you treat customer success as a critical business function.
• Clear performance metrics tied to customer outcomes: Structure bonuses around metrics that matter, like Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and improvements in customer health scores, rather than just tracking calls or emails.
• Real autonomy: Give them the power to make decisions. Can they offer a small discount or a free training session to save an at-risk account without jumping through bureaucratic hoops? This trust is invaluable.

Your goal is to present a complete opportunity that aligns with who they are as professionals. If your offer is all about the salary, you’re missing the bigger picture of what makes great CS talent tick—and you’ll likely lose them to a company that truly gets it.

Onboarding That Sets CS Hires Up for Success

Getting that signed offer feels like a huge win, but the real work starts now. After you hire customer success talent, a disorganized or rushed onboarding can quickly erase all your hard work, turning an excited new hire into a disconnected one. This process is more than just a checklist and a laptop; it’s how you ensure your new Customer Success Manager (CSM) can start delivering value from day one.

From Product Knowledge to Customer Wisdom

Of course, your new hire needs to learn your product inside and out. But they can’t just memorize a list of features—they need to understand the why behind them. They should grasp how specific functions solve real problems for the people who use your product every day. A great way to do this is to have them sit in on a few sessions with a product manager to see the roadmap and learn the logic behind key development decisions.

Product expertise is only one piece of the puzzle, though. They also need deep customer empathy. The best way to build this is to throw them right into the customer’s world. Let them listen to recorded sales calls to understand initial pain points and have them shadow support agents as they tackle live tickets. This kind of raw, unfiltered exposure offers an education on customer frustrations and goals that no training manual can ever provide.

Defining Success in the First 90 Days

A single CSM can often be responsible for a book of business worth anywhere from $1.3M to over $2M, so their performance needs a clear definition from the very beginning. Ambiguous goals only lead to mediocre results. Instead, build a 30-60-90 day plan that focuses on concrete outcomes, not just a list of tasks. Mentorship is also key here; pair your new hire with a seasoned CSM who can act as their buddy for day-to-day questions and help them learn the ropes.

Your plan should outline clear, measurable milestones that build on each other. Here’s a simple framework:

• The First 30 Days: This period is all about immersion and internal learning. The primary goal is for them to complete all product training, get familiar with your key customer personas, and be able to clearly articulate your company’s value proposition.
• The First 60 Days: Now it’s time to start engaging. Your new CSM should begin managing a small, controlled group of lower-risk accounts. They can also co-host Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with their mentor to see the process in action.
• The First 90 Days: The focus shifts toward autonomy. By the end of this period, the goal is for them to independently manage their starting book of business and successfully onboard their first new customer, setting them on a clear path to making a long-term impact.

Your Customer Success Hiring Action Plan

Okay, theory is great, but how do you actually put this into practice? A successful plan to hire customer success talent isn’t about getting lucky; it’s about building a repeatable, structured process. This action plan will help you move from simply interviewing people to strategically building a world-class CS team.

Crafting Your Core Hiring Assets

Before you even post a job, you need the right tools in your hiring toolkit. These assets are designed to both attract the right people and help you identify the true top performers.

Your job description is more than a list of duties—it’s your first sales pitch. Don’t just talk about tasks; sell the impact of the role. Mention the ownership they will have over their book of business and explain how they will directly contribute to the company’s Net Revenue Retention (NRR). This attracts candidates driven by results, not just a to-do list.

To remove “gut feelings” from the equation, create a simple interview scorecard. Base it on the core competencies you value most, like proactivity and commercial acumen. This ensures every interviewer is evaluating candidates against the same criteria, which promotes fairness and leads to better decisions.

A detailed 90-Day Onboarding Checklist is absolutely essential. A new hire’s success is often determined in their first few months. Your plan should map out key milestones, from achieving product mastery to taking full ownership of their first accounts.

The Onboarding Blueprint

Once you’ve made the hire, their real journey begins. This minimalist flowchart visualizes the essential stages of a customer success onboarding program that actually works.

The visualization drives home a critical point: success isn’t random. It’s the outcome of a logical sequence that takes a new hire from establishing role clarity to empowering them with specific goals and dedicated training.

Your action plan shouldn’t stop after a single hire. The real goal is to build a sustainable talent pipeline, which means you’re always networking and identifying potential candidates, even when you don’t have an open role. This proactive approach applies beyond CS, too. You can learn more in our article about hiring tech talent in Latin America to see how this strategy can be expanded.

Ready to find elite customer success talent without the usual friction? Nearshore Business Solutions connects you with pre-vetted, top-tier professionals in Latin America who are ready to drive results for your business.

Build your world-class remote team with us today.