NOT negotiating your salary is a terrible idea for CSMs. But not for the reason you might think.

I’ve hired hundreds of Customer Success Managers in my leadership roles from start-ups to some of the world’s biggest companies. Only a handful of candidates did not try to negotiate their salary. That was a huge red-flag!

Here’s why:

*Negotiation is a core function of CSMs. As a hiring manager, I want to know you will be comfortable with it! Even if you don’t hold a quota for renewals. You need to negotiate timelines, feature requests, and priorities for and with your customers. If you can’t advocate for yourself, will you advocate for our company?

*If you don’t value yourself, maybe I shouldn’t value you highly either. Did I settle for a Prius when I could have afforded a Tesla? Should I have held out for someone better? Someone who is worth what I was prepared to offer at the upper end. Anyone who is offered a Tesla for the price of a Prius is going to be skeptical. Don’t start your relationship with your boss wondering ‘what’s the catch!’

*You set a bad precedent! Let’s say you work out well but you are making $5k to $25k less than what is typical. Then in a year or two you move up or move on. My HR team may not be allocating enough payroll to find someone equivalent. Don’t set our team up to fail!

Good managers don’t expect you to take the first offer. So even if it is uncomfortable, step up and ask for more. The worst they can say is ‘no.’ Either way you will earn respect.

For yourself, you are setting a baseline. Your future pay will always be evaluated based on the % of increase to your current salary. If you start off artificially low, you will always be lower than others. Which becomes a compound multiplier over a career. So if you don’t negotiate to keep the respect of your new boss, do it for yourself!