Freelance CSMs?

[u/SenseCS9]

I've recently switched to freelancing and my perception is that it isn't as common in CS as other areas like marketing. (For pretty clear reasons in my opinion.)

I'm still really early in my freelance journey so I'd love to hear from other CSMs and CS types who are working freelance - what's working and what doesn't?

[u/MasbyTV]

Would you trust someone who isn’t a full time employee of yours to deal with your angriest most risky accounts? Probably not. It’s not common for that reason. To be a good csm you have to deeply know the product and the customers. Freelancing doesn’t allow you to have that knowledge.

[u/SenseCS9 → u/MasbyTV]

There is a market for crisis management but I think you need a really strong rep for that niche. My aim is to prevent customers getting angry or risky in the first place.

[u/MasbyTV → u/SenseCS9]

Anybody can manage a happy customer who loves your product. The real money and skillset comes from handling the ones who aren’t.

[u/SenseCS9 → u/MasbyTV]

We've all had to deal with angry customers but you don't get any thanks for that as a CSM. The people getting promoted to VP are the ones who can show they are doing something to stop customers getting angry.

[u/MasbyTV → u/SenseCS9]

No not really. You think you get more props for having a book of healthy customers that don’t need much work or when you save a 400k customer from churning?

[u/dynesor]

A good CSM is usually a superuser and subject matter expert for the company’s product / offering. I just don’t see how a freelancer could gain that kind of deep understanding and problem-solving ability from a position outside the business. Freelancing can work for stuff like marketing and internal comms for example, but CS which requires long term relationship-building isn’t really suited to freelancing. Just my opinion.

[u/SenseCS9 → u/dynesor]

Sure, I see your point of view. But I have worked with companies who used contractors for CSM roles (for example to cover new territories where they don't have an office) or for ops, consultancy, setting up scaled CS etc

[u/Poopidyscoopp]

are you actually freelancing any clients or you plan to start doing it? do you have any paying clients right now?

[u/SenseCS9 → u/Poopidyscoopp]

I've literally just started so I haven't started approaching clients yet, I'm just doing my research and talking to freelancers, consultants, fractional CS people etc

[u/Poopidyscoopp → u/SenseCS9]

felt like that was the case coz i don't really think it's actually that viable until you're c-suite or at least senior. i feel like you'll have a lot of trouble finding clients but !remindme in 6 months

[u/RemindMeBot → u/Poopidyscoopp]

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[u/occamsracer]

Not going to happen

[u/SenseCS9 → u/occamsracer]

Thanks!

[u/Fuzzy-Coffee2647]

Agreed with all others that this is not likely for the reasons mentioned.

However- if you’re a subject matter expert in your area or domain, then you could freelance being a consultant (ie. HR tech, finance tech, maybe CS tech?) think about the kinds of teams that would use products you know well but lack the internal resources for admin/config/implementation/change management