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The differences between customer success managers and project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a customer success manager has an average salary of $93,820, which is higher than the $91,578 average annual salary of a project manager.
The top three skills for a customer success manager include client facing, cloud and account management. The most important skills for a project manager are project management, project scope, and customer service.
| Customer Success Manager | Project Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $93,820 | $91,578 |
| Hourly rate | $45.11 | $44.03 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 95,053 | 167,116 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.17 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 46 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 8 | - |
A customer success manager works to understand repeat customers and prioritize their long-term needs. Primarily, they manage the customer relationship and give them prompt value propositions. They act as mentors to customers by educating them about the sales process and ensure efficient transaction processing. Their tasks include advocating for the company, onboarding customers to the products, follow-up on renewals, and encouraging cross-sells and upsells. Additionally, they build relationships with the customer and the support team as well as advocating customers' needs.
Project managers oversee a specific project related to the organization's business. They manage the whole project from inception to evaluation. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow-through on the plans, ensure smooth execution of the plans, and evaluate the project for further improvements should these be needed. In line with this, project managers also ensure that the project is cost-efficient and well within the budget. They also manage the different work teams involved in the project and ensure that things are running smoothly on this aspect as well.
Customer success managers and project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Success Manager | Project Manager | |
| Average salary | $93,820 | $91,578 |
| Salary range | Between $61,000 And $142,000 | Between $64,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | Redwood City, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | VMware | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a customer success manager and a project manager in terms of educational background:
| Customer Success Manager | Project Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between customer success managers' and project managers' demographics:
| Customer Success Manager | Project Manager | |
| Average age | 46 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.9% Female, 45.1% | Male, 68.9% Female, 31.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 10% |