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In this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, host Anika Zubair speaks with Courtney Balban, VP of Customer Success at Leadr, a manager enablement platform. They unpack how Courtney went from therapist to CS leader, why curiosity is a true superpower in customer conversations, and how her team runs a full cycle CS model without relying on rigid playbooks. Courtney shares how she teaches CSMs to sit in discomfort, separate noise from impact, and use deeper discovery to uncover real business problems instead of reacting to surface requests. They also dig into psychological safety, call coaching, leading managers through the teddy bear plus bulldozer balance, and the shift from retention first thinking to treating CS as a growth engine that speaks in outcomes and revenue language.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
06:55 Inside Leadr, full cycle CSMs and structuring the post-sale team
14:16 Cutting through the noise, activity versus impact and root cause thinking
23:10 Redefining customer value and building a team without rigid playbooks
30:32 Curiosity as a superpower
36:54 Why CSMs stop one question too early and how to go deeper without feeling salesy
42:19 Psychological safety, call coaching and how the team transformed
47:31 Leading leaders, big lessons learned
Connect with Anika Zubair:
Website: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/
RevUP Academy: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revup
Connect with Courtney Balban:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneybalban/
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