Done chasing targets: from sales to customer success
Priya (not her real name) spent seven years in B2B software sales and always hit her numbers. What she wanted was the part after the signature: helping customers keep getting value from the product, rather than moving on once the deal closed. But recruiters kept steering her back into sales.
Every recruiter saw the word 'sales' and sent me another sales job. Nobody was willing to look sideways.
Restating seven years of experience
The assessment showed more overlap than she expected: renewals she had rescued, customer onboarding she had done informally, expansion she had won inside existing accounts. The CV was rewritten around retention and adoption figures rather than new business, and the headline stopped hedging about the change.
A narrower, more precise search
- The target list was narrowed to SaaS companies hiring customer success managers with commercial targets
- All 16 applications went to roles confirmed as open, each with a short note explaining the move
- Interview preparation focused on the three questions every customer success interviewer asks a career changer
Four interview processes and one offer: a customer success manager role looking after a book of mid-sized accounts. The salary matched her sales base, without the commission rollercoaster.
