Customer success professionals are often thrown into the deep end. They are told to act like trusted advisors, which includes driving adoption, building relationships, or uncovering growth opportunities without being given clear instructions or training on what to do.

That’s why I wrote The Strategic Customer Success Manager — and why I joined a recent webinar with CS Insider to provide some assistance to CSMs. We mainly focused on how to build more trusted relationships with clients and colleagues, and this post distills the key takeaways from that session. It will help you move from task manager to trusted advisor.

You’re operating as a task master and not even realizing it

Let’s get real: If your day is filled with sending “just checking in” emails, logging product bugs, or reacting to renewal reminders, you’re operating as a task manager.

A trusted advisor, on the other hand, earns a seat at the strategic table. Their customers typically don’t ignore their messages or meeting requests. Why? Because they bring insights, not just unstructured agendas.

The trusted advisor starts with the customer’s business, not just their product usage.

Three Ways to Uplevel Your Role

1. Start with the Company, Not the Product

Typical CSMs say:

“I noticed you haven’t used Feature X.”

Strategic CSMs ask (a Bob London disruptive question):

“If your leadership team were sitting around a table, what’s the number one priority they would be discussing?”

The difference?

By trying to understand your customer’s business and internal pressures, you position yourself to tie product capabilities directly to business outcomes. And that’s where value lives.

2. Focus on Impact, Not Just Adoption

Adoption is typically a vanity metric - it doesn’t tell the whole story. Just because users are logging in doesn’t mean you’re making a difference.

Ask yourself:

* Are we solving the problem they hired us to solve?

* Is our solution affecting their key KPIs?

* Can they prove ROI internally?

Better yet — help them prove it. At Siena, we created an ROI calculator to show savings and outcomes tied directly to our solution. Customers took it and ran straight to their execs with it. It made renewal a non-issue.

3. Be Customer + Company Centric

Being customer-centric is a foundational element of being a customer success professional. But being customer and company-centric takes you to another level to the strategic layer.

This means:

* Bringing well-framed feature requests to the product team, not just a wishlist.

* Saying “no” the right way — with alternatives and rationale.

* Understanding your company's priorities so you can balance the two worlds.

Your product team, sales team, and execs will trust you more. And your customers? They’ll thank you for helping them see the big picture. You just need to communicate this in the right way (I go into this more in chapter 17 of the book).

Building Trust: The Real Differentiator

Trust is the foundation of strategic customer success. And it doesn’t just come from solving tickets.

Here’s what it does come from:

* Disruptive questions: Ask questions that make you and your customer a bit uncomfortable. In the webinar, I share a story where I ask the question, “Is there anything you hoped I’d ask but didn’t?” This leads to an outpouring of information from the customer that helped us secure a two-year renewal.

* Extreme ownership: Take responsibility when SNAFUs occur - don’t place blame. The customer doesn’t care who caused the issue. They just want it resolved. Focus on that and get away from the blame game. Do you really think someone intended to mess up? Probably not. In addition, don’t throw other departments under the bus.

* Vulnerability: Saying “I need help” — to your colleagues is OK. Asking for assistance isn’t demonstrating weakness. It’s showing that you're strong enough to admit that you can’t handle everything on your own. Being vulnerable also means letting your clients know more about who you are as a person. When you do this, they will do the same and it will deepen your relationship.

* Consistency: Follow through on what you commit to. Words are words until you act. If you fail to follow up or show up consistently, you damage trust.

* Candor + Care: Saying no, kindly but firmly, when needed. If you’ve built a strong relationship with your clients, built on value and trust, you’ve earned the right to push back from time to time. It’s not about your customers liking you - it’s about achieving their business outcomes. Sometimes the answer is “I’m sorry, but we just can’t do that”.

You’re not their buddy. You’re not their therapist (ok, maybe you are). You’re their partner. That’s what being strategic means.

Your Personal Roadmap to Becoming Strategic

You don’t become a trusted advisor overnight. Just like your product has a roadmap, you need one too.

Start here:

* Pick one challenging question (e.g., “From 1–10, what are the chances you’d renew tomorrow?”).

* Practice it. Use it with 3 clients this month.

* Review responses with your team. What worked? What didn’t?

* Layer in more strategic techniques from there.

And always bring a “golden nugget” to every call — a story, insight, feature, or piece of data that adds unexpected value.

Final Thought: It’s Not a Title — It’s a Mindset

Becoming a strategic CSM isn’t about waiting for a promotion or new role. It’s about how you show up right now.

Ask better questions. Prepare deeper insights. Balance your customer’s needs with your company’s goals. And never forget: you are the differentiator.

Let’s make “strategic” the new standard.

Here is the full video from CS Insider and feel free to ask me questions here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chadhorenfeldt.substack.com

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