2015 Customer Success Salary Survey & State of the Profession Report

Customer Success as a profession is going through a meteoric rise. A recent chart from LinkedIn shows a 500% jump in the number of Customer Success jobs posted on the site last year. This phenomenal growth was also evident in our most recent Customer Success survey which attracted more than 4X respondents compared to last year.

As the profession goes through rapid growth, we see a lot of interest from companies to benchmark their customer success efforts — from compensation to goals and challenges.

I’m happy to present the 3rd annual Customer Success Salary Survey & State of the Profession Report. Check out the infographic and some of the key take-aways below. For a deeper look at the results, read the full report here.

KEY TAKE-AWAYS

Compensation structure: A large majority (almost 75%) of Customer Success professionals receive variable compensation in addition to a base salary. Bonuses are almost five times as common as commissions.

Compensation by title: The median compensation ranges are as follows:

• $150-175K for VP of Customer Success
• $125-150K for Director of Customer Success
• $75-100K for Customer Success Manager

Trend from last year: Compared to last year’s salary data, compensation is more uniformly distributed this year indicating hiring across all levels (i.e. companies growing out teams as well as leadership for Customer Success).

Reporting structure: More than one-third of Customer Success teams report directly to the CEO, a significant increase from 15% last year. Being part of a larger Services/Support organization is the next most common structure.

Customer Success maturity: Data continues to show that Customer Success as a profession is still in its early days.

• 75% of companies have had Customer Success for 3 years or less
• 60% of professionals have been in Customer Success for 3 years or less
• 95% of professionals have previously worked in other roles

Goals and challenges: Product adoption and churn reduction are top goals for Customer Success teams. Upsells still remains a lower priority. Operational issues are now a bigger challenge for Customer Success teams compared to organizational obstacles such as executive buy-in and definition of role.

Hope you find the results interesting. I’d love to hear your comments and feedback.