Training & Certification for Organizations
Purchasing training for your team is not the same as buying training for yourself – generally it’s a lot more complicated.
You don’t just have to think about one person’s career development needs, you need to think about everyone’s needs, and on top of that of course you also have to think about the goals and objectives of your company. You need to be certain that the purchasing decision you end up making represents the best possible use of funds and delivers the best possible results for each individual team member, for the overall team, and for the company as a whole.
There are three distinct aspects to team training that combine to create a comprehensive and holistic training experience for your team. Select a category or scroll down to learn more:
Corporate Testimonials
Case Study & Testimonial from Intellishift Trailer
Case Study & Testimonial from Intellishift Full Version
Customer Success Training, Certification & CPD Testimonial from Talkwalker
Dov Mendelovich
VP Global Customer Success
“I looked for a one-stop-shop for certification and for online training, that people can consume in their own time at their own pace, while I as a manager of the organization can track their progress, and I found that very easy to do with PracticalCSM.com.
I would recommend PracticalCSM.com as a very good starting point for a new Customer Success Organization. The materials are built in a logical order and it provides a very good starting point to teach newcomers to the organization, and to build a common language and common terminology, both inside our organization and actually shared across the CS community. ”
Dinu Ionescu
VP Operations
“We selected the Practical CSM Academy because we needed a training solution that would provide team members with a better understanding of the role, processes, and best practices within the Customer Success profession and that would help us to develop their skills.
The feedback so far from my CS team has been great; everyone likes it and we have already obtained a lot of value from the program.”
Brittany Shaw
Director of Customer Success
“Practical CSM was recommended to me by multiple contacts within my Customer Success network. We did our due diligence in selecting a training platform, and the in-depth study, accompanying textbook, and the broad application of Customer Success beyond SaaS were clear winning factors for us.
Having completed all modules and final exams, I can now say that the program met and exceeded all of my expectations. I have thoroughly enjoyed the content ad I would not hesitate to recommend it to other CS leaders.”
Sreeram Warrier
Customer Engagement Executive
SAP India Pvt Ltd
“The Certified CSM Professional (CCSMP) program is a great certification for anyone that cares about customer success. For those who are already in a CSM role it both sharpens and proves their tools and skills, whilst for non-CSMs it provides the necessary foundation for moving into the profession.
The key differentiator is Rick Adams’ knowledge of and passion for Customer Success, and his ability to explain difficult topics and to connect with his students. This is one certificate I am truly proud of, and I will be hanging it on my wall for all to see!”
Michael Rivisto
Senior Vice President Customer Success and Services
“We chose to go with Practical CSM as our training provider partly because of the fantastic reviews from others within the CS profession, partly because the content is the best out there, and partly because of the passion and excitement Rick and his team has for Customer Success and their commitment to training and supporting the next generation of CS leaders.
We had a number of requirements from the training and certification program, including to broaden the skillset of our current employees, to merge education concepts into real life working practices, to provide ongoing reference material to assist with difficult situations and to create a solid CS foundation for new hires.
Whilst it’s still very early days for us, we are very excited to be one of Practical CSM’s most recent customers and we look forward very much to measuring the results that we anticipate from the training that our team will be undergoing.”
Will Pagden
Head of Customer Success
“PracticalCSM.com has revolutionised the way we work. The content is superb and really pushes all the CSMs to challenge themselves and work in a much more effective way. In particular I have seen a great improvement in the teams stakeholder management and we are turning a big corner in the value we are getting from each interaction with our customers.
I had scanned the market pretty hard, Rick’s professionalism and approach is what won it for me. The experience of purchasing and using the product has been a joy. I can pick up the phone and speak to someone to make suggestions of how it could be different and they listen and respond. Whilst there are other players in the field that offer “similar offerings” I struggled to find one that got close to PracticalCSM. The management dashboard and the ability to understand where my team were struggling has been a real game changer”
If you manage a Customer Success team and are interested in how the Academy might add value, please contact us using the form below.
Certification
A Certification program can be very beneficial for a Customer Success team to undertake. By sending all members through the same certification program, the Team Leader gains multiple substantial wins, including:
Benchmarked Minimum Standard
Creation of a minimum standard that all team members must meet, which then acts as a benchmark for the team minimum quality of the team as a whole.
New Team Member Onboarding
A simplified and cost effective onboarding process that enables new team members to get “up to speed” on the team’s CS-related methodologies and best practices, whilst reducing one-on-one time requirements.
Increased Efficiency
The team as a whole can operate far more efficiently, because the best practices contained within the certification program are shared by everyone in the team, thus reducing the numbers of resources that needs to be created and the amount of one-to-one support required by individual team members.
Increased Productivity
By globally enhancing team knowledge and skills, your team will become more productive and more effective in the performance of their duties, leading to increases in customer experience and customer satisfaction and improvements in attainment of customer and company targets.
Simplified Measurement and Reporting of ROI
Because you have fewer variables to consider, and a common global minimum standard for all your team members to meet, the ability to track and measure training progress becomes as simple as knowing which Certifications each team member has currently attained.
Specialization
Much of the time what is needed from training is breadth of coverage, and of course this is exactly what our Certification programs provide. But sometimes our customers require a greater depth of coverage of a small handful of specific topics, or even just one particular item. In this situation what is needed is a dedicated course. We run a whole range of dedicated, specialist training courses. Here are some examples:
Business Fundamentals for CSMs
Understanding how modern businesses work and how they are managed enables CSMs to understand and engage with senior business decision makers, and develop meaningful trust relationships with them.
Engaging with Senior Business Decision Makers
CSMs are constantly told how important it is to go out there and form trust relationships with senior business decision makers, yet few CSMs ever get told how to perform this important task effectively.
Business Consulting and Analysis Skills
Helping the customer requires a deep understanding of the customer – the type of understanding that can only come from asking the right questions, performing the right analysis, producing effective business-focused recommendations and communicating those recommendations with clarity.
Team Leadership Skills
Not everyone is cut out for a team leadership role, and even if the person has the right aptitude it still requires the right training, mentoring and coaching to create the best possible leaders.
Developing the Outcomes-Focused Roadmap
If your team provides business outcomes-focused reviews for your customers then they need to know how to present complex information in a way that executive decision makers can quickly understand and make important decisions from. This is the purpose of the outcomes-focused roadmap
CPD (Continual Professional Development)
Training can be provided either proactively or reactively. Reactive training is where you (or your team) identify a specific need – a gap in knowledge or skills – and then look for the right training package to fill that gap. But proactive training is where you already have a comprehensive training program in place so that when a learning requirement is uncovered the training is right there, instantly ready to be learned.
Better still, because the training is already there, and because (as a proactive and progressive team leader) you encourage your team to continue to grow their knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis rather than waiting until they have a specific need, many times the necessary knowledge or skill has already been absorbed.
Training Without Borders or Boundaries
Our library of learning content is already very big, containing literally hundreds of learning assets of all different types including books, articles, short and long videos, audio podcasts, articles, knowledge tests, exercises, tools, templates and much more. All of this content is available all of the time – 24 x 7 x 365 – for our members to access as much as they like and whenever they like.
The Power of “Just in Time”
By providing your team with our fully indexed and cataloged library of on demand training assets, you are enabling that team to be able to get on all learn what they need to learn at exactly the time they need it. No waiting, no organizing and best of all… no additional fees.
Keeping Up to Date in a Fast Paced Profession
There is no doubt that the Customer Success management profession is a fast paced and fast moving one. Best practices are continually being developed, refined and redeveloped. Staying on top of all this change could be a full time job if our content library didn’t make it as simple as a couple of mouse clicks.
If you manage a Customer Success team and are interested in how the Academy might add value, please contact us using the form below.
Our Portfolio
Gold membership
Gold membership is our flagship product, incorporating certification, specialization and CPD in one package. Academy membership can be purchased in two variations – FULL and BASIC – and confers 12 months of access to the user at the level purchased.
FULL membership is aimed at the practising CSM and members are provided with four levels of complete certification training from basic through to advanced, incorporating syllabuses, online self study multimedia lessons, quizzes, exercises, workbooks and more. FULL members also get access to our comprehensive On Demand Library of CPD content as well as our exclusive, in depth schedule of Live virtual classroom events, making for a rich and comprehensive learning experience.
BASIC membership is ideal for those that need just a fundamental understanding of Customer Success basics.
The Practical CSM Catalog
The Practical CSM Catalog is our “pick’n’mix” option that enables you to custom build the exact training you require to meet your team’s specific learning requirements. In addition you can elect to have as much or as little as you wish of those requirements to be delivered either as live virtual classroom events led by an instructor, or in a online self-study format.
Whereas Gold membership option is by far the most comprehensive option, the Catalog gives you more precise control over your budget and your team’s training time. For those that need a comprehensive and/or ongoing training experience the Academy will likely prove to be the more cost effective and better quality option.
For those that need just one or two smaller training interventions (for now at least), the Catalog provides more flexibility over your spending.
Customer Success Team Training Needs Survey – CLICK HERE