“Calling a Tail a Leg Doesn’t Make it So” – A Lesson in Roles and Responsibilities from Abraham Lincoln
by Matthew Lees
One of my favorite collections of anecdotes is called “That Brings to Mind.” Full of humorous and poignant quips, most a page or less in length, the book was compiled by R.L. Marquard way back in 1975. Many of the tales are likely apocryphal, but they are timeless. It contains a wealth of fodder, then, for presentations, speeches, toasts…and blog posts.
Here’s one that was brought to my mind based on recent briefings and conversations with companies I cover as an online community and social media analyst.
The Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, was asked by a congressman why he hadn’t freed the slaves earlier in his term of office.
Lincoln replied that the time had not been right; he wouldn’t have been able to enforce the proclamation. The congressman was puzzles and didn’t understand what the president meant.
Lincoln explained with a question, “How many legs will a sheep have, if you call the tail a leg?”
“Five,” responded the congressman.
“Not so,” said Lincoln wisely. “Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it so.”
From Project Manager to Client Success Manager
Several vendors on my watch list have employees with the job title “Client Success Manager.” It has a hipper ring to it than “Account Manager,” and probably makes clients feel all warm and fuzzy, knowing that someone on the vendor side is looking out for their interests.
Most of these technology and service providers train their CSMs to be effective at their core responsibility, which is to make sure that their clients’ communities meet with success (which means, therefore, from a purely business perspective, that the clients will continue to engage the services and systems provided by the vendor).
One company I follow, though, recently created the title and bestowed it upon two community project managers, without any supplemental training, access to relevant materials, or substantive change to their schedules and other commitments.
These two individuals are definitely good at what they do, but their experience has really been in getting to launch, not in what happens afterwards. They know their technology platforms inside and out (good tech chops), they know how to work with both clients and colleagues (good people and communication skills), and they know how to identify potential roadblocks and how to keep things on schedule (good organizational skills).
But they don’t have much understanding of the community arc; how things should ideally function after the community goes live. They know what the key metrics are, but only in theory, not in practice. They don’t really know how to advise clients if, say, the registration rate of a new community starts to drop, or if important influencers drop off the radar.
Without some training or resources to help them help their clients, it’s going to be a rough road ahead, particularly in the crucial first six months after new communities launch. Because they’re sharp cookies, they’ll eventually become solid CSMs. (They also work well together, so they’ll help each other learn the ropes.)
What Client Success Managers Need to Be Successful
They’re in for some challenges, though, largely because the company gave them new titles without giving them two other essential ingredients:
- Understanding of community best practices, particularly around moderating and managing communities, the social dynamics within communities (super users, reputation systems), organizational issues such as internal communication, how to connect community success to business success, and more.
- Time to be proactive. Built into CSM’s job descriptions and schedules should be the regular assessment of client communities they’re responsible for. They can’t just wait for their client contact to raise issues. They should be reading reports, watching the metrics, and keeping an eye on things, ready to provide guidance when it’s needed.
Their company could suffer as a consequence, because if the community doesn’t gain traction, the chances for a license renewal (or further professional services) are unlikely.
Takeaways
If you’re a technology or service provider, make sure you do more than give someone a new title. If you’re committed to the success of your clients, make sure your CSMs have the training, tools, and time they’ll need to do great work…for your clients and for you.
And if you’re evaluating technology vendors, consulting groups, or agencies to help with your online community, ask about the people who will be working with you to ensure the project’s success. They should have not only good technology, communication, and project management skills, but also experience in helping you successfully navigate the development, launch, and growth of the community.
To paraphrase Lincoln, calling a project manager a client success manager doesn’t make it so.
Back to the blog
This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Best Practices, Social Media Industry. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
4 Responses to ““Calling a Tail a Leg Doesn’t Make it So” – A Lesson in Roles and Responsibilities from Abraham Lincoln”
MatthewLees says: No, Phil, the company in question — which shall go unnamed here — isn’t Lithium. My research into your company for last year’s Product Review showed, through interviews with your clients and analysis of your methodologies, a strong commitment to proactive customer success management. Lithium has items 1 and 2 above covered.
It can take some effort to distinguish deep real-world experience from cursory knowledge, particularly with people who can seemingly talk the talk.
Customer references are important, of course, although people tend to refer you to satisfied customers.
My approach has always been to ask a lot of very specific questions. Those who “talk a good game” tend to speak in generalities; those who know what they’re doing provide details. Those with limited experience talk about what was done (whether by themselves, their colleagues, their clients, etc.); those who are the real deal talk about what *they themselves* did.
So in the case of Customer Success Management for online communities and social media, here’s what I might ask…
“I realize that, despite everyone’s best efforts in planning and preparation, problems do arise. Give me two detailed examples of problems that were identified in the first three months after one of your communities (or social media initiatives) launched. Tell me very specifically (a) how you discovered the problem (whether through analytics, direct observation, the grapevine, a phone call from the CEO, etc.), (b) how you discussed it with your client, (c) what you proposed, (d) what was eventually done, (e) how quickly it was implemented, (f) how that worked out, and (g) what you would do differently the next time. I want to know what *you* yourself did, not what others in your company did.”
Some pushback and digging will no doubt be required. .For example, if the answers include generalities (“So I sent her a report”), ask for specifics (“What was the key metric or takeaway in that report?” and “Why did you feel that was important?”).
What’s important though, of course, is not what the actual problems or solutions were, but how the person responds. From my experience, this is the most effective approach to learning who you want to work with, and who you don’t.
Great article, Matthew. It is good to hear that a Client Success Manager (or Customer Success Manager, as we are known here at Lithium) is now more a part of the business landscape than it ever was in the past.
Having been in the CSM role for almost 4 years now, I’ve found that it is a unique role that combines tasks and skills from some of the more well-defined positions in the business world:
Project Manager
Web Architect
Consultant
Account Manager
Within the first year of being a CSM, I found that it really came down to being a concierge of sorts. No matter what a customer asks for or tries to do, the goal of a CSM should always be to simultaneously advise and deliver.
The article *really* sparked my interest because very few people recognize that being a CSM during a launch with a customer is very different from being a CSM during 90 days after the project has gone into production. And furthermore, it is a radically different job when a customer is in year 2 or year 5 of their endeavor.
With this in mind, I think that the value of a CSM’s expertise is continually discovered by the customer.
Not unlike returning to a city that you love, in a hotel that has always provided you with great service; the CSM is that rock-of-gibralter concierge that can give you the best advice at any time of the year.
So to the CSM (concierge), it should make no difference whether the customer is alone for the first time in this city, or if you are with your family for the 10th time in the city. A really great CSM will meet you right at your experience level.
MatthewLees says: Thanks for sharing your experience and perspective, Jake. I’m glad you made the point that CSMs need to have a pretty darn wide range of skills.
And I love the concierge analogy. Can you get me Knicks tickets?
Hi Matthew,
Great post. Proceeding under the assumption that the company in question is not Lithium (because you’d have let us know it by now), I wonder if you can give us any clues as to how to tell the “real” CSMs from the impostors. Are there questions that a client or potential client can ask that would unmask them?
There has been a lot of talk elsewhere about so-called “social media gurus” who talk a good game but can’t actually help you solve a business problem. A field guide to such people would be a great service.
Cheers,
Phil