CSM Exam – Study Guide, Practice Questions & Certification Review
Explain the key drivers creating the need for customer success - ✔✔1. CS fills organization gaps
between sales and customer support
2. CSMs provide value to customers, individual customer stakeholders, and solution providers
3. CSMs focus on the relationship between solution capabilities and customer business
outcomes
4. CSMs enable customer solution competence and self sufficiency
Define customer success (expected & unexpected value) - ✔✔The purpose of customer
success management is to maximize the value gained for both the customer and solution
provider. The focus is to enable customer's business outcomes through the utilization of the
CSM's company's products and services.
Explain the customer lifecycle journey - ✔✔Experience > Renewal > Loyalty > Expand
Awareness > Consideration > Evaluation > Purchase
(start over)
Compare customer success, customer support, and sales - ✔✔Customer success: Assists on
account-based issues and helps customers learn to succeed and thrive and tend toward self
sufficiency
Customer support: Answer small, simple questions
Sales: Responsible for all selling functions; concerned about money, not necessarily customer
success
Explain the value proposition for customer success (vendor) - ✔✔1. Increased renewal rate
2. Incremental renewals
3. New sales (cross sells/expansion)
, 4. Advocacy (referrals, case studies, testimonials)
5. Product improvement (better understanding of customer needs)
Explain the value proposition for customer success (customer) - ✔✔1. Reduced time to value
2. Increased ROI
3. Tangible impact to business outcomes
4. Supports project success - shared accountability
5. Support of business vision
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: Software licensing - ✔✔Software
licenses typically provide end users with the right to one or more copies of the software without
violating copyrights.
Sum: Buying the software outright, no subscription
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: Service subscriptions(IaaS, PaaS, Saas)
- ✔✔IaaS: cloud-based services, pay-as-you-go for services such as storage, networking, and
virtualization. PaaS: hardware and software tools available over the internet. SaaS: software
that's available via a third-party over the internet.
Sum: Subscriptions to store, software, and other tools via the internet
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: Enterprise agreements -
✔✔Enterprise management systems are large-scale software packages that track and control
the complex operations of a business. They are used as a central command center, automating
the organization and making it convenient to prepare reports and make decisions.
Sum: Blends licensing and subscriptions
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: CapEx vs OpEx - ✔✔Capital
expenditures are menjor investments in goods that show up on the balance sheet and are
depreciated over the life of the asset, typically 3-5 years (hardware/software purchases using
cash expensed at point in time)
Explain the key drivers creating the need for customer success - ✔✔1. CS fills organization gaps
between sales and customer support
2. CSMs provide value to customers, individual customer stakeholders, and solution providers
3. CSMs focus on the relationship between solution capabilities and customer business
outcomes
4. CSMs enable customer solution competence and self sufficiency
Define customer success (expected & unexpected value) - ✔✔The purpose of customer
success management is to maximize the value gained for both the customer and solution
provider. The focus is to enable customer's business outcomes through the utilization of the
CSM's company's products and services.
Explain the customer lifecycle journey - ✔✔Experience > Renewal > Loyalty > Expand
Awareness > Consideration > Evaluation > Purchase
(start over)
Compare customer success, customer support, and sales - ✔✔Customer success: Assists on
account-based issues and helps customers learn to succeed and thrive and tend toward self
sufficiency
Customer support: Answer small, simple questions
Sales: Responsible for all selling functions; concerned about money, not necessarily customer
success
Explain the value proposition for customer success (vendor) - ✔✔1. Increased renewal rate
2. Incremental renewals
3. New sales (cross sells/expansion)
, 4. Advocacy (referrals, case studies, testimonials)
5. Product improvement (better understanding of customer needs)
Explain the value proposition for customer success (customer) - ✔✔1. Reduced time to value
2. Increased ROI
3. Tangible impact to business outcomes
4. Supports project success - shared accountability
5. Support of business vision
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: Software licensing - ✔✔Software
licenses typically provide end users with the right to one or more copies of the software without
violating copyrights.
Sum: Buying the software outright, no subscription
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: Service subscriptions(IaaS, PaaS, Saas)
- ✔✔IaaS: cloud-based services, pay-as-you-go for services such as storage, networking, and
virtualization. PaaS: hardware and software tools available over the internet. SaaS: software
that's available via a third-party over the internet.
Sum: Subscriptions to store, software, and other tools via the internet
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: Enterprise agreements -
✔✔Enterprise management systems are large-scale software packages that track and control
the complex operations of a business. They are used as a central command center, automating
the organization and making it convenient to prepare reports and make decisions.
Sum: Blends licensing and subscriptions
Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models: CapEx vs OpEx - ✔✔Capital
expenditures are menjor investments in goods that show up on the balance sheet and are
depreciated over the life of the asset, typically 3-5 years (hardware/software purchases using
cash expensed at point in time)
