Customer Success Manager

Description

Sprout Social is looking to hire a Manager, Customer Success, Strategic for the Sales & Customer Experience team.

Why join Sprout’s Sales & Customer Experience team?

At Sprout Social, our Sales and Customer Experience team is the driving force behind how today’s most innovative brands use Sprout to power the future of customer connection. We sell and support the leading social intelligence platform for businesses, helping organizations unlock the full value of social data to drive strategic decisions.  Through powerful social intelligence and trusted partnership, we enable teams to build authentic relationships and drive meaningful business impact.

In this role, you will collaborate with the brightest minds in the industry to support global giants like Salesforce, Airbnb, and Equifax. Just as importantly, we believe in the power of our people. You’ll find a culture that honors your ambition, encourages you to explore new horizons, and provides the framework for you to build a career that matters. If you’re ready to champion innovation and accelerate your impact, this is where you can do your best work.

What You'll Do

As Manager, Customer Success, Strategic, you will lead a team of tenured Strategic Customer Success Managers overseeing a high value book of business. Your focus is bringing segment strategy to life with operational rigor, ensuring repeatable team execution, and driving retention and portfolio growth.

• Lead & Develop Senior Talent: Direct and coach an experienced team of CSMs through 1:1s, call reviews, and account planning. Build individualized growth paths, clear operational roadblocks, and set clear performance expectations.
• Drive Operational Rigor & Execution: Translate segment strategy into clear priorities. Establish and refine team operating standards—including Mutual Success Plans, Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), account health scoring, and CRM discipline - to ensure consistent performance across the portfolio.
• Own Retention, Risk, & Expansion: Deliver on team retention and quota targets. Pressure-test expansion pipelines, coach opportunity qualification, establish early risk-detection mechanisms, and lead structured save plans for escalating accounts.
• Serve as an Executive Escalation Point: Directly engage with customer executives to reinforce value, support strategic renewals, and articulate social intelligence ROI for C-level audiences.
• Champion AI Innovation: Incorporate generative AI into your workflow and guide the team in using AI tools to streamline research, account prep, and communication without losing strategic oversight.
• Lead Through Change & Cross-Functional Alignment: Guide the team through evolving go-to-market motions with clarity. Partner with Sales, Renewals, Onboarding, and Product to unblock technical hurdles and advocate for customer needs internally.
• Monitor & Report Performance: Track and report key metrics across retention, growth, adoption, and health scores to diagnose portfolio trends and optimize resource allocation.

What You'll Bring

The ideal candidate is an experienced people leader who thrives on operational discipline and is energized by complex, high-stakes customer relationships. You bring strong business acumen, sound judgment under pressure, and a genuine enthusiasm for the work—staying motivated and forward-looking through ambiguity and difficult stretches, and bringing your team with you.

Minimum qualifications:

• Customer Success Experience: 6+ years in Customer Success or account management, with direct experience owning a strategic or enterprise book of business.
• People Leadership: 1+ years of experience leading client-facing teams, with a track record of coaching, performance management, and developing high-tenured individual contributors serving matrixed enterprise clients.
• Commercial & Operational Track Record: Proven success driving retention and growth targets, paired with strong business acumen across renewals, negotiations, process refinement, and project management.
• Risk & Influence Skills: Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to influence key stakeholders and maintain sound judgment under pressure.
• Generative AI Proficiency: Hands-on experience applying generative AI tools (e.g., for research, account prep, communication) to optimize personal and team productivity.
• Travel: Ability to travel for customer on-sites within the U.S. 4+ times per year.

Preferred Qualifications:

• SaaS & Tooling Expertise: Experience in SaaS/subscription business models, with fluency in tools like Salesforce, Gainsight, Tableau, or similar CRM/BI platforms.
• Executive Coaching: Experience coaching CSMs on C-suite presentations and value-based ROI selling.
• Sales Background: Previous experience in direct account management or sales roles.

How you’ll grow

Within 1 month, you’ll plant your roots, including:

• Complete Sprout Social’s new hire training & onboarding program alongside other new Sprout team members. You’ll gain a broader understanding of our products and how your role fits into the organization.
• Make a plan with your manager to set initial priorities, align on expectations for your role, plant goalposts for your career, and learn about Sprout’s approach to Customer Success
• Meet 1:1 with your team of CSMs and begin reviewing account portfolio health, Mutual Success Plans, and current forecast projections.
• Shadow current QBRs, account planning sessions, and cross-functional syncs with Sales and Renewals partners to map key stakeholder workflows.

Within 3 months, you’ll start hitting your stride by:

• Build connections with members from other teams through active networking and community building
• Begin active strategic coaching in 1:1s—focusing on executive presentation, risk mitigation, and embedding AI-enabled workflows. 

Within 6 months, you’ll be making a clear impact through:

• Have your first performance conversation with your manager, where you’ll discuss your accomplishments in your role and work together to build goals for your professional growth
• Consistently meet or exceed team retention targets
• Build individualized career development and stretch plans tailored to senior/tenured ICs on your team. 
• Synthesize customer and team feedback to influence cross-functional partners in Product, Professional Services, and GTM leadership. 

Within 12 months, you’ll make this role your own by:

• Serve as a recognized mentor and internal advocate for cross-functional collaboration and strategic account excellence. 
• Surprise us! Use your unique ideas and abilities to change your team in beneficial ways that we haven’t even considered yet.

Of course what is outlined above is the ideal timeline, but things may shift based on business needs and other projects and tasks could be added at the discretion of your manager.

Our Benefits Program 

We’re proud to regularly be recognized for our team, product, and culture. We invest in our team with a comprehensive, competitive benefits program:

• Comprehensive Health & Wellness: Premium BCBSIL medical, dental (high/low plans), and vision (Eyemed) insurance for you and your eligible dependents.
• Premium Mental Health Support: Full, free access to Modern Health for you and your dependents, including coaching, therapy sessions, and digital wellness resources.
• Retirement Savings: 401(k) plan with a 50% company match on your first 6% of contributions (a 3% total match).
• Financial Security: 100% employer-paid Life and Disability insurance for your peace of mind.
• Flexible Paid Time Off: A flexible PTO policy, supplemented with additional company-wide Rest & Recharge days throughout the year.
• Paid Parental Leave: Up to 16 weeks of paid leave for new parents to support you in expanding your family.
• Annual Lifestyle Stipend: A $1,000 USD annual Lifestyle Spending Account to spend on your physical, mental, and financial well-being.
• Work From Home Support: A one-time $550 USD stipend to set up your home office, plus a monthly $50 USD stipend for internet.
• Giving Back: 16 hours of paid volunteer time annually, plus a $100 annual match for your charitable donations.
• Additional Financial Perks: Access to pre-tax commuter benefits, subsidized child/eldercare (Care.com), discounted pet insurance (Figo), and no-cost personalized financial wellness support through Your Money Line.

*This list is for informational purposes only. Benefit offerings are discretionary and subject to change and do not constitute a contract or guarantee of benefits.

Whenever possible, Sprout wants to provide our team with the flexibility to work in the location that makes the most sense for them. Sprout maintains a remote workforce in many places in the United States. However, we are not set up in all states, so please look at the drop-down box in our application to see whether your state is listed. Few roles require an office setting. If your position requires a physical presence in a Sprout office, it will be evident in the job listing and your offer letter.

Our salary ranges reflect the expected earning potential for this role. Individual pay is based on geographic zone, relevant experience, and skills.

Our current hiring range for this role: $145,600.00 – $200,200.00 OTE annually. OTE is governed by an incentive plan. It is the sum of a fixed base salary plus incentives at target performance. Incentive compensation will vary based on performance. Offers are made within this range, with opportunities to grow within the broader band based on performance and impact.

We share both our current hiring range and our broader geographic salary bands to provide transparency into our compensation philosophy. This ensures you understand not only your starting potential but also the long-term growth potential available as you progress in your role.

We have two geographic pay zones in the United States:

Zone 1 (New York, California, Washington): $160,200.00– $240,200.00

Zone 2 (All other US states): $145,600.00 – $218,400.00

These ranges were determined by a market-based compensation approach; we used data from trusted third-party compensation sources to set equitable, consistent, and competitive ranges. We also evaluate compensation bi-annually, identify any changes in the market and make adjustments to our ranges and existing employee compensation as needed.

Sprout Social is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate based on identity**-** race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual identity), age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, arrest record or expunged or sealed convictions, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law. Because Sprout Social is a federal contractor, we affirmatively recruit individuals with a disability and protected veterans. Learn more about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in our latest DEI Report.

If you require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the interview process or to submit your application, please email us at accommodations@sproutsocial.com. Include the nature of your request and your preferred contact information. We'll do everything we can to support your success during our recruitment process while upholding your privacy. Please note that only inquiries regarding accommodations will receive a response from this email address; other inquiries will not be addressed (e.g., you send your resume but are not requesting an accommodation). 

For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please click here (1) Equal Opportunity Employment Poster and (2) Sprout Social's Affirmative Action Statement. 

Additionally, Sprout Social participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. 

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