How to master Customer Expansion

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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

More CS teams got revenue goals in 2023 than ever before.

And I think it’s one of the best things that could happen.

Because

1. CSMs already covered 98 of 100 steps in the customer journey toward customer expansions.

2. Owning a revenue target ends all discussions about the ROI CS teams bring to the company.

3. They have the highest chance of success as they own the customer relationship and trust.

4. Through earning commissions too they eventually get the compensation they deserve.

That mindset does not come naturally to many CSMs. They are scared about becoming “too commercial” risking their status as trusted advisors.

But if you think about it from an unbiased point of view, it’s the most logical thing to do.

Because you can advise your customers on what to buy next because you understand their business.

Who would prefer to buy from an AM/AE they may have never met before?

One of the objections I keep hearing is that the buyer is different from the people you are working with directly.

While that’s certainly true if you are working with larger customers, there’s something else that needs to be considered: influence.

Your direct customers better advocate you internally than they would do for an AM/AE they only know by name.

Glad we could work that out and are now ready to dive into the execution part 😄

Phase 1: Delivering Value

The SaaS business model is built on Customer Retention. Without a high Retention Rate, you don’t have a viable business.

Customer Retention depends on Customer Value. If you don’t deliver a high ROI your customers will stop paying for your product.

Consequently, if you want your customers to renew and buy more from you, you have to deliver exceptional value.

Trying to sell more to deeply unhappy customers will backfire. In that situation, it does not matter if you were aware of it.

It’s certainly your job to understand the value your customers are expecting and the actual results they get.

The customers with the highest odds of a successful expansion are the ones who have overachieved their goals.

Some executives believe that you can talk customers into buying more from you. That it is only a matter of one’s sales skills.

This is completely garbage.

• How many of them would watch the 2nd part of a movie if the first one sucked?

• How many of them would eat more often at a place where the food is mediocre?

• How many would spend one more week on the same vacation if the beach was covered in trash?

There’s no substitute for a proof of value. The more you want your customers to buy from you, the more proof you have to deliver.  

Growing your existing customers needs to happen organically

Phase 2: Identifying Growth Potential

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