The CSM Under Pressure: Navigating Budget Cuts, Role Creep, and Burnout in the Era of Do-More-with-Less

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Era of CS Consolidation

Across SaaS companies, budget pressures are becoming the new normal. With growth rates slowing in many segments and investor demands for profitability rising, leadership teams are reassessing spend — and Customer Success often ends up on the chopping block.

Where there were once dedicated resources for onboarding, renewals, and expansion, companies are now collapsing multiple roles into one. The result is an alarming trend: CSMs being tasked with responsibilities that used to belong to two or three different job functions.

This consolidation isn’t just a budgetary decision — it’s cultural. CS leaders are being asked to “do more with less,” but rarely given the process support or tooling to make that sustainable. The CSM role, already one of the most cross-functional and demanding in SaaS, is quickly becoming untenable.

Chapter 2: The Disappearance of the Renewal Specialist

Renewals are the lifeblood of subscription-based businesses, yet the Renewal Specialist — once a staple in many CS orgs — is increasingly viewed as a luxury.

According to the 2023 Customer Success Salary & Trends Report from Gainsight, the number of teams with dedicated renewal resources dropped by 26% year-over-year. In their place? CSMs, who now have to own the entire renewal motion — from timeline tracking to commercial negotiations.

This dual responsibility breaks the classic “good cop” dynamic that helped CSMs maintain trusted advisor status while a commercial counterpart managed terms. With that buffer gone, the lines between advocacy and sales blur. The customer no longer sees a strategic partner — they see someone with a financial agenda.

Chapter 3: The Revenue Conflict — Trusted Advisor vs. Quota Carrier

Ask any seasoned CSM, and they’ll tell you the magic of Customer Success lies in the trusted relationship. But when CSMs are handed a quota, the dynamic changes.

Suddenly, the CSM must walk a fine line between:

• Advocating for customer outcomes

• Surfacing expansion opportunities

• Closing revenue

A report from Totango found that 72% of CSMs feel conflicted when asked to pursue upsells, fearing it compromises their objectivity.

This isn’t to say CSMs can’t support growth — they absolutely can. But it must be done with structure, transparency, and shared accountability. Without that, you risk eroding trust, losing renewals, and burning out your CS team.

Chapter 4: The Emotional Toll of Role Overlap

It’s one thing to take on more responsibilities. It’s another to be evaluated as if nothing changed.

Role overlap creates confusion, inefficiency, and — over time — resentment. CSMs are being asked to:

• Drive adoption strategy

• Respond to tickets

• Forecast revenue

• Manage procurement redlines

• Deliver quarterly business reviews

All while being measured on NPS, churn, growth, and engagement.

This kind of context-switching is emotionally draining. According to Harvard Business Review, task-switching can reduce productivity by up to 40% — not to mention the mental toll it takes on professionals trying to maintain a high-touch customer relationship.

Without clear boundaries and prioritization, many CSMs feel like they’re failing — even when they’re doing the work of three people.

Chapter 5: When It's Time to Leave — The Red Flags to Watch

Sometimes, the best option isn’t to adapt — it’s to move on. But how do you know when it’s time to go?

Here are some signs:

• Leadership assigns revenue targets and renewals with no training or tooling

• You’ve raised workload concerns multiple times, with no change

• Internal expectations shift weekly with no clear direction

• You’re consistently working overtime just to “stay afloat”

If your organization doesn’t understand what a CSM actually does — and shows no willingness to learn — that’s not a reflection of your value. It’s a sign of misaligned leadership.

Staying too long in a toxic or unrealistic CS environment can lead to burnout, disengagement, and even long-term career doubts.

Chapter 6: How to Survive the Chaos — If You Stay

If you’re not ready to leave — or if there’s a glimmer of hope in your team, culture, or customers — you need to survive strategically.

The first step? Externalize your workload.

This doesn’t mean working harder — it means documenting everything:

• What meetings you’re running

• What revenue you’re influencing

• What customer concerns you’re managing

Then, bring visibility to it. This isn’t about complaining — it’s about accountability. The more you can visualize your contribution and capacity, the easier it becomes to start hard conversations.

Chapter 7: Building a RACI That Reflects Today’s Reality

A RACI model — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed — is the foundation for shared accountability.

To build one:

1. List all customer journey milestones — onboarding, training, renewals, escalations, adoption, expansion

2. List activities for each — who schedules? who delivers? who supports?

3. Assign roles across departments — CS, Sales, Support, Product, Legal, etc.

Make sure the RACI:

• Reflects the real scope of the CSM role

• Makes visible where other departments must participate

• Shows when commercial or strategic responsibility shifts from one team to another

This creates a shared language for saying, “This is what I own — and this is what needs to change.”

Chapter 8: Making It Dynamic with ezRACI

A spreadsheet RACI is a good start — but static documents don’t drive behavior change.

That’s where ezRACI becomes a game changer. With ezRACI, CSMs can:

• Create living RACI matrices tied to real accounts

• Track who’s responsible for each customer outcome

• Assign internal owners across workflows and projects

• Share visibility with Sales, Support, and Product

It integrates with Gainsight, Salesforce, Jira, and other core platforms, so your RACI evolves with your customers — and your organization.

More importantly, it shows leadership the real weight of the CSM role in data-driven, irrefutable ways.

Chapter 9: Getting Leadership to Pay Attention

Documentation is powerful. But it’s the conversation that drives change.

Use your RACI matrix as a starting point for dialogue:

• “If I’m owning renewals and upsell, should I deprioritize QBRs?”

• “What should I stop doing if this new responsibility is now mine?”

• “Who should be re-enabled to support these parts of the journey?”

When presented calmly and visually, RACI matrices disarm defensiveness. They shift conversations from “you’re overwhelmed” to “this role is overloaded.”

That nuance matters — and it opens the door to rescoping, reprioritizing, or rebalancing responsibilities.

Chapter 10: Reclaiming Control and Crafting a Sustainable CS Career

You became a CSM because you care about outcomes. Because you like helping people. Because you’re a builder, a coach, and a trusted partner.

But no role — not even one you love — is worth your mental health.

To reclaim control:

• Document what you own — and what you shouldn’t

• Clarify your operating model — with RACI and tooling

• Communicate proactively — with stakeholders and leadership

• Choose your battles — not every hill is worth climbing

And if your environment refuses to change — choose yourself.

Your skills are in demand. The best CS organizations respect their people. They support, not strain. They invest in structure, not just slogans.

ezRACI was built for CSMs like you — those who want to deliver, but also want to breathe.

If your company expects more from you, help them see what that really means — and what it truly takes to succeed.

Start with RACI. Start with ezRACI.