In 1999, I joined a start-up in San Francisco that had the bizarre idea that it could sell business software in the same way Amazon sold books: via the cloud. Needless to say, my friends thought I was crazy. Crazy as it seemed, I jumped into the new venture. I was employee number 13 at Salesforce, and the second sales hire for the company.

I quickly learned that doing business in the cloud required an entirely different mindset. The nature of the subscription model that Salesforce created made it easy for customers to leave if they felt they weren't getting value from their investment in our Customer Relationship Management technology. There were no more long-term, lock-in contracts that defined the on-premise solutions dominating the software industry at the time. We knew if our renewal rates trended in the wrong direction, Salesforce would not be able to survive for long.

In those early days, we began to see renewal rates going in the wrong direction, and we knew that we needed to make a fundamental change in how we engaged with customers. We quickly understood that our success was tightly coupled with the success of our customers. We had to find a better way to keep them happy.

That crisis actually helped us to focus on solving for the customer, and in turn, we innovated a new kind of job. Salesforce created a role singularly focused on making sure customers were getting the most value out of using our product.

That role was the Customer Success Manager (CSM).

From there, we created a team of CSMs. Their entire job was to address customer concerns, help them better use our technology, and collect key feedback that we could use to improve our products. These people had domain expertise, problem-solving, and communication skills. They became trusted advisors for our customers.

Today, our cadre of CSMs is an integral part of the Customer Success Group, which has more than 7000 people dedicated to driving success for the company's 150 000-plus customers. So, when Ashvin and Ruben first told me they were writing a new book on customer success, I was hoping they would focus on the essential role CSMs play in driving growth, increasing retention, and reducing churn. Both of them are consummate professionals who know first-hand what it takes to achieve customer success in this era of digital transformation.

I was thrilled to see that they went beyond my expectations. They have delivered the definitive working handbook for Customer Success Managers everywhere. The Customer Success Professional's Handbook explains how to break into this fast-growing profession and describes the core skills needed to become a truly great CSM. It also explores how CSMs can operationalize success, and how companies can attract and retain top CSM talent.

It's a comprehensive overview, and I believe it will appeal to every CSM at every stage in their career; from entry-level to Chief Customer Officer.