How to build your personal brand in CS

Landing your Customer Success dream job is far from being a simple task. It is a competitive industry and you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd - and that’s where your personal brand comes in. When done right, personal branding is a tool to help climb the career ladder. But how do you get started building your personal brand? And why is it so important in CS?

In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Erika Villarreal, Senior Customer Success Manager at Condeco about how to build your personal brand in Customer Success and how your personal brand can land your dream job.

Erika is a Customer Success enthusiast, wearer of many hats, curious by nature, and process addict. She is happiest when she is able to translate customer data into actionable insights that help improve customer experience and drive success. She was also the top 100 CS strategist in 2021.

A little over a year ago (in the middle of the pandemic) Erika quit her job in Mexico to reallocate to the US. Despite many years of experience, she struggled to get the interviews she wanted. After 6 months of unsuccessful job hunting, Erika accidentally came across a webinar on “personal branding” on LinkedIn and decided to give it a try.

“I was like if other people can do it, why can't I? That's how it all started. And the more I shared, the more motivated I felt to keep going. Sharing my stories and my learnings also allowed me to learn from other people's stories. And I really liked that.”

Posting on LinkedIn is one thing - but then being offered a new job is something that many people only dream about. So, which post did you share that ended up landing you the position that you're in now?

“It’s a funny story. I created a graph comparing the salaries of CSMs, Product Managers, and Sales and the result was quite shocking, as on average, the CSMs earn the least. I made a post questioning how a CSM, who’s the hero and does everything for the company, can have such a low salary. The post went viral and created lots of engagement within the CS community. The VP of Operations at Condeco saw the post and reached out to me directly. The rest is history.”

Listen now to the full conversation with Erika and Anika to learn about how to build your personal brand in Customer Success.