Got Churn? Unlocking NRR Growth with Two Simple Frameworks
Churn is a common pain for B-D round B2B companies, especially those adept at closing diverse customer types. While many factors contribute — from product gaps and overpromising to onboarding friction and poor support — searching for a single cause or a silver bullet solution is often futile. Instead of playing ‘whack-a-mole,’ a more holistic approach is needed.
My experience shows that, beyond their internal financial or political reasons, customers churn primarily because their expectations aren’t met by some combination of your product, processes, and people. This seems obvious, but pinpointing what to fix can be complex. Fortunately, two straightforward frameworks can cut through this complexity, plan for those expectations, and exceed them effectively as you scale.
Part 1: Product Volume and Value Dictate Customer Expectations
The first framework helps you identify what type of product(s) you’re offering and, critically, how that shapes customer expectations. Think about common B2C examples: a $50 budget gadget implies intuitive, work-out-of-the-box functionality with minimal support. A $20,000 bespoke system, however, comes with expectations of high-touch service, significant configurability, and dedicated support. The price and nature of the product inherently set the stage for the customer’s experience.
Successful B2B tech companies internalize this. This simple framework clarifies how, using just two axes:
- X-axis: Volume of units you expect to sell.
- Y-axis: Value per unit to the customer (or what they’re willing to pay).
For instance, a high-volume, low-price-per-user product like Slack lands in the bottom right. A low-volume, high-price custom AI solution sits in the top left. A product like Salesforce, with a large install base and moderate pricing, might be in the top right.
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It’s crucial to recognize that a company may have multiple offerings. Salesforce, for example, has solutions for small, medium, and enterprise clients. Each should be plotted on this grid, as they likely occupy different quadrants and thus command different customer expectations and support models. Mapping all offerings ensures your product, sales, and post-sales teams are aligned on how to approach each.
Quadrant Implications: Tailoring Your Approach
Bottom Right (High Volume / Low Value per Unit): Think “Flywheel” products (e.g., Slack, Github, Zoom). These demand self-service sales, seamless onboarding, and intuitive feature adoption, often driven by network effects. Support should be minimal and automated; the product must do the heavy lifting.
Top Left (Low Volume / High Value per Unit): These are high-investment solutions for critical customer problems. Buyers expect significant ROI and a solution tailored to their unique environment and use cases — not an off-the-shelf product. High-touch, consultative support throughout the customer journey is non-negotiable.
Top Right (High Volume / High Value per Unit): Often dubbed the “Cash Cow.” While an enviable position, it can be hard to sustain long-term due to competitive pressures that might erode value or drive down price. If achieved, customers here expect a blend of robust self-service options with accessible, medium-touch support and significant configuration capabilities.
Bottom Left (Low Volume / Low Value per Unit): Products here likely struggle with product-market fit. They either require significant investment to shift their position on the grid (up or right), serve as a strategic (but often costly) loss leader, or should be considered for sunsetting.
Understanding which quadrant(s) your products occupy is the foundational first step. It tells you what your customers generally expect. But how do you translate this quadrant-level understanding into concrete actions across your direct customer’s entire lifecycle with your product?
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll introduce a Customer User Journey (CUJ) framework. We’ll explore how to use the insights from Part 1 to define specific expectations for your customers and embed them as ‘swim lanes’ in their journey with your offerings — from product design and pricing to onboarding, support, and renewal strategies. Then, using those swim lanes, we map strategic improvements to product, process, and technology to help meet those expectations throughout the customer’s journey with a company.
Bonus: A key advantage of this CUJ and swim lane approach is its role-agnostic nature, fostering easier and more effective alignment across your product, engineering, and revenue-focused teams
