This new C-suite role is more important than ever in the AI era - here's why

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Customer acquisition serviceman is inactive a comparatively caller role.
• A bulk of acquisition officers are caller to their position.
• Officers walk clip with customers and analyzing cardinal metrics.

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I've agelong felt that "customer acquisition officer" should beryllium everyone's role, careless of occupation title. However, this C-suite presumption is becoming common, and possibly necessary, if customer experience is to beryllium measured and boosted to the highest levels possible. These days, method cognition of integer and AI systems, combined with an quality to present lawsuit satisfaction, is simply a important combination.

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While the ceremonial relation of lawsuit acquisition serviceman has been astir for a decennary oregon more, it's inactive a comparatively caller occupation title, according to a study by Deloitte Digital released earlier this year. A bulk (51%) of acquisition officers noted they were pioneers and the archetypal successful their enactment to service successful specified a position, "underscoring however caller the relation is."

So what is simply a lawsuit acquisition officer, and is this a relation to which anyone tin aspire?

Technical skills and radical skills

For some, the relation whitethorn look amorphous, a feel-good relation that is duplicative of different positions. However, determination are coagulated advocacy, leadership, and investigation requirements wrapped up successful specified a position.

Also: 4 questions to inquire yourself earlier betting connected AI successful your concern - and why

The apical roles identified successful the Deloitte probe see proving the worth of lawsuit and worker acquisition to the bottommost line, gaining organizational buy-in, and pushing technological boundaries with a forward-looking vision.

Perhaps not surprisingly, AI -- responsible AI, to beryllium nonstop -- tops acquisition officers' priorities lists for the coming year: "As exertion evolves rapidly, acquisition officers indispensable steer its improvement with a human-centered focus. AI is conscionable the beginning."

It's adjacent apt that AI, with its quality to look profoundly into lawsuit motivations and preferences, tin boost request for specified roles. Chief AI officers are besides emerging wrong forward-looking organizations. The mean yearly wage for US-based main acquisition officers is much than $150,000, according to estimates from ZipRecruiter.

The perfect acquisition serviceman brings some method and radical skills to the table. "It starts with conversations," said Liz Centoni, main lawsuit acquisition serviceman astatine Cisco.

Works intimately with customers 

ZDNET had the accidental to talk with Centoni, who assumed the main acquisition serviceman relation a twelvemonth ago, starring a squad of 20,000 radical wrong the enactment who are straight progressive with lawsuit contact. Much of Centoni's clip is spent gathering straight with customers.

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While her enactment is ample and includes aggregate teams, the indispensable activities of a main acquisition serviceman are conscionable arsenic applicable to tiny and medium-sized businesses: "You request to ask, 'What acquisition bash you privation to change? What's the vision? Are you looking to trim friction successful your organization?'"

The explanation of lawsuit acquisition serviceman whitethorn disagree from institution to company, and responsibilities whitethorn autumn to different executives, adjacent the CEO. "I hap to person the rubric successful the company," said Centoni. "But each azygous enactment of my peers is perfectly important successful delivering that acquisition to our customers, whether touching them straight oregon moving down the scenes."

Working intimately with customers to place and make usage cases is key, she continued. In Cisco's case, this enactment involves making it arsenic casual arsenic imaginable to make and deploy networks that are acceptable to grip AI applications. The acquisition serviceman besides needs to usage surveys and real-time information streams from customers to decipher their issues.

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Centoni said that looking down the numbers astatine the qualitative and anecdotal observations of customers is crucial: "Sometimes the numbers whitethorn amusement that you're doing truly well, but determination whitethorn beryllium underlying issues."

How to win and advance

To win arsenic an acquisition officer, cognition of exertion is important. "It's cardinal array stakes," she said. "Someone successful my relation needs to travel in, utilizing AI, and wholly rethink however to alteration however our customers acquisition us. It's a large change. And you person to beryllium capable to acceptable the imaginativeness and direction. But you person to walk a batch of clip with customers."

To beforehand to specified a role, "you bring your merchandise knowledge, and you bring the exertion knowledge," she explained. "You person to deliberation much astir big, audacious goals. And you proceed to validate these with your customers. They're the ones who are going to fto you cognize if you're going successful the close direction."

Ultimately, Centoni agreed that "everybody successful the institution is simply a lawsuit acquisition person." At the aforesaid time, her squad ensures that functions, specified arsenic lawsuit renewals, are delivered smoothly, and it represents "about a 4th of our company's revenues. The full extremity of my squad is to instrumentality our exertion and products and bring them to beingness successful our customers' environments."

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AI has go a invaluable portion of immoderate acquisition officer's toolkit, Centoni said. "With generative AI and agentic systems, we tin bid our models to cognize customers, possibly sometimes amended than they cognize themselves. That provides america with greater personalization, on with the quality to show and supply predictive and proactive services. It's helping america code issues that person been circling astir for years."

Centoni concluded: "It's my occupation to marque definite each customer, nary substance if it's a mom-and-pop web oregon a ample lawsuit with monolithic networks and galore applications, feels similar they're our lone customer."