I'm on a flight to San Francisco and the person to my left is talking to their colleague trying to find a time for both of them to meet with a customer.

I glanced over and saw their calendar and... it was chaos.

Back to back to back meetings, all day, every day. Completely full.

Unsustainable. Even worse, it really seemed to be a source of pride for them.

The Meeting Trap

I don't know the nature of their business, but their calendar looked just like a typical CSM's. And that's the problem.

For way too many CSMs - because of misguided leadership, not the CSM's fault - customer meetings are the Value Metric. They're the Operational Metric. They're often the Performance Metric.

"How many customer meetings did you have this week?" is treated as a proxy for "how much value did you drive?"

But those are not the same thing. Not even close.

Meetings Are a Means, Not an End

Meetings are just a means to an end. They're one tool in the engagement toolkit. And frankly, they're often the most expensive, least efficient tool available.

Every meeting has a cost. Your time. The customer's time. The prep work. The follow-up. The opportunity cost of everything else you could have been doing instead.

Too many meetings just aren't necessary. And the ones that are necessary are generally executed poorly. No clear agenda. No defined outcomes. No accountability for follow-through.

The result? CSMs spend their entire week in meetings and still don't move the needle on customer outcomes. They're busy. They're exhausted. But they're not effective.

What to Measure Instead

The fix starts with leadership. Stop measuring meetings. Start measuring outcomes.

  • Did the customer hit their milestone this quarter?
  • Did adoption increase in the segments that matter?
  • Did the customer achieve the outcome they bought your product for?
  • Did the engagement drive progress toward expansion or renewal?

Some of those outcomes require meetings. Many don't. An async Loom video, a well-crafted email, a product walkthrough doc, or an in-app prompt might accomplish the same goal in a fraction of the time.

Fewer Meetings, Better Outcomes

The best CSMs don't have the fullest calendars. They have the clearest outcomes. They're strategic about when a meeting is the right tool and when something else would serve the customer better.

If your calendar is packed wall to wall and you're wearing that as a badge of honor, step back and ask: what outcomes did all those meetings actually produce?

If you can't answer that clearly, the meetings aren't working. You're just busy.