David Jackson - Customer-Led Growth: A CEOs guide to building a B2B SaaS company

What people are saying about Customer-Led Growth

The best book on customer success I have read.

Shreesha Ramdas

General Manager, Strikedeck by Medallia

Customer Success books just keep coming. And that's a good thing because the discipline is still young and constantly changing. David Jackson has added a gem to the collection with this insightful book. I always enjoy David's view of the world because he's actually gotten his hands dirty on this topic and is never afraid to challenge the status quo. Definitely a valuable read.

Dan Steinman, Chief Evangelist, Gainsight

If youre a SaaS CEO you need to read this book, in fact you need to read this book if youre not a SaaS CEO but youre interested in making your organisation more customer focussed! Dave injects new thinking into organisational design and value delivery as well as introducing some new, and sometimes radical thinking. This book will challenge what you think you already know!

Chris Mitchell, Chief Operating Officer, Intrado

Too many books about customer experience overpromise and underdeliver, belaboring a simple concept to fill the pages and failing to engage the reader along the way. When I heard about Dave Jackson's newest book, I knew it would be different--because Dave is different. This book is philosophical without being navel-gazy, and practical without being prosaic. If you're going to read one book on CX, read this one!

Jake Sorofman, Chief Marketing Officer, Visier

This book provides a comprehensive, principles-first overview of building a customer-first company. While the obvious audience is CEOs, anyone on the executive team will gain insight and value from this thinking to improve their org culture and design. A great read (and re-read)!

Chris Hicken, Founder and CEO, Nuffsaid

A thought-provoking and fresh perspective with a keen focus on organizational design. If you aspire to be truly customer-focused this book is a must read.

Dave Duke

Chief Customer Officer and Co-Founder, MetaCX

In Customer-Led Growth, Dave challenges business leaders to think differently about customer centricity, dismantling commonly held assumptions about customer success and laying out a blueprint for true customer-centricity. This is a must-read for any founder or CEO who is serious about scaling sustainably and delivering true customer success.

Alex Farmer, CEO, Customer Success Excellence

CUSTOMER LED GROWTH

CEOs Guide to Building a B2B SaaS Company

David Jackson

TCC Publishing

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by TTC Publishing ( a trading name of TheCustomer.Co)

First edition

Copyright David Jackson 2021

David Jackson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website or distribute it by any other means without permission.

David Jackson has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Cover design & graphics by Trent Morue, Morue Designs

Editing by Chris Cartwright

ISBN: 978-1-7399030-1-5

For the communities that have enhanced my life.

For the colleagues and customers of the Clicktools community that I still hold dear.

For the SaaS community that gave me opportunity, challenge and inspiration.

But above all for that very special community called family that has and continues to give me the greatest joy a man could possibly imagine and then some!

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgement

1: How we got to here

It started with churn

Sayingdoing gaps

2: New challenges: new approaches

Spiralling acquisition costs

Freemium and atomisation of the buyer

Software disrupts everything

Rethinking customer success

Remember your roots

3: The fundamentals

Company-wide customer success

How I think about organisations

4: Principle One Customer success is a financial strategy

Customer success drives valuations

CS and business models

Monetising customer success

5: Principle Two Success by design

An architects guide to organisation design

Designing a customer-centric business

Advice to CEOs

6: Principle Three People not customers

The faceless customer

Role Profile

Psychology of customer success

Advice to CEOs

7: Principle 4 Build a deep understanding of value

The value equation

Understanding value

The problem with outcomes

Introducing Value Elements

Value Elements across the customer lifecycle

Iterative value delivery

Case study

The end of outcomes?

Advice to CEOs

8: Principle 5 Success is selling

Value as the primary sales tool

Dont sell; nurture buying

CS and revenue

Advice to CEOs

9: Principle Six Their choice, not yours

The problems with segmentation and customer journeys

Next Best Value: Dynamic segmentation and journeys

Implementing Next Best Value

Advice to CEOs

10: Principle Seven Code scales better than people

Rationale for product-enabled value

Product-enabled, not product only

My vision of product-enabled value

New tools and approaches

New capabilities

What becomes of the CS department?

What the future holds

Advice to CEOs

11: From idea to action

Focus on three core frameworks

Curate your data

Build customer and financial literacy

Lead with vision and values

It starts with you

About the Author

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