Washington, D.C., September 3, 2025 – New research by ChurnZero, the platform and partner for customer growth, highlights a strategic opportunity for SaaS companies with customer success managers (CSMs) on the frontline of retention and recurring revenue. According to the 2025 CSM Confidential survey and report, most CSMs are engaged and satisfied in their day-to-day roles. However, only 26% see a viable career path at their companies, only 35% feel their employer is invested in their career, and 58% are ready to leave if offered their ideal role elsewhere.
By investing in growth pathways and enablement for CSMs, the report recommends, customer leaders can retain and develop top performers, preventing future talent flight and its downstream effects on customer experience and revenue retention.
The report presents an upbeat picture of CSM engagement: CSMs enjoy helping customers solve challenges (86%), thinking strategically (82%) and coaching customers to use their products (79%). 56% say they’re happy in their roles (just 26% say the opposite), and 45% say they hope to advance to leadership within 12 months. However, many lack the skills required for revenue ownership, and most feel that their company values them less than their sales counterparts.
“The barrier to a thriving, revenue-driving and durable team of CSMs isn’t engagement; it’s design.” says Lukas Alexander, vice-president of customer success, ChurnZero. “By moving decisively to make career paths explicit, align CS and sales teams on revenue ownership and outcomes, and invest in commercial enablement, customer leaders can keep their top performers, protect their customer experience, and drive higher, more sustainable revenue growth.”
The report’s key recommendations for leaders, contributed by experts from ESG, Growth Molecules, Melo Associates, Techtonic Lift, and The Success League, include:
1: Invest in transparent career pathways with non-leadership tracks.
CSMs are ambitious. 45% say that, ideally, they would advance to a leadership role within a year, and 47% say they would be ready to succeed if promoted immediately to leadership. Given that less than half of customer success teams are growing, this is unrealistic.
The report recommends investing in transparent career frameworks to retain top performers, with parallel growth tracks for managers and individual contributors, and greater internal mobility for lateral moves.
2: Equip CSMs with the critical skills for revenue ownership
Overall, 52% of CSMs say they have the tools and training to accomplish their goals. Asked to identify the skills gaps standing in the way of their success, 42% of CSMs cited sales and negotiation, with business skills (37%) and analytical skills (32%) in second and third place; making revenue-related skills the most pronounced gap.
The report recommends that customer leaders invest in funded learning and development, with a strong focus on commercial skills, as well as formal mentorship and sponsorship programs and regular development check-ins.
3: Champion CSMs’ revenue impact to earn them more recognition.
59% of CSMs say their company values sales more than customer success—and just 6% say the opposite. This may be because only 51% of CS teams formally “own” renewal revenue, and just 41% own expansion revenue.
The report recommends that customer leaders consistently tie their team’s outcomes to commercial metrics—churn reduction, upsell conversion, or net revenue retention (NRR)—and partner with sales and finance leaders to build the bridges it takes to be seen as a contributor of revenue.
See more findings and download the CSM Confidential Report at ChurnZero.