Guy Marion, CEO and co-founder of Brightback walks through why companies must make retention a key component of their growth strategy or risk stunting their revenue potential. Guy presented on stage at the Growth Marketing Conference in Toronto in April 2019.

1. Retention
acquisition
is the new
©2019 Brightback, Inc.

2. CEO & Co-founder
guy_marion
Guy Marion

3. Is retention really the new
acquisition? Revenue Growth
Revenueretention
GREAT
(105%+)
MEDIOCRE
(<70%)
MEDIOCRE
(50%)
AWESOME
(200%)

4. Is retention really the new
acquisition? Revenue Growth
Revenueretention
GREAT
(105%+)
Do we focus on killer retention,
then revenue growth?
MEDIOCRE
(<70%)
MEDIOCRE
(50%)
AWESOME
(200%)
Path A
Awesome
retention,
improve revenue
growth

5. Is retention really the new
acquisition? Revenue Growth
Revenueretention
GREAT
(105%+)
Do we focus on killer retention,
then revenue growth?
Or awesome revenue growth,
followed by retention? MEDIOCRE
(<70%)
MEDIOCRE
(50%)
AWESOME
(200%)
Path B
Awesome
retention,
improve revenue
growth

6. Is retention really the new
acquisition? Revenue Growth
Revenueretention
GREAT
(105%+)
Do we focus on killer retention,
then revenue growth?
Or awesome revenue growth,
followed by retention?
Retention: It’s the bedrock of
high subscriber growth
MEDIOCRE
(<70%)
MEDIOCRE
(50%)
AWESOME
(200%)
Path B
Reorganization,
lost time, lost
capitalization
Path A
Awesome
retention,
improve revenue
growth

7. $42M ARR
lost in 5
years…
due to high churn,
nearly 4X the total
ARR reached by
ARR
MONTHS SINCE LAUNCH
0.5% Gross Churn (-3.5% Net)
1% Gross Churn (-2% Net)
2% Gross Churn (0% Net)
4% Gross Churn (3% Net)
$57M
$16M
$26M
$40M
Poor retention has put a cap on SaaS growth

8. Why Now? The Subscription Economy
Automated customer retention for
high-volume subscription business
SHELFWARE. UPFRONT COST. SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY

9. Your customers are in control

10. Automated customer retention for
high-volume subscription business
Source:
2017 Pacific Crest SaaS survey
forentrepreneurs.com/
2017-saas-survey-part-2/
2019 TECH IPOS:
CAPITAL
EFFICIENCY
IS
🔥

11. retention
The path to
success

12. Onboarding Expansion Retention
Objective Successful customers Exchange value for cost Repeat purchases & referrals
KPI % Activation Net MRR
Gross Churn %
(MRR, users)
High Volume
Customers
Online & 1:Many Product & messaging Save %
High Value
Customers
Fully assisted Upsell & cross-sell Renewal %
Pricing
Prove value within
CAC constraints
Licenses, features
and/or usage
Profitable LTV
The blueprint to retention success

13. Determine product-market fit via onboarding cohorts
1. Define success measurement
2. Define acceptable percentage of customers who succeed
3. Measure by customer cohort
Source: Hubspot onboarding data.

14. Align
around
your
success
metric
2,000 messages sent
5 of 20 features used
in 60 days
Tracker added within
7 days

15. Align
around
your
success
metric
Observable in weeks or months
Automated measurement
Simple = actionable
OK to combine multiple metrics
Events: Setup, usage, repeat
purchase, referral, ROI are common
Defining your customer success indicator

16. Classify and auto-engage
customers
who fail

17. 20% of customers
cancel for the
wrong reason
Never onboarded or figured it out
Aren’t seeing value (but still have the need)
Think they don’t have features they need
Feel ignored or frustrated by support
Clicks to
cancel
Added to segment
OPTIONAL
Exit survey &
loss aversion
Triggers a
or eventCANCEL
SAVED
Personalized
offers & tips
Invest in your
cancel experience!

18. ACTIVITY
CARD
OFFERS, CONTENT, TRAINING,
LINKS, NURTURING
VIP
TREATMENT
High Value
LEADERSHIP
CARD
AGGRESSIVE
OFFERS
Low Value
Segment A
Segment B
Segment n
...
Customer
clicks to
cancel
Take a systematic approach to measuring and saving cus
ACTIVITY
CARD
LEADERSHIP
CARD

19. Learn from customers who cancel, and align short-term
product fixes, success motions, and sales/marketing fit

20. Case Study
General Manager
a_suneet
Suneet Bhatt

21. Thank you!
brightbackIO
brightback.com