sixteenventures.com

# Sixteen Ventures

> Articles on Customer Success, SaaS growth, retention, expansion revenue,
> and maximizing customer lifetime value by Lincoln Murphy. Lincoln is the
> co-author of Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn
> and Growing Recurring Revenue — the first book on Customer Success.

## About

- [About Lincoln Murphy](https://sixteenventures.com/lincoln-murphy-strategic-consultant/): Strategic consultant helping companies maximize Customer Lifetime Value

## Articles

- [Retention, Expansion, and Advocacy Are Not Behaviors](https://sixteenventures.com/retention-expansion-advocacy-are-not-behaviors/): What behavior, specifically, drives your retention rate? Not engagement. Not health score. A specific, observable action that a customer either took or didn't take. If you can't name it, you can't engineer it.
- [Health Scores Are Destroying Your Signal](https://sixteenventures.com/health-scores-are-destroying-your-signal/): The aggregate health score might be the thing most quietly destroying your ability to actually understand your customers. It averages out the signal — and creates a false sense of coverage.
- [The Tools Have Boxed Us In: Structural Failure #3 in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/the-tools-have-boxed-us-in/): We built a profession on a broken premise, staffed it with exceptional people doing the wrong work, and handed them a tech stack that locked them into doing both those things the way the software wanted them done.
- [The Best People Are Doing the Wrong Work: Structural Failure #2 in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/the-best-people-are-doing-the-wrong-work/): The most relationship-driven, strategically capable people in your company are spending a significant portion of their day on work that has nothing to do with relationships, empathy, or strategy.
- [The Broken Premise: Structural Failure #1 in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/the-broken-premise/): Customer Success was built on one core activity: getting customers to do things they don't want to do, can't do, and won't do well enough to get the outcome they came for. That's not a people problem. It's a design failure.
- [The Three Structural Failures of Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/the-three-structural-failures-of-customer-success/): Customer Success is harder than it needs to be. Not because of bad people or bad intentions. Because the profession was built on three structural failures that nobody talks about — and they've been compounding against every CS team since the beginning.
- [Best Practices Isn't a Standard — It's Just Their Standard](https://sixteenventures.com/best-practices-isnt-a-standard/): Every CS tool will tell you they want to help you implement best practices. Here's the thing that should make every CS leader pause: every CS platform has its own set of best practices. And they're all different.
- [The Handoff Is Where CS Goes to Die](https://sixteenventures.com/the-handoff-is-where-cs-goes-to-die/): I've done root cause analysis on churn at hundreds of companies. One thing comes up more consistently than almost anything else: the relationship was damaged before Customer Success ever touched it.
- [Talking About Agentic AI Is the Most Customer Success Thing I've Ever Done](https://sixteenventures.com/agentic-cs-is-customer-success/): Some people want me to just focus on CS. Cool. Let's talk about CS. Because what I'm describing with agentic workflows isn't a departure from Customer Success. It's the infrastructure CS always deserved.
- [Stop Waiting for Customers to Ask for More](https://sixteenventures.com/orchestrated-expansion/): Most CS teams approach expansion reactively — and find out the customer was ready three months ago when the customer brings it up themselves. Orchestrated expansion changes that.
- [Customer Success Was Built on a Broken Assumption](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-built-on-broken-assumption/): We built entire CS organizations around getting customers to do things they didn't want to do, couldn't do, or were structurally never going to do. AI didn't create this problem. It just made it impossible to ignore.
- [The Customer Was Never the Problem](https://sixteenventures.com/the-customer-was-never-the-problem/): The customer was not the problem. The customer was the bottleneck. Those are not the same thing. And when you understand the difference, 15 years of Customer Success history looks completely different.
- [Your CS Tools Were Built for Someone Else's Company](https://sixteenventures.com/your-cs-tools-were-built-for-someone-elses-company/): Every tool you bought made the same silent demand: adapt to us. Your operating model bent to fit the product. The product never bent to fit you. Agentic workflows are the first real alternative.
- [You Can Vibe-Code a CS Workflow. You Can't Vibe-Code the Judgment Behind It.](https://sixteenventures.com/you-cant-vibe-code-the-judgment/): Everyone is rushing to build agentic CS workflows right now. Most of them are going to build something useless faster than they've ever built anything before. The technology executes your understanding. It doesn't replace it.
- [Your Humanity Is the Moat](https://sixteenventures.com/your-humanity-is-the-moat/): The mistake companies are already making with agentic AI: treating it as a replacement strategy. Your humanity is your moat. Not your platform. Not your playbooks. Agentic workflows don't replace the human moment. They clear the runway so it can actually land.
- [The Question Customer Success Has Never Been Able to Ask Before](https://sixteenventures.com/the-question-customer-success-never-asked/): For 15 years, Customer Success was organized around one question: how do we get customers to do what they need to do? That question is gone. And the new one changes everything.
- [Yes, I Talk About AI a Lot. Here's Why.](https://sixteenventures.com/yes-i-talk-about-ai-heres-why/): Is AI the only thing going on in Customer Success right now? No. And also yes. But not for the reason you think.
- [You Can't Ask for Active Listening and Then Bury Your CSMs in Busywork](https://sixteenventures.com/cant-ask-for-active-listening-and-bury-csms-in-busywork/): Active listening is the most important skill a CSM can have. But most CS operating models destroy the conditions that make it possible. Agentic workflows fix the conditions.
- [Agentic Workflows Aren't Tech Touch 2.0](https://sixteenventures.com/agentic-workflows-arent-tech-touch/): Every time I talk about agentic workflows in Customer Success, someone asks: isn't this just tech touch with a better interface? It isn't. And confusing the two is going to cost CS leaders who make that mistake.
- [Your People Are Your Moat](https://sixteenventures.com/your-people-are-your-moat/): As AI makes technology easier to build and replicate, the technology itself becomes less differentiated. The human elements of the customer relationship become more valuable, not less. Here's the commercial argument.
- [AI Does Not Remove the Humanity from Customer Success. It Is How We Scale It.](https://sixteenventures.com/ai-does-not-remove-humanity-from-customer-success/): AI in Customer Success is not about replacing humans. It is about making sure the signals your CSMs catch actually get acted on. That is how you scale humanity.
- [Customer Success Is at a Crossroads. Again.](https://sixteenventures.com/cs-is-at-a-crossroads-again/): Customer Success is under pressure again. But the old response of defending and justifying is the wrong move. Agentic workflows offer a way out of the cycle for good.
- [AI isn't the threat](https://sixteenventures.com/ai-isnt-the-threat/): While SaaS stocks got hammered because of the perceived threat of AI, we were spinning up AI agents at ListKit that made our team 5x more productive. AI is an...
- [I'll just vibe code it myself this weekend](https://sixteenventures.com/ill-just-vibe-code-it-myself-this-weekend/): Right now, one of your customers is looking at what they pay you every month, looking at what they actually use, and thinking: "I could just vibe code this...
- ["We'll just use Claude, bro."](https://sixteenventures.com/well-just-use-claude-bro/): When customers believe a general-purpose AI can replace your SaaS product, your renewal conversation changes completely. Here's what that means for CS leaders.
- [We've all optimized for the craziest thing](https://sixteenventures.com/weve-all-optimized-for-the-craziest-thing/): Trying to get customers to execute perfectly when they don't have experience, expertise, or even the desire to do so. Yet, we've designed our entire operation...
- [Q2 churn will hit HARD. Unless...](https://sixteenventures.com/q2-churn-will-hit-hard-unless/): A CS leader sent me a message: 'Lincoln, I'm freaking out. Churn is gonna hit us HARD in Q2.' They're not alone. Here's how to fight back right now.
- [Get 10x revenue from the same feature](https://sixteenventures.com/get-10x-revenue-from-the-same-feature/): Strategic Unbundling lets you charge 10x more for the same feature by offering it at the right moment instead of giving it away in the initial deal.
- [Like Vibe Coding - But for Revenue](https://sixteenventures.com/like-vibe-codingbut-for-revenue/): Expansion revenue shouldn't require a sales pitch. Like vibe coding removed the need for dev expertise, orchestration removes the need to sell your customers.
- [Fear and growth can't coexist](https://sixteenventures.com/fear-and-growth-cant-coexist/): A scarcity mindset focused on saving customers kills growth. Companies that win put customers on an ascension path from Day 1 instead of clinging to retention.
- [Anti-shrink isn't growth](https://sixteenventures.com/antishrink-isnt-growth/): If your GTM strategy is acquisition plus churn management, you don't have a growth strategy. You have an anti-shrink strategy. Expansion changes everything.
- [Are you acquiring customers - or revenue?](https://sixteenventures.com/are-you-acquiring-customersor-revenue/): Closing deals is not the finish line. The best SaaS companies acquire revenue, not just customers, by making expansion a systematic part of the journey.
- [A hidden revenue leak costing you millions](https://sixteenventures.com/a-hidden-revenue-leak-costing-you-millions/): Most SaaS companies obsess over churn but completely ignore Invisible Revenue Churn - the expansion revenue they should be earning but aren't even tracking.
- [“Lincoln, this is either total BS… or genius.”](https://sixteenventures.com/lincoln-this-is-either-total-bs-or-genius/): Expansion revenue feels too good to be true until you engineer it. Why SaaS leaders are skeptical of rapid ARR growth and why they shouldn't be.
- [How to Increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-increase-customer-lifetime-value/): How to increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) by getting customers to stay longer and buy more, more often.
- [Discounts don't save customers](https://sixteenventures.com/discounts-dont-save-customers/): Leading with discounts or downgrades to prevent churn erodes trust and revenue. Value-driven concessions work better. Here is why and what to do instead.
- [Psychology Hack Instantly Stops Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/psychology-hack-instantly-stops-churn/): Behavioral Engineering uses loss aversion, urgency, and sunk cost to drive customer action at the exact moment it matters most. But timing is everything.
- [Stop Churn using Tactical Timing](https://sixteenventures.com/stop-churn-using-tactical-timing/): Tactical timing uses renewal deadlines and contract terms to create urgency that makes renewing easier than canceling. It works, but use it carefully.
- [When to engage; when to ghost 'em](https://sixteenventures.com/when-to-engage-when-to-ghost-em/): Sometimes the best way to handle at-risk customers is to not engage at all. Reaching out to inactive accounts can actually trigger churn instead of preventing it.
- [Save the Right Customers, Ignore Others](https://sixteenventures.com/save-the-right-customers-ignore-others/): Not all at-risk customers are worth saving. Tactical prioritization separates salvageable accounts from lost causes disguised as opportunities. Here's how.
- [Urgent but Unspoken Save Tactics](https://sixteenventures.com/urgent-but-unspoken-save-tactics/): When churn threatens your business survival, emergency save tactics exist that nobody talks about. Here is when to use them, and why knowing the limits is critical.
- [7 Ways to Take Control of Churn in Q1](https://sixteenventures.com/7-ways-to-take-control-of-churn-in-q1/): Churn feels like it controls you, but it does not have to. Here are seven practical actions to regain control, secure renewals, and protect your revenue in Q1.
- [The True Cost of Meetings in Customer Success Management](https://sixteenventures.com/true-cost-of-meetings/): Meetings are the most expensive activity in Customer Success Management, yet we often overlook their true cost. Let's fix that together.
- [Meetings as a Customer Success Metric: The Misguided Path](https://sixteenventures.com/meetings-as-a-metric/): Meetings are a critical element of Customer Success Management, but should not be used as a metric in and of themselves. There's a better way.
- [No Goals, No Customer Success: Unlocking the Power of the Goal Discovery Framework](https://sixteenventures.com/no-goals-no-customer-success/): Discover why understanding and aligning with your customers' goals through is essential for Customer Success and sustainable business growth.
- [Outcomes > Meetings (calendar chaos)](https://sixteenventures.com/outcomes-meetings-calendar-chaos/): A packed calendar isn't a sign of productivity. For CSMs, too many meetings usually means a lack of strategy, not a surplus of customer engagement.
- [The True Cost of Every Customer Meeting](https://sixteenventures.com/the-true-cost-of-meetings-part-1-of-3/): Meetings are the most expensive activity in Customer Success. Most CS orgs never calculate what they actually cost - and it's way more than you think.
- [Meetings... can be SO much better](https://sixteenventures.com/meetings-can-be-so-much-better/): Meetings are the most expensive thing in Customer Success, yet most are wasted. Here is how to fix no-shows, bad agendas, and meetings that should be emails.
- [Revenue Roadblocks: How We’re Sabotaging Our Own Growth](https://sixteenventures.com/revenue-roadblocks/): Discover how revenue roadblocks hinder your business growth and learn strategies to make it easier for customers to buy more from you.
- [Good Fit vs. Bad Fit vs. Ideal Customers: The Key to Unlocking Sustainable Growth](https://sixteenventures.com/bad-fit-vs-good-fit-customers/): There are three types of customers: Bad-fit, Good-fit, and Ideal. To maximize Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) you must clearly define these.
- [Upsell Myth #1: Wait until Churn < 10%](https://sixteenventures.com/upsell-myth-1-wait-until-churn-10/): The idea that you must fix churn before pursuing upsells is a myth. Your ready customers shouldn't wait for your struggling ones to catch up.
- [How to make CSMs less busy](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-make-csms-less-busy/): In this context, "busy" is a feeling, one that leads CSMs to feel overwhelmed and eventually burnout. Busy isn't about the performance of activities, per se....
- [Opt-In vs. Opt-Out Trials: The Hidden Impact on Customer Retention and Success](https://sixteenventures.com/opt-in-vs-opt-out-trials/): Discover how your trial strategy - opt-in or opt-out - impacts customer retention and success and maximizes customer lifetime value.
- ["My CSMs are too busy for Advocacy" (No!)](https://sixteenventures.com/my-csms-are-too-busy-for-advocacy-no/): When CS leaders say their CSMs are too busy for Advocacy or Expansion, it reveals a broken operating environment - not an overworked team. Here's the real issue.
- [Who owns Advocacy in the BEST companies?](https://sixteenventures.com/who-owns-advocacy-in-the-best-companies/): In the best SaaS companies, Customer Success owns advocacy because CS has the deepest view of customer milestones and the best timing for advocacy asks.
- [Okay, who SHOULD own Advocacy?](https://sixteenventures.com/okay-who-should-own-advocacy/): Most companies that claim to own Advocacy really just own a campaign. A real Advocacy strategy needs a real owner driving it across the customer lifecycle.
- [So... who owns Advocacy? (poll results)](https://sixteenventures.com/so-who-owns-advocacy-poll-results/): An informal poll shows CS and Marketing split on Advocacy ownership. But the real finding is that most companies don't have a formal Advocacy program at all.
- [From Transactions to Relationships: Unleashing Customer Potential with AX](https://sixteenventures.com/beyond-transactions/): How Appropriate Experience (AX) transforms customer transactions into lasting relationships, unleashing their full potential to drive growth.
- [How to Operationalize Advocacy](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-operationalize-advocacy/): Advocacy isn't the finish line - it's a flywheel. Here's how to operationalize customer advocacy into a self-perpetuating growth engine for your business.
- [Renewal Psychology: From an Adversarial Process to a Celebration of Success](https://sixteenventures.com/renewal-psychology/): Renewals shouldn't be us vs. them. Learn how to transform adversarial renewals into celebrations of success.
- [Pods in Customer Success vs. Sales: A Side-by-Side Comparison](https://sixteenventures.com/pods-customer-success-sales/): Pods are used in both Sales and Customer Success, but how they're structured and their core objectives are very different.
- [The Role of Pods in CSM Coverage Models: The Evolving Landscape](https://sixteenventures.com/csm-pods/): The pros and cons of the CSM Pod model, the requirements for success, and how it integrates with hybrid and future CSM org designs.
- [Pooled CSMs: Benefits, Challenges, and Requirements for Success](https://sixteenventures.com/csm-pool/): The pros and cons of the CSM Pool model, the requirements for success, and how it integrates with hybrid and future CSM org designs.
- [Beyond Touch Levels: Scaling Customer Success through Appropriate Experience (AX)](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-touch-levels/): There's no such thing as a 'tech-touch' or 'high-touch' customer. There are only customers and their Appropriate Experience (AX).
- [The Goal Discovery Framework for Customer Success Management](https://sixteenventures.com/goal-discovery-framework/): If you don't know your customers' Goals - their Objective + Timeframe - you're doing something, but you're not doing Customer Success.
- [Storytelling in Customer Success: Use the Power of Goal Discovery](https://sixteenventures.com/storytelling-in-customer-success/): Customers care about one thing: themselves. If you can tie their use of your prouct to the story already in their head, you win.
- [Customer Success Scaling: Capacity Planning and Resource Allocation](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-capacity-planning/): Plan your Customer Success team's capacity to ensure the right resources are in place to deliver long-term customer success at scale.
- [Bridging the Engagement Gap: Keeping Customers Actively Invested](https://sixteenventures.com/keeping-customers-engaged/): Design an exceptional customer experience that fosters ongoing engagement and keeps your customers invested in your product or service
- [Stop! Don't send that email yet. (Do this)](https://sixteenventures.com/stop-dont-send-that-email-yet-do-this/): Before you hit send on that customer email, ask one question: is it clear what's in it for them? If not, you're training them to ignore you.
- [CSMs: Do these 3 things this week](https://sixteenventures.com/csms-do-these-3-things-this-week/): Three practical actions every CSM should take right now to align with leadership priorities, evaluate their portfolio, and get proactive about customer outcomes.
- [Heads of CS: Do these 3 things this week](https://sixteenventures.com/heads-of-cs-do-these-3-things-this-week/): Three things every Head of Customer Success should do right now: align with executives on metrics, plan team capacity, and audit your segmentation model.
- ['Tis the season to ignore your emails (right?)](https://sixteenventures.com/tis-the-season-to-ignore-your-emails-right/): The myth that customers check out during the holidays is wrong. The people who engage during downtime are your most serious buyers and advocates.
- [Build a Social Proof Machine: Consistently Generate Real Advocates at Scale](https://sixteenventures.com/advocacly-flywheel-social-proof/): Unlock the untapped power of silent advocates and social proof to revitalize your Customer Success advocacy program
- [Advocacy Flywheel ... this is cool](https://sixteenventures.com/advocacy-flywheel-this-is-cool/): Customer advocacy isn't a one-time ask - it's a flywheel. Here's how to turn advocates into a self-perpetuating growth loop that compounds over time.
- [The Untapped Potential of Social Proof through Earned Advocacy](https://sixteenventures.com/earned-advocacy-social-proof/): Unlock the untapped power of social proof and advocacy in scaling Customer Success - transform reviews into revenue.
- [From KPIs to Connection: Transforming Metrics Into Meaningful Relationships](https://sixteenventures.com/metrics-to-meaning/): Unlock the synergy between Customer-Level and User-Level KPIs, orchestrated by Goal Discovery, for harmonious Customer Success.
- [5 Outdated Email Tactics You Need to Abandon in 2024](https://sixteenventures.com/email-tactics/): Discover five outdated email tactics hampering your customer relationships and hindering your growth in 2023.
- [Every Department Must Recognize the Value of Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/value-of-customer-success/): Unlock the potential of every department recognizing Customer Success's pivotal role, beyond just retention.
- [Retention: Shifting from Reactive to Proactive to Stop Chasing and Start Leading](https://sixteenventures.com/reactive-to-proactive-retention/): For Customer Success, shift from reactive to proactive retention strategies. Stop chasing at-risk customers. Start leading them to success.
- [Why High Usage Doesn’t Guarantee Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/usage-customer-success/): Break free from the Usage Trap. Learn why high activity doesn't equal Customer Success and how to close the Success Gap for real impact.
- [Scaling Your Customer Success Team Without Losing Control](https://sixteenventures.com/scaling-cs-team/): Unlock the secrets to scaling your Customer Success Team without losing control through leadership, management, and coaching.
- [Continuous goal alignment (but how?)](https://sixteenventures.com/continuous-goal-alignment-but-how/): Goal Discovery isn't a one-time event. Here's how to build Continuous Goal Alignment into your CS workflow so you always know what your customers need.
- [The Art and Science of Continuous Goal Alignment in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/goal-alignment/): Unlock the secret to world-class Customer Success with Continuous Goal Alignment. Master the evolving objectives of your customers today!
- [Goal Discovery: The Essential Task You Never Had Time for (Until Now!)](https://sixteenventures.com/goal-discovery/): Embrace Goal Discovery as the vital, achievable task in Customer Success ; it's not about finding time, it's about shifting priorities.
- [Who has time for Goal Discovery? (you do!)](https://sixteenventures.com/who-has-time-for-goal-discovery-you-do/): Think you don't have time for Goal Discovery with 40+ accounts? You're wrong. Here's how to make it a natural, efficient part of every customer interaction.
- [Aligning Customer Success and Sales: Bridging the Great Divide](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-sales-alignment-2/): Bridge the divide between Sales and Customer Success, and discover a collaborative path to elevate the customer experience."
- [CS and Sales alignment is possible (right?)](https://sixteenventures.com/cs-and-sales-alignment-is-possible-right/): CS and Sales alignment fails when no one owns the process. Here's how to bridge the gap, protect NRR, and create real cross-functional collaboration.
- [Motivating Action: The Hard Truth of Driving Customer Engagement](https://sixteenventures.com/motivating-action/): Unlock customer engagement by tapping into human psychology, clear planning, and reframing conversations to motivate action.
- [Why won't they just do the work? (Ugh!)](https://sixteenventures.com/why-wont-they-just-do-the-work-ugh/): When customers won't adopt your product because the work feels unattractive, scare tactics won't help. Here's how to drive action without manipulation.
- [Customer Retention: Proactive, Reactive, and At-Risk Analysis](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-retention-analysis/): Embrace proactive customer retention strategies and transform at-risk analysis for winning results in Customer Success Management.
- [Navigating Partner Success in a Multi-Channel World](https://sixteenventures.com/partner-success-strategy/): Discover the power of aligning Partner Success and tailored success plans in revolutionizing multi-channel Customer Success Management.
- [Unlocking Potential: How to Allocate Customers to CSMs](https://sixteenventures.com/csm-customer-allocation/): Discover the power of effective customer allocation and capacity planning in revolutionizing Customer Success Management.
- [AX-Based Coverage Segments: Customer Success Evolved](https://sixteenventures.com/coverage-segments/): Segmenting customers by what they pay is old and outdated. AX-Based Coverage Segments are the future of Customer Success Management
- [RevOps Evolved: The Key to Rapid, Exponential Revenue Growth (2024)](https://sixteenventures.com/revops-evolved/): Explore the evolution of RevOps, the strategy of Land & Expand, and avoid common pitfalls for sustainable, customer-centric revenue growth.
- [Redefining Email Engagement: New Metrics for a New Era (2024)](https://sixteenventures.com/engagement-rate/): Boost email engagement in 2023 with our action-driven approach, transforming customer and prospect interactions in Sales & Customer Success.
- [Understand, Classify, and Effectively Analyze Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/classify-churn/): Dive into churn analysis secrets and transform your Customer Success Management with our fresh insights on a critical topic.
- [Customer Negotiation: Discounts, Retention, and Value](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-negotiations/): Win at customer negotiations by focusing on value, not discounts. Boost retention and revolutionize your Customer Success Management.
- [The Art of Objection Handling in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/objection-handling/): Master the art of Objection Handling in Customer Success and transform roadblocks into gateways to customer engagement and progress.
- [Driving Exponential Growth: The Art of Selling to Existing Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/sell-to-existing-customers/): Uncover the untapped potential of your existing customer base. Turn Customer Success into a powerhouse for expansion and exponential growth.
- [NRR Panic: The Rollercoaster Ride You Never Saw Coming](https://sixteenventures.com/nrr-panic-the-rollercoaster-ride-you-never-saw-coming/): NRR is tanking.
- [Motivation vs. Discipline: How Knowing the Difference Skyrockets Customer Engagement](https://sixteenventures.com/motivation-vs-discipline-how-knowing-the-difference-skyrockets-customer-engagement/): When you’re working with customers, whatever your role (CSM, Sales, Account Management, Consultant, etc.), you may find yourself acting as a coach.
- [Why CSM Positioning is so Important (and How to Fix it)](https://sixteenventures.com/why-csm-positioning-is-so-important-and-how-to-fix-it/): The customer’s perception of why the Customer Success Manager (CSM) exists in their world, and how the CSM is distinguished from other Individual Contributors (ICs) and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) the customer will work with, is called Positioning.
- [Customer Status: The Hidden Motivator You Can’t Ignore](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-status-the-hidden-motivator-you-cant-ignore/): In Customer Success we’re always concerned with the status of our customers.
- [The Power of Curiosity in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/the-power-of-curiosity-in-customer-success/): As a Customer Success Manager (CSM), it’s easy to fall into the trap of just going through the motions with your customers.
- [Creating Customer Success Playbooks with ChatGPT](https://sixteenventures.com/creating-customer-success-playbooks-with-chatgpt/): Customer Success is always under pressure to optimize (and reduce the expense of) everything.
- [ChatGPT or Bing: Which AI Tool is Best for Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/chatgpt-or-bing-customer-success/): Generative Artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT – and now Bing Chat – is transforming the way we communicate and work, especially in Customer Success.
- [Customer Success Pros: Stay Ahead of the Game with ChatGPT](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-chatgpt/): As a Customer Success professional looking to stay relevant in your field and be the best at what you do, one emerging tool that you need to be aware of – and start using – is ChatGPT.
- [ChatGPT in Customer Success: Generative Output to Desired Outcome](https://sixteenventures.com/chatgpt-customer-success/): Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is a powerful technology that has revolutionized the way we approach various fields, including writing, coding, music composition, and even Customer Success.
- [Stop Teaching Your Customers to Ignore You! A Guide to Effective Customer Engagement](https://sixteenventures.com/stop-teaching-your-customers-to-ignore-you/): Customer Engagement still relies on email as the primary channel for most businesses.
- [ChatGPT is a Customer Success Game-Changer](https://sixteenventures.com/chatgpt-is-a-customer-success-game-changer/): Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are super-powerful, but how is it actually useful to you in Customer Success on a daily basis?
- [Growth Unlocked: The Key to Exponential Account Expansion](https://sixteenventures.com/account-expansion/): World-class Heads of Customer Success evangelize, prioritize, and even incentivize Consistency with their team. it's that important.
- [Customer Success: Defined (2024)](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-definition/): How do you define Customer Success? Is it a technical or organizational initiative? Is it dimensional or multi-faceted? Here's the complete story.
- [Stop Confusing Free Trials and Onboarding (It’s Costing You Customers)](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trials-onboarding/): Confusing Free Trials and Customer Onboarding will result in poor engagement and lower conversion from free to paid.
- [The Importance of Consistency in Customer Success Management](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-consistency-2/): World-class Heads of Customer Success evangelize, prioritize, and even incentivize Consistency with their team. it's that important.
- [The Real Reason Your Company Invests in Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-nrr/): The purpose of Customer Success is not to make customers happy. It’s actually not even to make customers successful. It's all about NRR.
- [Customers Hate These 3 Things (and How to Avoid Them)](https://sixteenventures.com/customers-hate-three-things/): Customers dislike a lot of things, but there are three things that evoke literal hate. Here's what they are and how to avoid them.
- [The 5 Secrets of World-class Customer Success Managers](https://sixteenventures.com/world-class-csm/): What makes a Customer Success Manager truly World-class? These are 5 secrets all top-performing CSMs share.
- [Customer Onboarding: How to Design and Implement an Effective Onboarding Process](https://sixteenventures.com/design-customer-onboarding-process/): Customer Onboarding is a widely discussed, yet often misunderstood, phase of the customer lifecycle. Change that last part with this article.
- [Eliminate Churn Forever in 5 Simple Steps](https://sixteenventures.com/eliminate-churn/): Churn is a symptom of an underlying disease and must cure that underlying disease so the symptom of churn goes away. These 5 simple steps are that cure.
- [Customer Success: The Lost Art of Churn Reason Analysis](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-reason-analysis/): Why do customers churn? If you can't answer this accurately, you'll never be able to prevent future churn. This guide will help.
- [Customer Success: How to Quantify the Impact of Bad-fit Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/quantify-bad-fit-customers/): What's the cost of Bad-fit Customers? This post takes your intuition that Bad-fit customers are bad for business and helps you prove it.
- [Customer Onboarding: How to Design and Implement an Effective Onboarding Process](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding-process/): Customer Onboarding is a widely discussed, yet often misunderstood, phase of the customer lifecycle. Change that last part with this article.
- [Designing a Sales-to-CSM Handoff that Actually Works](https://sixteenventures.com/sales-to-csm-handoff/): in Customer Success, the Sales-to-CSM Handoff is one of the most critical parts of our relationship with the customer and the most likely to be messed-up.
- [What is a good SaaS Churn Rate?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-churn-rate/): As a SaaS CEO you want to know what a good churn rate is. In this post I share a case study on churn that will help you position your company for growth.
- [Achieve Exponential Growth by Focusing on CAC Efficiency](https://sixteenventures.com/cac-efficiency/): If you can convert more customers, faster, AND increase what they pay you initially, you're on your way to much improved CAC efficiency.
- [TTFV as a Sales KPI to Drive Engagement and Expansion](https://sixteenventures.com/ttfv-sales-kpi/): Time to First Value (TTFV) is a Customer Engagement metric measureing the efficiency of the customer Onboarding process, not a Sales KPI. But it should be.
- [Time to First Value (TTFV) is a Customer Onboarding Goal](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding-ttfv/): Time to First Value (TTFV) is a commonly (mis)used Customer Engagement metric to measure the efficiency of Onboarding. Here is how to use it correctly.
- [Customer Onboarding: AHA! or WTF?](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding-aha-wtf/): You think the AHA! moment during Customer Onboarding is a positive thing. But it's not. Here is why that is and how to avoid that common mistake.
- [Emotional Disconnect During Customer Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/emotional-disconnect-onboarding/): Theres one major reason your customer onboarding sucks and it is something you can easily fix with little to no engineering or overhead.
- [Bad Sales Handoffs Cause Customers to Ghost During Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/ghosting-during-onboarding/): Customers ghosting you during onboarding comes up from time to time... you've probably experienced it yourself. Lets bust these ghosts.
- [How to Know if Customers are Actually Ghosting you](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-actually-ghosting/): If there is a logical reason for the customer to communicate with you, and they aren't, then they are ghosting you. But are they always ghosting? Find out.
- [Why Customers Ghost you](https://sixteenventures.com/why-customers-ghost/): When there is a legitimate reason for a customer to interact with you, but they are not… we say, they are ghosting you. This is why that happens.
- [The Basics of Customer Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding-basics/): Onboarding is perhaps the most critical phase in the customer journey and is too important to just slap together and hope it works.
- [Success Potential: Real Customer Success Starts Here](https://sixteenventures.com/success-potential-start/): Customer Success starts by acquiring customers that have Success Potential and understanding what that is starts with this post.
- [Account Expansion: How to Upsell Unsuccessful Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/expansion-unsuccessful/): Expansion is part of the customer's journey toward success, meaning customers that aren't successful won't expand their relationship with you. Obviously.
- [Customer Growth: Why Lack Of Expansion Is A Really Bad Sign](https://sixteenventures.com/no-expansion-bad-sign/): Expansion is part of the customer's journey toward success, so customers that don't expand their relationship with you aren't as successful as you thought.
- [Account Expansion: If You Want To Grow Fast, Do This…](https://sixteenventures.com/expansion-grow-fast/): If you want to stay a small company, have the original AE also handle Upsells. However, if you want to grow fast in a sustainable way, read this post.
- [Customer Growth: Upselling Hurts Trust (When You Do It Wrong)](https://sixteenventures.com/upselling-trust/): Customer Growth or Account Expansion is an efficient and exponential growth mechanism, but you must know that upselling hurts trust when you do it wrong.
- [Customer Growth: The Difference between Sales and Expansion](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-growth-expansion/): Once churn is no longer an issue, it's time to focus on the good stuff: Expansion. The first step is to create an environment that's designed for expansion.
- [Introducing the BEAST Message Framework for Customer Engagement](https://sixteenventures.com/beast-message-framework/): The only one of the 6 parts of the Communication Model we spend any time on is the message. But are you crafting effective messages? Use BEAST and be sure.
- [Introducing the Customer Engagement Communication Model](https://sixteenventures.com/communication-model/): We communicate all day every day, but have you ever stopped to think about what really goes into effective communication? Now you'll know.
- [Churn Classification Framework For Customer Success Management (2024 Update)](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-classification/): All churn is bad, but some churn is worse than other. Use this system to help you understand churn and avoid it in the future.
- [Customer Success and Sales: Why the Latter determines the Former](https://sixteenventures.com/sales-customer-success/): Customer Success is when your customers achieve their Desired Outcome through their interactions with your company. Those interactions include the sales cycle.
- [Appropriate Experience is Required for Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/appropriate-experience-required/): Appropriate Experience, along with Required Outcome, come together as the customer's Desired Outcome. Fail to provide an Appropriate Experience, fail to make the customer successful!
- [What Are The Best Customer Success KPIs?](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-kpi/): Everybody wants to know what the best Customer Success Management KPIs are. NRR? LTV? ARR? NPS? Satisfaction? The answer may surprise you.
- [You Can’t Solve Upstream Problems Down Stream](https://sixteenventures.com/upstream-problems/): The main reason I saw for Customer Success "not working" wasn't org structure, comp plans, operations, wrong CSMs, etc. It's acquiring bad-fit customers. Upstream problems.
- [Customer Success is a Simple Concept (Don’t Overthink It)](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-simple/): Customer Success is a very simple concept that you'll really want to overthink.. Resist the urge. The beauty of this concept is in its simplicity. Implementation is another story, though.
- [Customer Success can’t fit into Existing Frameworks](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-frameworks/): If you want to keep from going down the wrong path, please sttop trying to fit Customer Success into existing frameworks.
- [Those aren’t Problems. Those are Customers!](https://sixteenventures.com/customers-not-problems/): To get value out of Customer Success by actually making your customers successful, you first need to avoid the trap of seeing customers as problems.
- [Customer Onboarding Success Secret: Don’t Overwhelm Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-onboarding-overwhelm/): One of the biggest problems in Customer Onboarding isn't caused by neglecting the customer, it's the opposite: overwhelming the customer.
- [A QBR is NOT Required for Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-qbr/): That an Executive or Quarterly Business Review (EBR or QBR) is required for Customer Success is a myth that often causes teams to focus on the wrong thing.
- [Customer Success: The Importance of User or Customer Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/importance-of-customer-onboarding/): Customer onboarding is inclusive of user onboarding, but both are important phases of the customer lifecycle. Don't leave this critical function to chance.
- [How to Define Roles in Customer Success Management](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-management-roles/): Most companies start by defining roles by trying to figure out the size of the "book of business" the CSM should handle... but that's wrong.
- [Customer Success: High/Low/No Touch Customer Segmentation](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-high-low-no-touch-segmentation/): The traditional Customer Success method of simply looking at what a customer pays us and giving them a particular level of 'touch' is old and outdated.
- [Customer Success: Incorporating High/Low/No Touch into Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-high-low-no-touch-onboarding/): Proper Customer Onboarding isn't done to prevent churn; it's done to ensure the customer achieves their Desired Outcome. Learn about "proper" onboarding.
- [Customer Success: How to help Salespeople with Customer Segmentation](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-sales-segmentation/): The age-old issue of Customer Success and Sales alignment, only this time focused on segmentation. Here's my attempt to address this eternal quandary.
- [Customer Success: Determining Which Customers on which to Focus](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-focus/): You must "focus" on all customers since proper Customer Onboarding is critical for all customers to achieve their Desired Outcome.
- [Customer Success: Who Should Handle Upsells?](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-who-handles-upsells/): One of the great Customer Success questions that refuses to ever actually be answered is who should handle upsells: sales or Customer Success. Let me try.
- [Customer Success: How to Reset Mismanaged Expectations](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-reset-mismanaged-expectations/): One of the biggest drains on Customer Success Management resources is working around customers that have not had their expectations properly managed.
- [Customer Success: Customer Engagement Across the Entire Lifecycle](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-lifecycle-engagement/): Customer Success is when your customers achieve their Desired Outcome through their interactions with your company across the entire lifecycle.
- [Customer Success: Working with Customers that don’t like Technology](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-non-tech/): Luckily this type of thing is rare, but in Customer Success, we need to work within the confines of our customer's comfort zone... not ours.
- [Customer Success: How to Tell Customers What to Do](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-tell-what-to-do/): For many Customer Success teams, it's easy to fall into the trap of 'just let your customers figure it out.' Don't do that.
- [How to Get Customers to Help Define Engagement Models](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-engagement-models/): Don't hide from your customers. Talk to your customers and figure out from that discovery process what your engagement model should look like.
- [Customer Success-driven Marketing: Targeting Offline Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-driven-marketing-offline/): Customer Success should drive everything your company does, including sales and marketing. Meet your customers where they are with the appropriate message.
- [Lincoln Murphy Customer Success AMA Transcript and Video – May 19, 2017](https://sixteenventures.com/lincoln-murphy-customer-success-ama-transcript-and-video-may-19-2017/): I answered 13 of your most pressing Customer Success questions in amazing detail. This may be the new most valuable post on the entire internet. Seriously.
- [The Process for Discovering your Customer’s Desired Outcome](https://sixteenventures.com/discover-desired-outcome/): Discovering your customer's Desired Outcome is just that... a discovery process. Understanding this process is one of the most valuable things you can do.
- [Customer Success: How to Close the Feedback Loop with…](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-feedback-loops/): Customer Success Management, Marketing, Sales, Product, and the Executive team all have unique customer information, Create feedback loops to share it.
- [Customer Success and Upgrading Grandfathered Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/upgrading-grandfathered-customers/): How can you get Grandfathered customers to move to your current pricing model in a customer-positive way? I show you how in this article.
- [Customer Success in Early-stage Startups](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-startups/): Early-stage startups think Customer Success isn't for them. Wrong! It's the key to growth without the friction of churn and bad-fit customers.
- [Drawing the Line between Customer Success and Support](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-support/): How do you draw the line between Customer Success and Customer Support? This age-old question is finally answered once and for all.
- [The Best Customer Success Management (CSM) Software](https://sixteenventures.com/best-customer-success-management-software/): Before you can know which Customer Success Management (CSM) Software is the best for your situation, you first need to know what Customer Succes is.
- [Why Aligning Sales and Customer Success is Critical](https://sixteenventures.com/sales-and-customer-success-alignment/): Customer Success begins at the first interaction with prospects by your sales team and continues across their entire lifecycle as a customer.
- [Customer Success and Charging Setup Fees](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-setup-fees/): Do Setup Fees jibe with Customer Success? Are they mutually exclusive? Can they play well together? Yes. And No. Read this article to unconfuse yourself.
- [The Biggest Customer Success Mistake (and How to Avoid it)](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-biggest-mistake/): Spoiler Alert: The biggest mistake you can make in Customer Success is not putting the customer first - this is CUSTOMER Success.
- [Determining the Ideal Customer Success Organization Structure](https://sixteenventures.com/ideal-customer-success-org-structure/): A persistent question in Customer Success Management is what the ideal organizational structure is. It's a very simple question with a not-so-simple answer.
- [Customer Success in Two-sided Markets](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-two-sided-markets/): In a two-sided market, each side has a Desired Outcome. Customer Success is when customers achieve their Desired Outcome interacting with us.
- [Customer Success: The Secret to Improving Customer Adoption](https://sixteenventures.com/improve-adoption/): Customer Success Management is about ensuring customers achieve their ever-evolving Desired Outcome. It's not about adoption. Wait, what? Read this.
- [Customer Success in a B2B2C (Partner / Value Chain) Scenario](https://sixteenventures.com/partner-success/): Every entity in the partner/distribution value chain has a Desired Outcome. It's up to you to discover and facilitate achievement of that Desired Outcome.
- [Customer Success: How to Monitor Customer Happiness](https://sixteenventures.com/monitor-customer-happiness/): We aren't here to make our customers happy. We're here to make customers successful. But how do you monitor if your customer is successful? Here's how.
- [Determining the Perfect Number of Customer Segments](https://sixteenventures.com/perfect-number-customer-segments/): In Customer Success, customer segmentation should be logical (take a step back and really think about it) and done from the customer point of view.
- [The Difference between Customer Success and Account Management](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-account-management/): Account Management is old, outdated, and will hurt your relationship with your customers while failing to help them achieve their Required Outcome.
- [The Secret to Defining Customer Success Coverage Models](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-coverage-models/): The traditional method of simply looking at what a customer pays us and giving them a particular level of 'touch' is old and outdated. Do this instead.
- [Lincoln Murphy Customer Success AMA Transcript and Video – May 5, 2017](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-ama-05052017/): I answered 20 of your most pressing Customer Success questions in excruciating detail. This may be the most valuable post you'll ever consume. Seriously.
- [The 5 Fatal Flaws of most Customer Journey Maps](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-journey-maps/): Customer Journey maps are a big part of Customer Experience and Customer Success Management, but most have these fatal flaws that hurt their effectiveness.
- [The Cost of Bad-Fit Customers: How a Simple Sales Mistake Wiped Out $1.2M in Revenue Overnight](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-bad-fit-customer/): Think you need to churn and burn through thousands of customers before it starts to have a negative impact on your growth velocity and costs? No; here's why
- [Customer Success Goals: Cohorts, Metrics, and Prioritization](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-goals/): Customer Success Management should be treated like any other part of the business, complete with goals, actionable metrics, and smart prioritization models.
- [Contents of an Awesome Customer Success Playbook](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-playbook/): A key element of Customer Success Management are playbooks - or groups of workflows, processes, and interventions - that ensure the customer's success.
- [Understanding Customer Success Management Compensation Models](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-compensation-models/): Find out the percentage of CSM comp that should be variable and what individual vs. org-level performance should have on the variable piece of compensation
- [Determining the Number of Accounts per Customer Success Manager](https://sixteenventures.com/account-coverage-ratio/): When planning and budgeting your Customer Success organization, you'll need to know how to Determine Customer Success Practitioner Coverage Ratios.
- [Customer Success-driven Growth: Rapid, Exponential, and Efficient](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-driven-growth/): As your customers succeed and evolve, their relationship with you should evolve and grow as well. That is Customer Success-driven Growth.
- [Why You Can’t Offset Churn with Upsells](https://sixteenventures.com/offset-churn-upsells/): You can't use upsells to offset churn because churn is caused by the very thing that prevents upsells from happening. Here's why...
- [9 Things Customer Success is Not](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-is-not/): Customer Success and Customer Success Management are well documented. But in case you still aren't clear, here are 9 things those things aren't.
- [Customer Success Management: An Executive Overview](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-management/): What's the difference between Customer Success and Customer Success Management? How does the latter lead to Customer Success-driven Growth? Answers within.
- [Customer Success Management: The 8 Elements of this Valuable Business Function](https://sixteenventures.com/elements-customer-success-management/): Customer Success Management is something a lot of people talk about, but few really know what all goes into it. Now you know.
- [Logical Customer Segmentation: The Key to Scaling Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/logical-customer-segmentation/): Logical Customer Segmentation is the key to scaling not just your Customer Success organization, but your business as a whole.
- [Orchestrating Sales and Customer Success Alignment](https://sixteenventures.com/sales-customer-success-alignment/): Customer Success Management and Sales are more similar than different, and when you bring them together, magical things (read: exponential growth) happen.
- [Success Potential: The Foundation of Customer Success](https://sixteenventures.com/success-potential/): Customer Success requires acquiring customers with Success Potential; those that can actually achieve their Desired Outcome
- [Excuses and the Myth of Near-Zero Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/near-zero-churn/): If you think the idea of near-zero churn outrageous, you need to think again. Are you making excuses that are keeping you from having near-zero churn?
- [Success Vector – a Better Customer Health Score](https://sixteenventures.com/success-vector/): Real Predictable Revenue for your business isn't in new business sales, but rather in Customer Success-driven Growth. And Success Vector is your new KPI.
- [Don’t Mix SaaS Free Trial and Churn Metrics](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-churn/): SaaS Free Trials and Churn are two different things that need to be measured separately. Look at the right metrics so you can take the correct action.
- [SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rate Benchmarks](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-benchmarks/): How does your SaaS Free Trial stack up against others? Before you compare the conversion rate of your SaaS Free Trial with others, read this post.
- [Churn is a Symptom, Not a Disease](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-symptom/): Churn kills growth, but if you look at it the wrong way, no matter how hard you work to reduce it, you'll never get rid of it. Look at it this way instead.
- [7 Ways Customer Success drives Company Valuation](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-drives-company-valuation/): How are companies valued? Revenue x Multiple. Customer Success ensures both sides of that problem are as high as possible.
- [Customer Success: The Difference between Stretch and Bad-Fit Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/stretch-bad-fit-customer/): It's one thing to know the Ideal Customer you want to do business with, but what about stretch customers vs. those that are bad-fit?
- [Two Ways to Reduce SaaS Cancellations](https://sixteenventures.com/cancellations/): There are two ways to reduce SaaS cancellations: Cancel Flows and Cancel Intent. But don't let customers even get to this point.
- [The Only Two Reasons Customers Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-reasons/): The details of customer churn are important to know, but at a high-level, customers only churn for two reasons... and that's what this article is all about.
- [You Have to Know why Your Customers Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/know-why-customers-churn/): In order to stop future customers from churning, we have to know why our current customers churn. We have to identify note why customers cancel.
- [Use Customer Success to Reduce Credit Card Failures](https://sixteenventures.com/reduce-credit-card-failures/): If you offer subscriptions and allow your customers to pay via credit card, this article will help you avoid credit card failures using Customer Success
- [Upgrading Grandfathered Early Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/grandfathered-customers/): Sometimes you end up with Grandfathered Customers. This post shows you how to get rid of them in a way where everybody wins.
- [Pricing Strategy Framework for SaaS Startups](https://sixteenventures.com/pricing-strategy/): Developing a Pricing Strategy for your startup is one of the most important - and completely misunderstood - things you'll do. This framework will help you.
- [Qualifying Leads in a SaaS Free Trial](https://sixteenventures.com/qualifying-leads-saas-free-trial/): Not everyone in your Free Trial is truly qualified, regardless of their activity level during the trial. You should fix that; this article will help you.
- [Customer Success and Logical Account Expansion](https://sixteenventures.com/logical-expansion/): Customer Success leads to Account Expansion, but only when upsells and other expansion opportunities are orchestrated logically around success milestones.
- [Reasonable SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rate](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-conversion-rate/): What's a reasonable conversion rate for SaaS Free Trials? I get that question a lot, and here's my definitive answer to this critical question.
- [Acceptable Churn Rate for Small Accounts](https://sixteenventures.com/acceptable-churn-small-accounts/): Is it okay for small accounts to churn out at 30% or more per year? Unless you're in a horizontal, B2C business, the answer is definitely no. No it's not.
- [Success is Uncomfortable](https://sixteenventures.com/success-is-uncomfortable/): Progress - real progress - is only made when you move outside of your comfort zone; and sometimes in Customer Success that's where our customers need to go.
- [The Risk (and Opportunity) in Stealing Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/stealing-customers/): When customers comes to you from a competitor because their product didn't do what they needed it to do, is that awesome or a huge red flag? Let's explore.
- [A Foolproof Way to Get Testimonials Without Asking for Them](https://sixteenventures.com/get-testimonials/): Here's the secret to getting customer testimonials without actually asking for them. It's pretty sweet, but it's a process; so follow along to get it right.
- [Success Milestones: The Path to the Customer’s Desired Outcome](https://sixteenventures.com/success-milestones/): Success Milestones pave the path to your customers' Desired Outcome and is a critical component of Customer Success and - ultimately - your success.
- [Customer Accountability: The Missing Piece in your Customer Success Strategy](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-accountability/): There's a critical piece missing from your Customer Success strategy: Customer Accountability. Get your customer to take responsibility for their success.
- [This Customer Acquisition Mistake Can Kill your Growth](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-acquisition-mistake/): When developing your Customer Acquisition strategy and your Ideal Customer Profile, ensure you avoid this one huge mistake if you want to grow your business
- [Stop Using these Anti-Customer Terms](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-terms-to-avoid/): If you want your Customer Success operations thrive, eliminate these five terms from your vocabulary; you'll be glad you did. And so will your customers.
- [7 Reasons to Optimize your SaaS Free Trial](https://sixteenventures.com/optimize-your-free-trial/): It should be obvious that optimizing your Free Trial is the right thing to do, but just in case it isn't, here's a list of 7 compelling reasons to do that.
- [Desired Outcome is a Transformative Concept](https://sixteenventures.com/desired-outcome/): Desired Outcome is the basis for customer success and can help you super-charge your net new customer acquisition and revenue growth from existing customers
- [The Seeds of Churn are Planted Early](https://sixteenventures.com/seeds-of-churn/): The seeds of churn are planted early, which means the things you do in your sales cycle, customer onboarding, implementation, etc. can lead to churn later.
- [5 Situations When Massive Churn is Just Fine](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-is-fine/): Sometimes having high churn is just fine - in fact, here are 5 situations where that's true - but most of the time that's a recipe for failure. It just is.
- [5 Lesser-Known Ways Churn Hurts your Company](https://sixteenventures.com/churn-hurts/): The fact that churn hurts the amount of revenue that your company brings in is obvious; but the fact that churn hurts in many other ways, too, isn't.
- [Podcast: Getting Inside the Minds of Your SaaS Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/inside-minds-of-saas-customers/): When it comes to marketing SaaS - especially in crowded markets - is to enter the mind of your customer and connect with them directly. Here's how to do it.
- [The Fiction that Friction Improves Customer Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/friction/): If you think adding friction to the customer onboarding process all willy nilly is a logical decision, you need to reexamine that stance. Its a bad decision
- [Customer Psychology and the Unexpected Power of Surveys](https://sixteenventures.com/psychology-of-surveys/): Every company uses surveys, but only a subset of companies use surveys in a way that takes advantage of the customer psychology. Here's how to fix that.
- [How Social Proof Actually Works in Marketing](https://sixteenventures.com/social-proof/): When it comes to marketing, one of the most powerful things you can use is Social Proof; but you have to know how to use it or it can backfire. Read this.
- [Customer Success Starts at Sales Done Right](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-sales-done-right/): When it comes to Customer Success, the seeds of churn are often planted during the sales process. It's not just that you close the deal, it's how you do it.
- [Achieve Network Effect on a Smaller Scale](https://sixteenventures.com/network-effect-smaller-scale/): A great promise of SaaS as more than just a cloud delivery method for software is the Network Effect from everyone on one platform. Achieve it now like this
- [Podcast: Customer Success is the Foundation of Your Success](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-podcast-trepx/): When it comes to growing your business, there's one universal truth; focus on your customer's success and you'll thrive. Customer Success is critical.
- [3 Secrets of High-Converting SaaS Free Trials](https://sixteenventures.com/effective-free-trials/): SaaS Free Trials can be awesome, but most aren't. The main reason they aren't awesome is that they aren't designed to be awesome. This is how to fix that.
- [How To Get Sales To Help Test your Ideal Customer Profile](https://sixteenventures.com/sales-testing-ideal-customer/): When you being to test your newly defined Ideal Customer Profile, you'll likely run into some challenges getting Sales to change from what works. Do this.
- [Stick Point: When Your SaaS Customer is Truly a Customer](https://sixteenventures.com/stick-point/): There's a point in the customer lifecycle for SaaS vendors where, prior to it the customer can't be considered a customer, but after they're all-in.
- [Free Trials Do Not Devalue Your Enterprise SaaS](https://sixteenventures.com/enterprise-free-trial/): When it comes to Enterprise Sales, there are misconceptions around whether Free Trials are appropriate. They are, but sometimes they aren't feasible.
- [4 Undercover Ways to Hack Social for More Sales](https://sixteenventures.com/social-sales/): You might not make sales on social media, but you can use networks like Twitter and LinkedIn to improve your traditional sales outreach. Here's how.
- [The Success Gap: A HUGE Opportunity You Haven’t Considered](https://sixteenventures.com/success-gap/): There's a threat to the success of your customers, and your success as a business; that's the Success Gap keeping your customers from their Desired Outcome
- [Your SaaS Metrics Are Wrong if You Include These Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-metrics-customer-definition/): To have accurate metrics around what's going on in your SaaS business, you need to properly define what customers and users really are. You must be honest.
- [Active Users are a Vanity Metric](https://sixteenventures.com/active-users-vanity-metric/): Active vs. Inactive Users really is a flawed way to look at things. The state of your users is never binary; there's a context that gives activity meaning.
- [CAC Strategy is the Key to Scaling your SaaS Company](https://sixteenventures.com/cac-strategy-scaling-saas/): What if you really listened to your customers? What if you even let your customers write your marketing and sales copy for you? That would be awesome!
- [Let Your Customers Write Your Marketing Copy](https://sixteenventures.com/customers-write-your-marketing-copy/): What if you really listened to your customers? What if you even let your customers write your marketing and sales copy for you? That would be awesome!
- [Exposed! A Top-Secret “Enterprise Pricing” Growth Hack](https://sixteenventures.com/enterprise-pricing/): Contact us for Enterprise Pricing is something many SaaS companies put on their Pricing Pages... but few do it right. Here's how to make it work for you.
- [The Only 3 Acceptable Pricing Page Discount Tactics](https://sixteenventures.com/pricing-page-discount/): Is offering discounts on your pricing page a good thing to do or not? No, it's not. Let me tell you why and give you some alternative tactics to use.
- [Engaging at Scale: The Secret to Automating Personal Emails](https://sixteenventures.com/personal-emails/): Startups and established SaaS companies alike use automated personal emails to engage their prospects and customers. Most suck. Fix them with this method.
- [5 Growth Hacks to Supercharge your Invite or Referral System](https://sixteenventures.com/invite-hacks/): Invite a friend systems are a big part of viral expansion - both within a company and externally - in this article you'll see how to do it really right.
- [The Myth of Unavoidable Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/unavoidable-churn/): There are two types of churn: avoidable and unavoidable. But the amount of unavoidable churn is much lower than most people think. Here's why that's true.
- [The Secret to Successful Customer Onboarding](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding/): Customer onboarding is one of the most critical parts of the relationship with a customer and starts them down the path to success; or not. If not, fix it!
- [7 Sanity Checks for Sending Cold Email](https://sixteenventures.com/cold-email-sanity-checks/): Sending cold email doesn't have to be a crap shoot, irritate recipients, or make you seem like a spammer. Done right, it's super-effective. So do it right.
- [You’re Doing Annual Pre-Pay Renewals Wrong](https://sixteenventures.com/annual-pre-pay-renewals/): Getting customers to pay up-front for a year is great... the challenge comes 12 months later at renewal time. There are 4 ways to do renewals; 1 right way.
- [10 Growth Hacking Lessons from Dodgeball](https://sixteenventures.com/growth-hacking-dodgeball/): What are ten Growth Hacking lessons you could learn from a rousing game of Trampoline Dodgeball? Well, I found 10 lessons... and here they are.
- [Understanding Your Customer’s Desired Outcome](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-desired-outcome-understanding/): Understanding what success is for your customers is required, but the best way to think about it is in the context of their Desired Outcome; and here's how.
- [How-to Avoid SaaS Free Trial Abuse](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-abuse/): When your SaaS or cloud service has the potential for abuse, a Free Trial may seem like a bad idea. Here are some ways to avoid abuse and convert customers.
- [SaaS Free Trial Extension Requests are a Bad Sign](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-extensions/): If your prospects are asking you for an extension to their SaaS Free Trial, this is a symptom of underlying problems with your trial that you need to fix.
- [The Best SaaS Free Trial Length](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-length/): Offer a 7-day SaaS Free Trial? How about a 14-day or 30-day? What's the best length for a free trial? Here's the definitive answer to that question.
- [Ideal Customer Profile Framework](https://sixteenventures.com/ideal-customer-profile/): Before you build your product, start to market it, try to sell it, or do anything, frankly... you need to know who your Ideal Customer is. This will help.
- [4 Sales Mistakes That Lead To High SaaS Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/sales-mistakes-cause-saas-churn/): When it comes to growing your SaaS company, reducing churn is absolutely critical.
- [SaaS Free Trial: Requiring a Credit Card is Shortsighted](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial/): You're thinking about offering a SaaS free trial and you wonder if you should require a credit card to get started. Here's why that is probably a bad idea.
- [3 Email Lead Capture Hacks to Get More Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/email-lead-capture/): When it comes to email lead capture, you can just acquire email addresses, or you can acquire real contacts that you can turn into leads. Context is key.
- [5 Steps to Unstick Your User Onboarding Flow](https://sixteenventures.com/onboarding-flow-unstuck/): What happens when your onboarding flow is interrupted by a poorly designed screen? How do you go about fixing that problem? Here are 5 things you can do.
- [How-to Use SaaS Pricing Discounts to Grow Revenue](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-discounts/): When developing your SaaS pricing model, knowing when and how to leverage discounts can help you go from struggling to thriving.
- [Customer Development Hacks for SaaS Startups](https://sixteenventures.com/startup-customer-development-hacks/): There are several ways to do Customer Development for a SaaS startup, but Greg Pietruszynski of growbots has a great hack to speed up the process.
- [The Greatest Word of Mouth Follow-up Question… Ever!](https://sixteenventures.com/word-of-mouth-follow-up/): Word of mouth is powerful... but this follow-up question allows you to harness that power to supercharge your marketing. Use it wisely and carefully.
- [How to Get in Front of your Ideal Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/distribution-channels/): How do you get your SaaS in front of your ideal customers? Finding the best distribution channels is an art form in and of itself. This will help you.
- [Email Marketing: How Vero Got a 450% Increase in Conversions](https://sixteenventures.com/email-marketing-conversions/): What if you could increase your Email Marketing conversions 450%? What would that mean to your SaaS company? See exactly what Vero did to get that result.
- [Customer Success: 22 Ways To Reduce Churn With Growth Hacking](https://sixteenventures.com/growth-hacking-retention/): Ever wonder how to apply Growth Hacking thinking to reducing churn and increasing retention? Here are 22 ways to make that happen.
- [Time Management for Startups: Quantify, Prioritize, and Automate](https://sixteenventures.com/startup-time-management/): When it comes to building a startup, the most precious resource really is time. Chris Bolman shares his time management methods.
- [The best way to grow your SaaS business](https://sixteenventures.com/deliberate-growth/): For your SaaS company, growth can be achieved through two means... either in spite of your effort or because of it. The latter is the preferable way.
- [Case Study: Growth Hacking Pre-Launch Revenue](https://sixteenventures.com/pre-launch-growth-hacking/): Pre-launch Growth Hacking in a bootstrapped startup can be tricky, but when executed to perfection like Trak.io did can accelerate growth substantially.
- [Freemium or Free Trial? There’s a Better Question](https://sixteenventures.com/freemium-or-free-trial/): Should you go Freemium or offer a Free Trial for your SaaS? There is a lot to consider when making this decision, and this post will help you figure it out.
- [WTF is a Growth Hacker, anyway?](https://sixteenventures.com/growth-hacker-manifesto/): What defines a Growth Hacker? Bronson Taylor from GrowthHacker.tv draws a line in the sand with his Growth Hacker Manifesto.
- [Predictions for Customer Success in 2014](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-2014/): 2013 was the year of Customer Success... but What does 2014 look like for this movement? Nick Mehta from Gainsight shares his predictions with us.
- [Autoresponders are Dead: 5 Types of Follow-up Emails](https://sixteenventures.com/email-follow-up-sequence/): What's the ideal email follow-up sequence to use? In this post I examine this important question and come to a surprising conclusion.
- [SaaS Pricing Model: Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-complexity/): When developing your SaaS Pricing Model, basing it around the problems and opportunities of your target customers is the quickest way to more profit.
- [The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Myth and Misguided Optimization](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-cac-efficiency/): The common myth around SaaS CAC - Customer Acquisition Cost - is that it needs to be as low as possible. That's wrong and here's why.
- [5 Rules for Successful Growth Hacking](https://sixteenventures.com/growth-hacking-rules/): There are five elements to Growth Hacking that - when taken into consideration - will accelerate your success and allow you to achieve rapid growth
- [Use Partner Offers to Quickly Grow Your Business](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-marketing-partner-offer/): In SaaS marketing you'll often discover opportunities to send offers to the audience of a partner company, but how should you approach it to meet your goal?
- [Growth Hack: Warm-Up Your Leads Before You Email Them](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-growth-hacking-email/): When crafting a SaaS Growth Hacking strategy, one of the most powerful weapons at your disposal is an email address. Use it wisely and reap the rewards.
- [When Customers Go Dark: Customer Success to fight the Zombies](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-success-zombie-customers/): From a SaaS Customer Success perspective, how do you deal with customers that have been inactive for 6 months, but paying you every month?
- [SaaS Customer Success: Best Practices for Unplanned Outages](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-success-unplanned-outages/): What are the best practices and guidelines in SaaS Customer Success for dealing with and reacting to unplanned outages?
- [SaaS Pricing: Multi Currency Support](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-multi-currency/): When developing your pricing model, should you build in for your SaaS multi currency support? When is this important? How do you do it? All great questions
- [How to Create an Affiliate Program for your SaaS](https://sixteenventures.com/affiliate-marketing/): Considering creating an Affiliate Marketing Program for your SaaS product? Before you do, understand what you're getting yourself into.
- [SaaS Marketing: 21 Growth Hacks to Test Today](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-marketing-growth-hacks/): When developing the tactics for your saas marketing strategy, using growth hacking thinking is going to help you accelerate past your competitors.
- [SaaS Sales Funnel: Stop Optimizing for the Wrong Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-sales-funnel/): When optimizing your SaaS sales funnel it is best to ensure you're doing so for your ideal customers and not the wrong customers.
- [SaaS Freemium Customer Acquisition Costs](https://sixteenventures.com/freemium-customer-acquisition-costs/): When calculating Freemium Customer Acquisition Costs, should you roll all support costs for the free users into the CAC? Here's my answer to that question.
- [No More Email from Your SaaS App? Introducing GMail Tabbed Inbox and Categories](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-marketing-gmail-tabbed-inbox/): SaaS Marketing - even in 2013 - relies heavily on email. But email is used for many other functions of a SaaS app, and recent GMail changes can cause issues
- [SaaS Marketing: Are you Lazy or Deliberate?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-marketing-lazy-deliberate/): When it comes to SaaS marketing, you can either be lazy or deliberate. The former is a crutch and produces poor results; the latter is where you wanna be.
- [SaaS Churn: Measure Revenue or Customer Retention?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-churn-revenue-customer/): SaaS Churn can be measured in many ways, including counting customers that leave to the number of dollars renewed. Here is how you should look at it.
- [SaaS Marketing: Random Effort Yields Random Results](https://sixteenventures.com/random-saas-marketing/): When it comes to SaaS marketing, random effort yields random results. Too many web app providers try a hodgepodge of tactics that all fail... here's why!
- [SaaS Growth Hacking: An Interview with Lincoln Murphy](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-growth-hacking/): SaaS Growth Hacking is all the rage and the folks at GrowthHacker.tv interviewed Lincoln Murphy about Pricing, Beta Testing, Freemium, and Churn.
- [Engagement is the key to lowering SaaS Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-churn-podcast/): Your SaaS Churn Rate can be high for several reasons, but it's a safe bet one of the biggest reasons is a lack of customer engagement.
- [SaaS Marketing: Rise of the Growth Copyists?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-marketing-plan-growth-copyists/): When developing your SaaS marketing plan, are you a Growth Hacker or a Growth Copyist, thinking more about what others have done than about your customer?
- [SaaS Free Trial: Require a Credit Card to begin?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-credit-card/): Should you ask prospective customers for a credit card before you let them into your SaaS Free Trial? No... and here's why.
- [Who’s your ideal customer?](https://sixteenventures.com/ideal-customer/): SaaS Conversion Rate Optimization starts with defining your ideal customer and using at all levels of the sales funnel and to improve retention.
- [SaaS Customer Success: Eliminate ‘Dead Ends’ to Drive Engagement](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-success-eliminate-dead-ends/): By eliminating dead ends, you can drive SaaS Customer Success by improving engagement and helping your customers better their position.
- [SaaS Customer Success: Start with Quick Wins](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-success-quick-wins/): SaaS Customer Success begins by understanding the customer and working to quickly ensure they realize value from your service by leveraging Quick Wins
- [SaaS Churn Threats: Identify and Retain At-Risk Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-churn-threats/): As a SaaS provider, you have the ability to monitor your customers' activity and take action if you spot any behavior that could result in SaaS churn.
- [SaaS Churn Rate Improvement: Monitor and Drive Engagement](https://sixteenventures.com/improve-saas-churn-rate-engagement/): Your SaaS Churn Rate can be improved by accurately measuring, monitoring, and encouraging customer engagement.
- [SaaS Churn Rate Reduction Starts with Attracting the Right Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-churn-rate-attract-right-customers/): Your SaaS Churn Rate can be improved by attracting the right customer in the first place and clearly managing their expectations.
- [SaaS Churn Rate: Go Negative with Expansion Revenue](https://sixteenventures.com/negative-saas-churn-rate/): Your SaaS Churn Rate can be offset by Expansion Revenue - called Negative Churn - if done correctly; learn how in this post.
- [SaaS Customer Onboarding: 3 Steps to a Successful Welcome Email](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-onboarding-email/): SaaS Customer Onboarding starts with the Welcome Email... it is a critical piece in the process to get customers up and running quickly.
- [SaaS Market Positioning: How to Compete in Crowded Markets](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-competition/): Many SaaS categories are crowded and establishing a firm market position for your SaaS is critical if you want to compete effectively.
- [SaaS Marketing Plan: 5 Ways to Get your App to Sell Itself](https://sixteenventures.com/sell-itself/): Your product will not sell itself... unless it is designed to. Build your SaaS Marketing Plan around these 5 ways to get your product to sell itself.
- [Common Conversion Activities (CCA): SaaS Free Trial Metric](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-metrics/): The secret to increasing your Free Trial Conversion Rate is having a path your prospect goes through and a way to measure improve that process.
- [5 Rules for SaaS Email Marketing and Transactional Messages](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-email-marketing/): For SaaS providers, using email for marketing and transactional messages is required, but can be tricky to get right. Here are five rules to get it right.
- [List of SaaS and Cloud Consultants and Analysts](https://sixteenventures.com/cloud-consultants/): Sixteen Ventures is a SaaS consulting company and I’m a consultant.
- [Growth Hacking: 43 Ways to Drive Traffic to your Website](https://sixteenventures.com/traffic-hacking/): As a SaaS Provider, you need to drive traffic to your website; quality traffic that is likely to sign-up for your Free Trial & convert to a paying customer.
- [Beta Testing & Pricing: Examples (Video)](https://sixteenventures.com/beta-pricing-examples/): Before you watch this video, you should watch the 25-minute Beta Testing & Pricing: A Hazardous Combination video for better context.
- [Beta Testing & Pricing: A Hazardous Combination (Video)](https://sixteenventures.com/beta-testing-pricing/): Learn to avoid the pitfalls of publishing your Pricing while in Beta in this video presentation Are you in Beta and getting ready to move to production?
- [SaaS Marketing Plan: 100 Places to Promote Your App (Part 2)](https://sixteenventures.com/50-more-places-to-promote-your-saas-or-web-app/): Your SaaS Marketing Plan is a complex strategic guide to success. There are some low-hanging pieces of fruit you should harvest; here are 50 pieces to start
- [SaaS Marketing Plan: 100 Places to Promote Your App (Part 1)](https://sixteenventures.com/50-places-to-promote-your-app/): Creating a successful SaaS Marketing Plan can be complex. Get started with the low-hanging pieces of fruit you should harvest; here are 50 pieces to start
- [SaaS Conversion Rate Lies: 97% won’t become customers, anyway](https://sixteenventures.com/b2b-saas-lies/): There are many SaaS Conversion Rate lies executives and entrepreneurs tell themselves. The biggest is the one about the folks who didn't convert...
- [How to Develop your SaaS Pricing Model](https://sixteenventures.com/develop-pricing-strategy/): A well-planned SaaS Pricing Model is critical to your success and growth, developing your pricing model requires much work; internally and customer-facing.
- [Pivot to Profit: Ditch Freemium and Start Making Money](https://sixteenventures.com/pivot-to-profit-ditch-freemium/): Freemium - the free forever + at least one premium plan - is popular with SaaS and Cloud companies at first; but many have pivoted to other revenue models
- [SaaS Customer Retention is the key to Long-term Profitability](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-retention-profitability/): SaaS Customer Retention is key to long-term profitability for providers, so working diligently to drive down churn and increase customer longevity is key.
- [SaaS Churn kills Growth; Customer Retention is a Growth Accelerator](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-retention-growth-accelerator/): SaaS Churn increases required marketing spend to acquire customers and is an overall drag on growth. Focus on Customer Retention to scale.
- [SaaS Customer Retention Requires Ongoing Realization of Value](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-retention-continual-realization-value/): SaaS customer retention requires ongoing realization of value by your customers and users. This is the key to reducing your SaaS churn rate.
- [Free Trials: Not just for Startups or toy Web Apps](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trials-not-just-for-startups/): I am frequently asked to help SaaS, Web App, and Cloud companies on strategies to Accelerate Profitable Growth.
- [Why $1 Trials are a REALLY Bad Idea](https://sixteenventures.com/one-dollar-trial/): If you think a $1 trial is more likely to boost your SaaS conversion rates vs. a Free Trial... think again.
- [SaaS Pricing Model: How a 10x Price Increase lead to Happier Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/10x-price-increase/): Your SaaS pricing model should reflect the value your service provides to your ideal customer not to every potential customer.
- [Free Trial Frustrations from a SaaS CEO](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-frustration/): Have you ever wondered why people who sign-up for your Free Trial don’t turn into customers?
- [SaaS Free Trial: How Self-Service fits with a High-Touch Sales Process](https://sixteenventures.com/self-service-free-trial/): A self-service SaaS Free Trial can benefit a high-touch sales process by allowing you to more efficiently scale your sales force.
- [Simply Offering a SaaS Free Trial Increases Conversions](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-increase-conversions/): Does just offering a SaaS Free Trial increase your conversion rate? The short answer is yes... read on for the more detailed answer
- [SaaS Free Trial: Your Customer Qualification Machine](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-customer-qualification/): Learn to leverage your SaaS Free Trial to build a customer profile that allows your sales organization to be more efficient, close more customers and scale.
- [SaaS Free Trial Optimization: When to start?](https://sixteenventures.com/when-to-optimize-free-trial/): Before you start Optimizing your SaaS Free Trial to improve free-to-paid Conversions, learn the 5 things that must be done first… Here are five things that are required before optimization really makes a lot of sense.
- [7 Tips for Software Vendors Moving to the Cloud](https://sixteenventures.com/cloud-magic/): Software vendors looking to transition to a Cloud Services provider must understand that just going to the cloud does not magically transform your business.
- [How to keep App-generated Email from Being Marked Spam](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-transactional-email/): The most concise definition of Transactional Email I could find (after a 7 second Google search) is: Email primarily containing information about current or prior business dealings, such as confirmation of a sale, a registration number, an invoice, or an opt-in or opt-out confirmation.
- [SaaS Free Trial: Confused Minds Don’t Buy](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-engagement/): When it comes to your SaaS free trial, complicated isn't cool because confused minds don't buy, they leave and you miss out on the sale.
- [SaaS Free Trial Users are a Vanity Metric](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-users/): By definition, a user is someone that is actually using a product, therefore an inactive SaaS free trial user is simply a vanity metric
- [SaaS Pricing Page Design: Highest Price on the Left?](https://sixteenventures.com/pricing-page-design-high-to-low/): When creating your saas pricing page design, you must consider all elements including value messaging, trust factors, social proof as well as price layout
- [SaaS Conversion Rate: A Simple Trick to DOUBLE Your Revenue](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-revenue-double/): What if you could double your revenue? What if you could do it without attracting new prospects? Double your SaaS conversion rate with this simple trick.
- [SaaS Pricing Strategy: The 10x Rule](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-strategy/): When developing or optimizing your SaaS pricing strategy, remember the 10x rule; you'll make your customer happy and your company a lot of profit.
- [Display a Phone Number to Increase Conversions?](https://sixteenventures.com/phone-number-increase-conversions/): Does displaying a Phone Number on your website Increase Conversions?
- [SaaS Affiliate Marketing: How-To Supercharge Your Growth](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-affiliate-marketing/): Accelerate your growth by leveraging SaaS affiliate marketing... but do it right or it could backfire!
- [9 Ways to Instantly Improve Your PPC Results](https://sixteenventures.com/improve-ppc-results/): The success of your Free Trial in converting customers is directly tied to the quality of prospects that enter the trial in the first place.
- [Why SaaS Free Trial Optimization is So Important](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-optimization/): It should be obvious that optimizing your SaaS Free Trial is a powerful growth lever to pull, but it's not; which was the catalyst for writing this post.
- [SaaS Free Trial: The #1 Reason You Fail to Convert Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/why-free-trials-fail/): The number one reason your SaaS free trial fails to convert your customers is because of what happens right after the prospective customer signs-up...
- [Switch from a Reactive to Proactive SaaS Free Trial](https://sixteenventures.com/switch-from-reactive-free-trial/): There are two types of SaaS Free Trials: Reactive and Proactive; you want to be one of the latter because they will convert more prospects to customers.
- [SaaS Free Trials: The Shorter the Better?](https://sixteenventures.com/shorter-free-trials/): When it comes to SaaS free trials is shorter better? Would a 14-day trial convert better than a 30 day trial? How about a 7 day trial? Here's the reality.
- [SaaS Pricing Models Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-web-app-pricing-resource-guide/): You can leverage a variety of SaaS Pricing Models in your Value Pricing Strategy; from pricing page to Enterprise pricing, you must know your options.
- [SaaS Pricing: The Advanced Stuff](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-price-your-saas-or-web-app-advanced/): Once you know the basics of SaaS Pricing, it's time to move on to the Advanced topics. Pricing is Marketing and really understanding it's power is key.
- [SaaS Pricing: The Basics](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-price-your-saas-or-web-app-the-basics/): When it comes to SaaS Pricing, understanding the basic elements that make up a profitable pricing model, pricing page, etc. is key. You'll learn that here.
- [SaaS and Web Apps: Increase Your Free Trial Conversion Rate](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-dominator-for-saas-web-apps/): Introducing Lincoln Murphy’s Virtual Consulting program focused on Free Trial Optimization for your SaaS or Web App and 100% Guaranteed to help Increase your free-to-paid Conversion Rate!
- [SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rate Optimization Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-resource-guide/): SaaS providers generally acquire customers through online sales, meaning their SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rates is directly correlated with revenue.
- [Where is Your Ideal Customer on the Awareness Ladder?](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-communicate-value/): Understanding where your market is on the Awareness Ladder can absolutely transform your sales pipeline from a weak trickle to a powerful deluge!
- [What’s the biggest issue you’re dealing with right now?](https://sixteenventures.com/your-biggest-issue-saas-web-app/): I do what I do for one reason… to help SaaS & Web App vendors be more successful.
- [Your Signup Form is Hurting Your Free Trial Conversions!](https://sixteenventures.com/improve-free-trial-conversions/): When developing your Free Trail strategy, form design is one often over-looked aspect of the funnel. If you can't get people to sign-up initially, who cares.
- [How to Offer Both Freemium and Free Trials](https://sixteenventures.com/freemium-free-trials/): Should you offer both a Freemium option and a Free Trial for your SaaS app? If you offer both, is there a right way or a wrong way to do it?
- [SaaS Customer Retention: The Secret to Reducing your Churn Rate](https://sixteenventures.com/secret-to-reducing-churn/): When i comes to SaaS Customer Retention, there are several things you can do to reduce your churn rate, and their detailed in this blog post.
- [What’s Your Biggest Challenge in 2012?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-vendor-challenges-2012/): I believe in moving forward, not looking back.
- [Average Free Trial Conversion Rates… and why they don’t matter](https://sixteenventures.com/average-free-trial-conversion-rate/): I get asked what the average Free Trial conversion rate is or “what’s a good conversion rate” all the time.
- [What’s the Ideal SaaS Free Trial Length?](https://sixteenventures.com/ideal-free-trial-length/): So what's the ideal Free Trial length for a SaaS vendor? 14, 15, 30, 60, or 90 days? The answer may surprise you.
- [Year-End Free Trial Conversion Ideas](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-conversion-ideas/): Today is December 26, 2011.
- [Freemium isn’t just for “Startups with Nothing to Lose”](https://sixteenventures.com/freemium-not-just-for-startups/): A common misconception about Freemium is that it is just for startups with nothing to lose.
- [Classical Freemium Doesn’t Exist At Scale](https://sixteenventures.com/classical-freemium-doesnt-exist-at-scale/): “Classical Freemium” is the marketing tactic where a SaaS or Web App vendor offers a Free-in-Perpetuity version of a product or service, often feature- or usage-limited, as well as a version of the same product or service with less limitations to which the vendor will attempt to up-sell the user.
- [SaaS Free Trials: Common Problems with Sign-up Forms](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-signup-form-common-problems/): I just posted the video from the 12/21 Group Coaching call to the Free Trial Dominator site.
- [Focus on People, not Features, in 2012 (Happy Holidays!)](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-vendors-focus-on-people-not-features/): For a lot of us, the holidays are a time of reflection.
- [The Free Trial Secrets of 100’s of SaaS vendors… just for you](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-secrets/): Peter Drucker famously said “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” I say “The purpose of a Free Trial is to create a customer.” If you believe my version, then the Free Trial Dominator is for you.
- [SaaS & Web Apps: Optimize Your Pricing Page for 2012](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-page-optimization/): Your Pricing Page is the most important marketing page on your site.
- [SaaS Customer Success Experts Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/retention-churn-reduction-resource-guide/): To efficiently scale your business, you must keep your SaaS churn rate low. Learn the secrets to improving customer retention in this experts guide
- [SaaS Freemium Model Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/freemium-resource-guide/): Should you go Freemium or choose a different SaaS Business Model? This is a big question that is often asked too late. Don't make that mistake!
- [The 7 Secrets to DOMINATING Your Free Trials](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-improve-free-trial-conversion-rates/): In addition to the years I’ve been working with SaaS & Web App vendors, I’ve spent 2011 totally immersed in the business of free and have helped dozens of companies – from super early startups to MASSIVE $B/year companies – completely DOMINATE their free trials.
- [Web App Pricing: How To Avoid the Commodity Trap](https://sixteenventures.com/web-app-pricing-how-to-avoid-commodity-trap/): SaaS vendors who know their customers know what they don’t value and avoid building a pricing strategy around those elements.
- [Can You Answer These 15 Questions About Your Free Trial?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-questions/): SaaS & Web App Vendors: These are 15 Questions About Your Free Trials That You Should Be Able to Easily Answer What are you doing to engage customers BEFORE they sign-up for your Free Trial?
- [Stop Obsessing About Your Competitors](https://sixteenventures.com/stop-obsessing-over-saas-competition/): Focus on Your Customers and How Your Web App Solves Their Problems First.
- [Competitor Pricing… Does It Matter?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-apps-competitor-pricing/): “Wait… what about competitor pricing?” you ask.
- [Price Objections are Value Objections](https://sixteenventures.com/price-objections-are-value-objections/): When someone objects to your price, they are telling you that you've not done enough to make them realize that your product is worth the price you're asking
- [Wait… You Actually WANT to Be Average?](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-average-conversion-rate/): What’s the average conversion rate for free trials, pricing pages, or Freemium with SaaS or Web Apps?
- [Offer a Free Trial of your Web App? Don’t EVER do this…](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-mistakes/): Are conversions from Free Trial to Paid Customer not as high as you’d like?
- [The SECRET to $1M ARR in 6 Months is 9 Customers](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-secret-to-one-million-dollars/): Need to get to the magical $1M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) mark? All you need to do is add 9 customers per day and you'll get there in 6 months!
- [My EVIL Method to Reduce SaaS Churn](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-reduce-churn-saas/): Need to reduce your SaaS churn rate? Here's my EVIL method for improving customer retention and growing your company's revenue and valuation in the process!
- [SaaS Affiliate Marketing: Your Virtual Salesforce](https://sixteenventures.com/video-interview-saas-affiliate-marketing/): How would you like a virtual salesforce promoting your product to their audiences? That's the power fo SaaS Affiliate Marketing.
- [There are 7 Types of Freemium and Why That Matters…](https://sixteenventures.com/seven-types-of-freemium/): Freemium - especially in B2B SaaS - has evolved and there are now seven distinct types of Freemium in the market.
- [Why OfficeDrop Went Freemium… and how Mobile Apps forced their hand](https://sixteenventures.com/video-interview-why-officedrop-went-freemium/): Was OfficeDrop forced into Freemium at phone-point?
- [Copywriting for Geeks Author Marc-Andre Cournoyer Teaches You How to Sell Your App](https://sixteenventures.com/video-interview-copywriting-for-geeks-author-marc-andre-cournoyer/): Is Writing Good Sales Copy still Important?
- [Assistly Marketing VP Tells You Why They Dropped Tiered Pricing and Picked Up Freemium](https://sixteenventures.com/assistly-pricing-change-freemium/): UPDATE: Assistly was acquired by Salesforce.com shortly after we did this interview… they are now Desk.com.
- [Web App Sales Funnel: 2 Questions You MUST Answer](https://sixteenventures.com/web-app-sales-funnel-metrics/): SaaS and Web App companies must manage marketing metrics, but before diving in too deep, answer these two questions.
- [SaaS Customer Success: Technology Will Fail, but Service Must Never](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-success-fail/): What are the best practices and guidelines in SaaS Customer Success for dealing with and reacting to yet another unplanned outages?
- [SaaS Business Model Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-business-architecture-resource-guide/): I put together this list of my BEST SaaS Business Model & Architecture resources just for you.
- [SaaS Distribution and Promotion Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/distribution-promotion-resource-guide/): I put together this list of my BEST SaaS Distribution & Promotion posts just for you.
- [SaaS Pricing Model: Value Metrics Are Key](https://sixteenventures.com/pricing-value-metrics/): Your SaaS pricing model should be based on what your customer finds valuable; not on metrics that correlate to your underlying cost structure.
- [SaaS Marketing – Web App Pricing Page Review: Salesforce.com](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-marketing-web-app-pricing-page-review-salesforcecom/): A look at Salesforce.com’s pricing page to see if the SaaS leader views it as a Marketing page.
- [Your Revenue Crutch is Killing Your SaaS Startup](https://sixteenventures.com/revenue-crutch/): Web Apps and Software-as-a-Service that comes from consulting companies or other service businesses can be lucrative but can be held back by non-scalable revenue streams.
- [37Signals Caught Treating SaaS Pricing Page like a Marketing Page](https://sixteenventures.com/37signals-caught-treating-saas-pricing-page-like-a-marketing-page/): The popular Web App company actively tests their pricing page layout.
- [SaaS Growth Hacking Experts Resource Guide](https://sixteenventures.com/growth-hacking-resources/): Growth Hacking isn't just about getting traffic on the cheap; it's about understanding and exploiting customer behavior, technology, and distribution.
- [SaaS Free Trial: Feature or Time-Limited?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-free-trial-feature-or-time-limited/): Freemium is free-forever, Free Trials have time limits and the psychology of the two COULDN’T BE MORE DIFFERENT !
- [Web Apps use Customer Support to Increase Revenue](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-support-revenue-driver/): SaaS vendors know getting the sale is just the first step; keeping the customer means keeping them happy and that a happy customer will generate more revenue over time!
- [Does Goldilocks Pricing Work for SaaS?](https://sixteenventures.com/goldilocks-pricing/): A Pricing Strategy for SaaS built for the sole purpose of nudging customers away from a decoy price to the middle version can work.
- [As SaaS Matures, so will SaaS Pricing](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-evolves/): As web and SaaS apps mature, so will SaaS pricing... it's inevitable and it will make some pundits uncomfortable. But that's okay, and here's why...
- [5 SaaS Pricing Mistakes to Avoid](https://sixteenventures.com/pricing-mistakes/): For SaaS & Web App companies, Subscription Revenue is a no-brainer, but doing it right is not!
- [SaaS Pricing: Please Learn From the Zendesk Fiasco](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-zendesk-fiasco/): Zendesk made a major mistake when they updated their SaaS pricing, and you can - and should - learn from what they did to avoid future fiascos.
- [Cloud Acquisitions Create New Opportunities](https://sixteenventures.com/cloud-acquisitions/): So you’ve built a killer SaaS product and [Google or Oracle or Microsoft or…] just bought your big competitor; is this good or bad for you?
- [SaaS Distribution: Time to Change the Channel](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-channels/): Do SaaS products require, or can they benefit from, distribution through a 3rd party?
- [SaaS, Web Apps, or Just ‘Apps’?](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-or-apps/): Web Apps, SaaS apps, Software-as-a-Service, Cloud Apps... or just Apps? What do you call them? Does it matter? Yes, it does... and here's why.
- [SaaS Pricing: Commodity Metrics and the $240 GB](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-value-metrics/): When creating your SaaS pricing strategy, be sure not use commodity metrics in place of Value Metrics; the former can ruin your positioning with customers
- [SaaS Pricing: Versioning for Market Segments](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-pricing-versioning-market-segments/): Versioning your SaaS pricing for different market segments can be the difference between ultra profitability and stagnating growth
- [Free Trial Success Secret #7: The Four Phases of a Free Trial](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-7-four-phases/): Free Trial Success Secret #7: The Four Phases of a Free Trial
- [Free Trial Success Secret #6: Perfect Free Trial Length](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-perfect-length/): Free Trial Success Secret #6: Perfect Free Trial Length
- [Free Trial Success Secret #5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-should-ask-for-credit-card/): Free Trial Success Secret #5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring
- [Free Trial Success Secret #4: Measure the Right Things](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-4-measure-the-right-things/): Free Trial Success Secret #4: Measure the Right Things
- [Free Trial Success Secret #3: Stop Confusing Freemium and Free Trials](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-3-stop-confusing-freemium/): Free Trial Success Secret #3: Stop Confusing Freemium and Free Trials
- [Free Trial Success Secret #2: Get Your Product to Sell Itself](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-2-get-your-product-to-sell-itself/): Free Trial Success Secret #2: Get Your Product to Sell Itself
- [Free Trial Success Secret #1: No More Evaluations](https://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-success-secret-1-no-more-evaluations/): Free Trial Success Secret #1: No More Evaluations
- [7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions](https://sixteenventures.com/how-to-increase-conversions/): When your sales process fails to convert customers, it’s probably doing exactly what it was designed to do.
- [[Replay] 7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions with Free Trials](https://sixteenventures.com/free-training-replay/): I took the video down… thanks for stopping by, though!
- [[Replay] 7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions with Free Trials](https://sixteenventures.com/replay-7-secrets-to-increasing-conversions-with-free-trials/): Join the Free Trial Dominator Program for SaaS & Web Apps Today!
- [SaaS Network Effect: Companies Should Exploit Aggregate Data](https://sixteenventures.com/network-effect-data/): When developing your business model, you should consider the SaaS network effect as an additional revenue stream and for potential distribution points
- [SaaS Business Model – You Break It, You Buy It](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-business-model-break-buy/): The SaaS business model requires dedication and focus; opportunities that require deviation from core business architecture should be vetted carefully
- [SaaS Business Model is About Rules, Not Exceptions](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-business-model-rules/): The SaaS Business Model is About Rules, Not Exceptions and that means you have to be careful when contemplating customizations on a per-client basis.
- [SaaS Success Requires Dropping the Legacy Baggage](https://sixteenventures.com/legacy-baggage/): Don’t try to force an on-premises, packaged software product to the cloud.
- [SaaS Companies Should Learn from Netflix](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-should-learn-from-netflix/): Netflix has very proactive customer support and SaaS vendors could learn a thing or two from the way they handle glitches with their system.
- [ASP vs SaaS – What’s the difference?](https://sixteenventures.com/difference-between-asp-and-saas/): What's the difference between the ASP model and the SaaS or Software-as-a-Service model? Does the ASP vs SaaS difference really matter?
- [The SaaS Single-Tenancy vs. Multi-Tenancy Debate](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-multi-tenancy/): Web Apps built from scratch rarely aren’t Multi-Tenant; the debate only comes up with legacy software vendors migrating to SaaS and trying to justify their cutting corners.
- [Actionable Business Intelligence at your fingertips](https://sixteenventures.com/actionable-business-intelligence/): Originally published on October 18, 2007 You probably capture a lot of data in your web or SaaS app, but how often do you mine that data for Actionable Business Intelligence; information you can use to solve business problems, such as slumping revenue, high client turnover, etc?
- [Fallout from Enterprise SaaS Series](https://sixteenventures.com/enterprise-saas-series-fallout/): Originally published on March 10, 2007 I have received an amazing amount of feedback on the Enterprise SaaS series ; just about everyone who read it has contacted me with mostly positive comments, but usually someone has at least one concern.
- [Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Overview and Part 4](https://sixteenventures.com/saas-economies-of-scale/): Originally published on March 9, 2007 This series is to help Enterprise SaaS vendors with two potentially business-stopping problems; scalability and sustainability.
- [Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Part 3](https://sixteenventures.com/enterprise-saas-sustainability/): Originally published on March 9, 2007 After overcoming all of the objections in your control: existence, reliability, support, and scalability, you must now overcome the objections that are not in your control.
- [Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Part 2](https://sixteenventures.com/enterprise-saas-vendor-scalability/): Originally published on March 7, 2007 Starting a software company from scratch, on-premises or SaaS, is no small task.
- [Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Part 1](https://sixteenventures.com/pureplay-saas-vendor-scalability/): Originally published on March 6, 2007 The definition of Pureplay SaaS is where the SaaS vendor offers a completely hosted system with the customer needing nothing more than a standard PC with normal input devices to take full advantage of the offering.