CV example
Customer success manager CV example
Customer success managers are measured on whether customers stay and grow. This example shows a CSM whose bullets read like a renewal report: portfolio size, retention, expansion and the playbooks behind them.
Below you'll find a full example CV (also called a résumé), summaries for different experience levels, the skills and keywords employers search for, stronger bullet points, and the interview questions to prepare for.
Customer success manager CV summary examples
Your summary is the first thing a recruiter reads. Two or three sentences: who you are, your strongest evidence, and what you want next. Here is the example CV's summary, plus versions for other levels.
Example CV
Customer success manager with 5 years in B2B SaaS, managing portfolios of up to 60 accounts. I turn onboarding and regular check-ins into high retention and steady expansion.
Moving from support
Customer support specialist with 3 years in SaaS, moving into customer success. Managed onboarding for 40 small business customers and helped retain 5 accounts that had asked to cancel.
Senior or enterprise
Senior customer success manager with 8 years managing enterprise accounts worth up to $1M each. Consistently above 110% net revenue retention and mentor 3 CSMs.
Skills to put on a customer success manager CV
Hard skills
- Onboarding and adoption planning
- Renewal and churn management
- Expansion and upselling
- Quarterly business reviews (QBRs)
- Customer health scoring
- CRM and CS platforms (Gainsight, HubSpot, Salesforce)
- Basic data analysis in Excel or Sheets
Soft skills
- Relationship building
- Proactive communication
- Empathy with commercial judgement
- Handling difficult conversations
Show soft skills through your bullet points rather than listing them on the CV itself.
Keywords recruiters and ATS look for
Many employers screen CVs with an applicant tracking system (ATS) that matches words from the job ad. These come up often in customer success manager postings. Use the ones that are true for you, in the same wording as the job you're applying for. To compare your CV with a specific job ad, use the free CV keyword checker, or have Litjob tailor your CV to the job description for you.
- customer success
- customer success manager
- retention
- churn
- renewals
- net revenue retention
- expansion
- onboarding
- account management
- QBR
- customer health
- SaaS
For live figures, see the skills most requested in Customer service and success job ads, updated weekly from thousands of postings.
Bullet points: before and after
Strong bullet points say what you did, how big it was and what changed. Compare:
WeakManaged customer accounts.
StrongerManaged 40 accounts worth $1.5M ARR with 95% gross retention.
WeakHelped customers use the product.
StrongerRan adoption workshops that raised weekly active users in my accounts by 30%.
WeakHandled renewals.
StrongerRenewed 100% of accounts due in 2025, including 3 that had signalled they would leave.
WeakFound upsell opportunities.
StrongerIdentified expansion needs in QBRs, generating $150,000 in new annual revenue.
Only use numbers you can explain in an interview. An honest estimate (“about 30%”) is better than a made-up exact figure.
Tips for writing a customer success manager CV
Lead with retention and revenue
Book of business, gross and net revenue retention, and expansion revenue are the core CSM metrics. Show them first.
Show you are proactive
Health scores, early warning systems and playbooks show you prevent churn rather than react to it.
Clarify your segment
Small business, mid-market and enterprise CSM roles are different jobs. Say which you have done.
Mention the tools
Gainsight, ChurnZero, HubSpot and Salesforce appear in many job ads and are searched by recruiters.
Common customer success manager interview questions
Your CV gets you the interview, and interviewers will ask about what's on it. Prepare for these:
- A key account says they will not renew. What do you do?
- Find the real reason, involve the right people, propose a recovery plan and agree next steps.
- How do you prioritise a large book of accounts?
- Talk about segmenting by value and risk, and a regular rhythm for each segment.
- How is customer success different from account management?
- Customer success focuses on the customer reaching their goals; revenue follows from that.
- Tell me about a customer you turned around.
- Use numbers: where they started, what you did, and the renewal or expansion that followed.