The Startup’s Guide to Customer Success – Jennifer Chiang
Essential for anyone building from scratch at a scrappy startup!

The Customer Success Professional’s Handbook – Ashvin Vaidyanathan and Ruben Rabago

I recommend this to every new CSM! (And every CS Leader who has inexperienced CSMs on their team…) No fluff, just actionable and practical!

Onboarding Matters – Donna Weber
Got a churn problem? Then you’ve got an onboarding problem. This book lays out exactly why and HOW to build out an effective scalable onboarding process.

Spin Selling – Neil Rackham
This is the book that taught me to love sales and see it as a way to help people, rather than transactional at best, and sleazy at worst.

The Seven Pillars of Customer Success – Wayne McCulloch
Great overview of the how and why of Customer Success Departments. I like to recommend this to non-CS Leaders in Product or the Exec suite.

The Challenger Sale – Matthew Dixon
An interesting view into the different types of profiles a CSM or Account Manager can be. While many of us in CS are “Relationship Builders”, Dixon guides us to work towards being Challengers. It helped me stop wilting at the first hint of resistance from customers. They don’t always know best. They need your guidance.

Dare to Lead* – Brené Brown
I have never read a book on leadership that resonated with me more than this one. It has shaped what I believe true leadership should look like, and allowed me to relax into who I truly am as a leader, rather than trying to be something I’m not. Truly life changing.

The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle
Great teams don’t happen by accident. Coyle taps into the three core elements that all great teams have in common, and how to put those in place in your organization.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Steven Covey
A classic for a reason. It’s just damn good advice. You will hear me say “Begin with the End in Mind” in CSLA over and over. This is where I got that principle.

How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Another classic. Just because you want to help people doesn’t mean you are able to influence them. And that’s an important part of the job in CS. This is jam packed with principles that seem simple and obvious, but are revolutionary when you put them in practice.

Crucial Conversations* – Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson
We are designed for fight or flight in the face of conflict. It’s not a matter of choice, but biology. This book gives you a bullet-proof framework for handling any tough conversation – rooted in psychology.

The Coaching Habit – Michael Bungay Stanier
Teaching is easy. Coaching is hard. And it’s also a much more effective way to get people to learn anything. Discover seven essential questions that will help make you a better leader almost instantly.

The Making of a Manager* – Julie Zhuo
Essential for any new manager. It takes most people years to learn the things they could have simply read in this book.

Radical Candor* – Kim Scott
Clear is kind. This book teaches you how to give feedback that is based in caring for the other person, which enables you to drive results. (That said – don’t use it as license to be an asshole.)

Never Split the Difference* – Chris Voss
Learn to negotiate from a top FBI Hostage Negotiator! Both badass and surprisingly human. This book is AMAZING on audio. One of my favorite books ever.

Predictably Irrational* – Dr. Dan Ariely
Humans aren’t logical. If we want to influence anyone from our customers to the C-Suite – we have to understand what motivates people. Which is more based on cognitive shortcuts than what makes sense. These are the cheat codes.

Influence – The Science of Persuasion – Robert B. Cialdini
The big papa of influence shows us the driving factors of why we say yes, and how to apply those ethically in business and life.

Who Moved My Cheese – Spencer Johnson, Kenneth Blanchard
Humans hate change, and it’s inevitable. Here’s how to navigate unexpected change and deal with it better so you can enjoy life more. A helpful set of tools for handling change management for both our customers, and ourselves in the rapidly changing CS landscape

Mindset – Carol Dweck
If you have a fixed mindset, you’re going to be pretty miserable in CS. Learn how your mindset dramatically affects your results and how to shift your perspective for a happier and more successful life.(I also discuss this book in this episode of Psychology of Customer Success.)

The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
Habits beat willpower. Learn how habit loops are formed: Cue Action – Response – Reward so you can understand how to make product adoption a rewarding habit for your end users.

Grit – Angela Duckworth
Those who make it to the top in CS all have one thing in common – Grit. But don’t worry if you don’t feel particularly “gritty”. It’s about what goes through your head when you fall down and how that – not talent or luck – makes all the difference.

Atomic Habits – James Clear
Learn how tiny, simple, consistent actions make rock solid habits. I’ve used this book to improve customer engagement, get back to writing more, and lose baby weight. It’s a top 5 for me.

Drive – Daniel Pink
People aren’t going to do things well just because you tell them to. Learn how to leverage autonomy, mastery, and purpose to motivate yourself, build strong teams, and build great customer relationships.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (more stories) – Malcolm Gladwell

OR

Thinking, Fast and Slow (more scientific) – Daniel Kaufman
Both teach how we make decisions and how most of our decisions are based on shortcuts in the brain. Gladwell leans more towards intuition and Kaufman on combining systems one (fast) and two (slow, logical). FWIW I think both are relevant.