An aspiring CSM approached me after a talk I recently gave in San Francisco.

He was hoping to transfer into Customer Success without having any direct CS experience. He was on his final round of interviews and he asked about how Customer Success candidates can stand out. Without question I answered that every stand out candidate blew me away with their genuine curiosity.

Genuine because having the passion to understand, and really care about the business / person / department and shows your excitement and enthusiasm about the company for which you’re applying.

Curious because so much of customer success is having insatiable curiosity. Relentlessly trying to understand how you can provide more tailored value to a customer of yours and thoroughly understanding everything about your customer’s business.

The following list comes from hundreds of hours of Customer Success interviews. These 22 questions are a jumping off point to spark your own curiosity in prep of acing your next Customer Success interview.

On the Business…

• Tell me more about the business landscape for Acme.

• What does success look like in the business in the next 12 months? How does that change over the next 3 years?

• If you could share, what’s this year’s thematic goal, OKRs?

• How does customer success play a part in delivering against these company-wide initiatives?

On the Competitive landscape…

• What makes Acme uniquely positioned in the market?

• What is Acme’s strengths when selling into your ideal customer profile?

• Where do you fall down in the competition relative to your peers?

On the Future Customer Portfolio…

• How would you describe your ideal customer profile?

• What customer segmentation changes do you envision taking place in the next year?

• Tell me a more about your engagement model in each of your customer segmentation tiers?

On Team Collaboration…

• How does support, sales, professional services, and customer success align around customers?

• What are intersection points between these teams and how do customers stay at the center of those interactions?

• What’s a particular pain point when it comes to team collaboration at Acme?

On Your Future Manager…

• How does the manager for this role define success in the first year?

• Walk me through how employees give and receive feedback — what’s the feedback culture like?

• Who are people that have been promoted in this role

On Their Biggest Churn Issue(s)

• What are the biggest reasons customers leave Acme?

• What data does Customer Success leverage at Acme to mitigate these risks?

• What are the biggest gaps in your current customer on-boarding?

On the Process…

• Walk me through the on-boarding experience for new employees on the Customer Success team.

• What gaps or needs led to this position being available?

• I’m excited about the opportunity - here do we go from here?

* If you have an interesting question has been posed to you by a candidate, please let us know.

Some of these questions should already be in your standard interview playbook (like about your future manager) but it’s surprising how few people actually ask about their future direct manager. Others I hope spark some curiosity about what to ask in your next Customer Success interview.

Good luck.

✌️