Sales Manager for Customer Retention Team

Position Summary

The Customer Success Manager is responsible for leading the customer retention team (Customer Success Representatives) in achieving customer retention goals and growth targets for both enterprise and SMB accounts. This position should demonstrate an understanding of B2B account retention in a recurring revenue and ‘dedicated account representative’ business model. This position will be responsible for motivating, training, and coaching the CSRs as we prepare for higher-profile customers.

Supervisor: Chief Executive Officer

Essential Duties and Responsibilities (other duties may be assigned)

1. Lead the Department in reaching account retention and expansion goals

• Design and implement a strategic sales plan and methodology that protects the company customer base through retention, while also expanding it through upselling, cross-selling and referrals.
• Evaluate and develop improvements in current practices to help improve efficiency and quality and remove barriers that prevent customers and our CSRs from being successful and the department from reaching its goals.
• Oversee the team’s process of renewing each contract, from fee increases and additional services to overcoming cancellation objections and ensuring customers receive contract renewals 60-days in advance.
• Ensure that department goals are consistently met, providing regular reporting to management and the team.
• Manage 30-50 of the company’s top-tier customers to protect the accounts and to lead by example how to be a successful CSR through account maintenance and growth.
• Participate in leadership professional development.
• Present sales, revenue, expense reports and forecasts to the management team.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

2. Train, develop, assist, and hold accountable current and future team members

• Train and develop current and future team members to continually improve skills in customer service excellence and growth, broadening CSR knowledge and capabilities through 1-1 meetings, phone call and email communication assessments, and continual monitoring of how clients are being handled.
• Assess each CSRs need for further training in the areas of product usage ideas and suggestions; difficult client conversations; upselling, cross-selling and asking for referrals; interpersonal skills such as listening, speaking and written communication soft skills and hard skills; and time management and productivity.
• Maintain their monthly scorecards to determine commission percentage earned.
• Allocate, control, and monitor daily workflow to ensure all deadlines are achieved and work is completed to company standard, re-allocating work across the team as appropriate, ensure no backlog build up and the department meets its service levels. Assist CSRs during times of heavy work volume when needed.
• Provide guidance, ideas, and strategies for CSRs regarding customers who want to cancel, intervening when appropriate to save accounts.
• Approve all contracts for correct costs and details, coaching CSRs when cost and product solutions are incorrect.
• Always ensure the team provides exemplary service consistently, demonstrate excellent customer focus, give proactive advice that goes ‘above and beyond’ and measure individual performance and address issues promptly and effectively.
• Conduct recruiting of CSRs and identify staffing gaps as necessary.

3. Core Competencies

To perform the job successfully an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Leadership - Exhibits confidence in self and others; inspires and motivates others to perform well; effectively influences actions and opinions of others; accepts feedback from others.
• Problem Solving - Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; develops alternative solutions; works well in group problem solving situations; uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics.
• Customer Service – Manages difficult or emotional customer situations; responds promptly to customer needs; solicits customer feedback to improve service; responds to requests for service and assistance; meets commitments.
• Oral Communication – Speaks clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations; listens and gets clarification; responds well to questions; demonstrates group presentation skills; participates in meetings.
• Written Communication – Writes clearly and informatively; edits work for spelling and grammar; varies writing style to meet needs; presents numerical data accurately; able to read and interpret written information.
• Interpersonal Skills – Focuses on solving conflict, not blaming; maintains confidentiality; listens to others without interrupting; keeps emotions under control; remains open to others’ ideas and tries new things.
• Teamwork – Balances team and individual responsibilities; exhibits objectivity and openness to others’ views; gives and welcomes feedback; contributes to building a positive team spirit; puts success of team above own interests; able to build morale and group commitments to goals and objectives; supports everyone’s efforts to succeed; makes self- available to staff; develops their skills and encourages growth; solicits and applies customer feedback (internal and external); fosters quality focus in others; improves processes, products and services.
• Analytical – Synthesizes complex and diverse information; collects and researches data; uses intuition and experience to complement data.
• Judgment – Displays willingness to make decisions; exhibits sound and accurate judgment; supports and explains reasoning for decisions; includes appropriate people in decision-making process. Makes timely decisions.
• Visionary Leadership – Inspires respect and trust; mobilizes others to fulfill the vision.
• Change Management – Develops workable implementation plans; communicates changes effectively; builds commitment and overcomes resistance; prepares and supports those affected by change.
• Business Acumen – Understand business implications of decisions; displays orientation to profitability; demonstrates knowledge of market and competition; aligns work with strategic goals.
• Ethics – Treats people with respect; keeps commitments; inspires the trust of others; works with integrity and ethically; upholds organizational values.
• Strategic Thinking – Understands organization’s strengths and weaknesses; analyzes market and competition; identifies externals threats and opportunities; adapts strategy to changing conditions.
• Adaptability – Adapts to changes in work environment; manages competing demands; changes approach or method to best fit the situation; able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
• Initiative – Undertakes self-development activities; takes independent actions and calculated risks; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities.

4. Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Education and/or Experience - Bachelor’s degree and/or a minimum of five years of sales manager/team leader experience in a global account management environment preferred. A minimum of two years of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) experience preferred. Specialized training in SaaS, telecom and unified communications experience is ideal.
• Language Skills - Ability to write reports and business correspondence. Ability to effectively present, persuade, negotiate information, and respond to questions from groups of executives, managers, employees, and customers.
• Mathematical Skills - Ability to accurately calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions and percentages; ability to analyze and interpret data.
• Reasoning Ability - Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram or schedule form.
• Computer Skills - To perform this job successfully an individual should have knowledge of Microsoft and Google Drive products and WebEx. Knowledge of Hubspot, Membrain, Keap/Infusion, or SignNow experience is a plus.
• Physical Demands - This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines. This is largely a sedentary role but would require the ability to move up to 20 pounds at times.
• Work Environment - This role operates in an office environment and is required to work 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. This role may be required to work extended hours to meet the needs of the business.

This job description is subject to change at any time.