Protecting Your Time: Nearly as Important as Protecting Revenue

Be sure to understand how important or what priority this project has while being transparent about your ability to deliver. If it is not a top priority, perhaps a week turnaround time works for both you and your customer, ensuring no one is stressed and you can slide the work into place next week. If it is absolutely urgent, be sure to share some context of what you’re rearranging or sacrificing in order to deliver so they have an understanding of where you’re coming from.

Using Loom, the free video and screen recording platform, I’ve saved hours upon hours sending my clients videos in responses to their emailed questions and requests for meetings. We all know we live in an abundance of meetings, some of which could be communicated in other formats. Give Loom a shot the next time your client requests a meeting and see if you are able to address all of their needs in a 5–10 minute video rather than a 30-minute touch base or lengthy email

Your company’s knowledge base or resource center should be one of your top used resources. Guidance, best practices, and straightforward answers should be searchable in those resources. Not only should those resources be well constructed but moreover advertised and socialized across your customer base very well. While as a CSM you are their trusted advisor and strategic partner, you are not their question and answer bot.

Only you know your best hours of productivity or times to meet with others. The first block I always start with is a block for lunch and a block to get outside. From there don’t forget to block time for your to-do list or emails. Some CSMs can get to feeling guilty about calendar blocks, but you really shouldn’t. When you prioritize and get your needs out of the way, that makes you a stronger teammate and strategic partner.