Before You Hire Your Next CSM – What to Check First

Why structure beats speed when you’re scaling

Hiring before structure is the fastest way to burn money and morale.

We see it all the time — growth ramps up, pressure builds, and the instinct is to hire fast.

But if you don’t know what the role’s actually for, that new hire ends up firefighting. Not driving value.

Here are three things to get clear on first:

1. What do your customers really need right now?

Don’t default to hiring for renewals if the real risk is earlier. You might need onboarding strength – or smarter self-service – not more headcount.

2. Where’s time actually going right now?

Are they proactively managing relationships, or are they constantly reacting? 

If 80% of their time is going on support tickets, product issues, or chasing onboarding – you don’t need more people. You need a rethink.

3. What skills are you actually hiring for?

Support and CS are not interchangeable. Neither are CS and sales. Know whether you need commercial persuasion, technical enablement, or process planning – and build the job around that.

A final thought:

The best time to define structure is before the chaos starts. But even if you’re already in it – now’s still a good time to fix it, before the cost grows.

If you want to know more about this, book a slot in my diary for a chat.