The 14 Laws of value-centric CSM

Hi, Markus here. Welcome to a premium edition of the Customer-Value-Led-Growth Newsletter.

Every week, I share strategies, guides, and frameworks to help you create exceptional value for your customers and company.

If you are not a paid subscriber, here’s what you might have missed:

• 5 highly effective Tools every CS Team needs to use

• The not-so-Secret to high Product Adoption

• How to build a Customer Success Metric System that rocks

• Customer Onboarding that drives Growth

• How to build a dedicated Customer Success Plan

It becomes more evident every single day. Customers are no longer paying for product usage and convenience. 

They are only paying for tangible, substantial value. 

Customer Success Management must not and can’t stick to the old ways of 

• providing generic content and services

• checking off lists

• working through your inbox

• applying responsive playbooks

• optimizing internal metrics

Forget about the “doing more with less” bs. The mantra you need to follow is “delivering 10x more customer value”. 

But after spending years playing the old game, it’s not easy to adjust your mindset and “operating system.” It might need a complete rewiring.  

This is not a small change as it requires a fundamentally new way of thinking.

1. You can’t deliver what you don’t know

Too many CSMs think they know what their customers care about without talking to them.

So they skip discovery or rely on superficial information from the sales handoff. Customer Value is rarely straightforward or one-dimensional. 

Never assume that you understand what customers value. It will come back and bite you in the ass.

Nothing worse than demonstrating value in a way your customers could not care less about. Spend time with your customers and find out what’s at stake. 

If they don’t know or can’t articulate it - help them figure it out.

This is a great way to win their trust before you’ve even started and you can move your customers in a favorable direction. 

The easiest way to come up with ideas is to look at their peers. 

2. Customer value is subjective and personal

Your customers buy your product because they want to

• increase their revenue

• lower their costs

• improve their productivity

All business goals eventually come down to it. But you must never forget that you are working with human beings.

What your customers really care about is what’s behind those numbers. The benefit of the benefit. 

There’s always an ulterior motive, a personal and emotional goal attached to these business outcomes.

From sleeping better at night over getting promoted to make their vision come true. 

If you help them to not only achieve these goals, you will win your customers' hearts and unwavering loyalty. 

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