Customer-Led Growth: How to Operationalize Customer Obsession to Drive Success

Are you tired of relying solely on product-led or sales-led growth strategies? Have you considered the power of customer-led growth? 

In this episode of the Predictable B2B Success podcast, SaaS marketing growth advisor Georgiana Laudy discusses the importance of understanding your customers intimately and operationalizing that obsession to drive growth. With over 20 years of experience helping companies like Sprat Social and AppQs, Laudi is a true expert on customer-led growth. 

Keep reading to learn more about this powerful strategy and how it can transform your business.

Watch the episode

About Georgiana Laudi

Georgiana Laudi is a 20-year plus SaaS marketing growth advisor who has helped launch and build B2B and B2C brands since 2000. She is the co-founder and CEO of Get the Funnel, where she and her co-founder develop the customer-led growth framework. 

She discovered customer experience mapping while leading marketing for Unbounce, which measures the entire relationship with customers, from experiencing the problem to engagement and expansion. Georgiana uses Customer-Led Growth (CLG) to help teams understand exactly who their best customers are and how to reach, resonate with, and retain more of them.

This episode discusses the importance of putting your customers at the forefront of your business strategy. From understanding their pain points to crafting the right marketing message, Laudi shares valuable insights on becoming customer-obsessed. 

So, if you’re ready to stop guessing and start listening to your customers, keep reading for our key takeaways from this episode.

Customer obsession drives growth.

In today’s fast-paced business world, the key to success is customer obsession. It’s no secret that retaining existing customers is far more profitable than constantly seeking out new ones, with just a 5% increase in retention rates leading to a whopping 25% boost in profitability. Shockingly, though, many tech and software companies still prioritize attracting new customers over keeping their current ones happy.

Thankfully, companies that prioritize their customers see incredible growth. Forrester’s research has shown that customer-obsessed companies grow 2.5 times faster than those that don’t prioritize their customers. These companies also hold onto 2.2 times more monthly customers. So, if you’re looking to drive growth, putting your customers at the center of your business decisions is essential.

However, making customer obsession a reality can be a daunting task. It involves answering tough questions about who should do what, how long it will take, and how much it will cost. It also means developing the right strategy based on your company’s strengths and what your customers truly value.

Luckily, there are experts out there like Georgiana Laudi. With over 20 years of experience as a SaaS marketing growth advisor, Laudi has helped companies like Sprout Social, AppQs, Unbounce, and Spark Toro. As the co-founder and CEO of Get The Funnel, Laudi has developed the customer-led growth framework to help teams understand their best customers and how to reach, resonate with, and retain more of them.

Laudi discovered customer experience mapping while leading marketing for Unbalanced. This measure is not based on transactional moments and business metrics but on customer success milestones. By operationalizing the process of helping customers reach their goals, she discovered that she had helped the company reach theirs. In the following year, she grew revenue by nearly 900%.

Laudi’s experience has made her an in-demand expert in the industry. Many SaaS founders seek her help because she’s one of the few marketing professionals who have evolved from a 10-person company to a nearly 300-person company. Her experience has introduced her to challenges that mid-career or early-career marketers have never experienced.

If you want to drive growth and success in your business, make customer obsession your top priority. You’ll see significant growth and retention rates by focusing on your customers and operationalizing your obsession. With the help of experts like Georgiana Laudi and her customer-led growth framework, you can understand your best customers and how to reach, resonate with, and retain more of them. So, put your customers at the center of your business decisions, and watch your company soar!

Don’t lose sight of holism.

Are you tired of businesses that seem to prioritize profit over customer satisfaction? Look no further than the latest podcast episode featuring Georgiana Laudi. Her key message is clear: companies must take a comprehensive approach to business to truly understand and prioritize their customers.

Laudi’s unique ability to zoom in and out of situations with a strategic mindset makes her an expert in customer experience mapping. She helps companies stay aligned with their customers’ needs by connecting the dots and identifying areas for improvement. But it’s not just about finding quick fixes; businesses must maintain a holistic perspective and focus on the bigger picture.

It’s easy for companies to get caught up in day-to-day tasks and lose sight of their customers’ evolving needs. That’s why it’s crucial for businesses to periodically reassess whether their strategy still resonates with their target audience. Companies can achieve significant growth and success by prioritizing customers and operationalizing customer obsession.

In short, if you want your business to succeed, you must prioritize your customers and take a comprehensive approach to your operations. Doing so will retain your current customers and attract new ones who appreciate your commitment to their satisfaction.

Customer-led growth is crucial.

Are you looking to scale your business and increase your customer base? Look no further than customer-led growth. In this podcast, you’ll learn how intimately understanding your customers can lead to highly converting and effective product-led experiences. But it’s not just about understanding your customers – it’s about operationalizing that knowledge and bringing together a cross-functional team to improve the customer experience continuously. 

From marketing-led to engineering-led growth, this podcast covers it all. And while purpose-driven brands may be more likely to adopt a customer-led growth perspective, any business can benefit from prioritizing its customers. So why wait? Join the ranks of successful companies and prioritize customer-led growth to gain a competitive advantage in today’s ever-evolving business landscape.

Understand customers deeply for growth.

To achieve consistent and scalable growth, businesses must have a crystal-clear understanding of their customers. It’s all about knowing who their customers are, their needs, and how they interact with the company’s products or services. By staying in tune with their target audience and meeting their needs, businesses can avoid slow or inconsistent growth and stay ahead of the curve.

When companies notice a change in their growth trajectory, they often seek help to address the issue. This could be due to a shift in the market, a change in customer behavior, or a loss of focus on the company’s problem space. But don’t worry; there are solutions! Companies can assemble a cross-functional team, identify the root cause of the problem, and create a plan of action to get back on track.

Companies must adopt a customer-led approach to growth to understand their customers truly. This involves gaining insight into what motivates customers to seek a solution, their pain points, and what they hope to achieve with the company’s products or services. Companies need a holistic view of the customer experience from the moment they recognize the need for a solution to when they become loyal advocates for the company.

The “jobs to be done” approach is an effective way to understand the specific goals and motivations that drive customers to seek a solution. This approach provides context around the customer’s decision-making process and what led them to choose the company’s solution.

While surveys and NPS scores can provide valuable feedback, they only offer a limited view of the customer experience. Companies should prioritize customer interviews as a primary research method to truly understand their customers. For companies with a large customer base, starting with a survey to pre-qualify for interviews can be effective.

In conclusion, a deep understanding of customers is crucial for businesses to achieve significant growth and retention rates. By adopting a customer-led approach to growth and gaining insight into the customer experience, companies can better resonate with their target audience, retain customers, and reach more people. Prioritizing customer-led growth gives companies a competitive edge in today’s business landscape. So, whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation, it’s time to put your customers first and watch your business flourish!

Segment customers for actionable insights.

Knowing your customers is crucial, but understanding them is a different ball game. One important way to do that is by segmenting them for actionable insights. Not all customers are the same, and it’s essential to identify the right ones to learn from. By focusing on the most valuable customers, a company can gain valuable insights into their preferences, needs, and pain points, which can help them serve their customers better.

To segment customers effectively, specific criteria should be used. Happy customers who have recently made payments are typically the best candidates for learning from. By analyzing customer data, a company can identify different customer segments within its target audience and make informed decisions about serving them better. It’s like cracking a code, but instead of numbers, it’s people’s behavior and needs.

Surveys are an effective approach to segmenting customers, but it’s essential to include open-text fields that allow customers to provide detailed feedback. This way, a company can better understand what its customers think and feel, not just what they do. After all, customers are not just numbers.

It’s also important to note that segmenting customers should not be limited to current customers only. Learning from churned customers can also provide valuable insights. However, it’s crucial to prioritize learning from happy customers first before moving on to churned customers. Happy customers are like gold mines, and it’s essential to mine them before exploring other options.

Segmenting customers for actionable insights is critical for businesses seeking significant growth and retention rates. By identifying the right customers to learn from, companies can gain valuable insights into their target audience’s needs and preferences. This process can help companies make informed decisions about serving their customers better and gain a competitive advantage in today’s business landscape. It’s like having a secret weapon, but instead of a gun, it’s knowledge.

Operationalize customer growth process milestones.

Understanding your customer base is crucial for success in today’s fast-paced business landscape. Surveys are powerful for gathering open-text responses, providing valuable insights into customer needs and wants. By identifying key milestones and developing processes to achieve them, companies can grow their customer base and gain a competitive advantage. But it’s not just about hitting KPIs – it’s also about understanding the customer experience and identifying pain points for improvement. Companies can improve retention rates and build long-lasting customer relationships by operationalizing the customer growth process.

Customer feedback is valuable.

The podcast emphasizes the importance of customer feedback in the growth process of companies. According to the speaker, customer research and insights are valuable inputs but are just one part of the equation. Companies need to agree on the customer’s job to be done and focus on the strategic decision of providing value to their customers. Once this decision is made, companies can look at the customer experience and identify the milestones customers go through to receive value.

The speaker suggests that companies need to understand the customers that get the most value, are highly willing to pay, and have a long-term relationship with the company. By doing so, companies can determine the major milestones these customers go through and identify measurable touchpoints in the customer experience. This helps companies to understand whether they have done their job in helping customers get from one milestone to the next.

The podcast also highlights the importance of communication within the company and creating a culture of open and free communication across all teams. Georgiana suggests that customer feedback is a powerful tool to democratize the organization. By highlighting customer quotes representing big learnings and insights, companies can help their teams see their role in the customer’s experience and feel closer to the project and customers.

The speaker also emphasizes the importance of implementation and moving the needle on revenue. Companies need to review their customer experience through the lens of their best customers and admit where they might be dropping the ball. By putting themselves in their customers’ shoes, companies can realistically look at where they are failing and improve their retention rates.

The episode highlights the importance of customer feedback in the growth process of companies. By understanding the customer’s job to be done, identifying milestones, and measuring KPIs, companies can improve their retention rates and gain a competitive advantage. Communication within the company and creating a culture of open and free communication is also essential in implementing a successful customer growth process.

Fix customer experience first.

This episode has some eye-opening insights about what companies should prioritize to succeed. According to the speakers, improving the customer experience should be the top priority before investing in marketing or lead generation. This means identifying and addressing issues preventing potential customers from fully utilizing the product. The guest speaker, Georgiana, made an important point about how companies often chase more leads without considering whether they target the right customers.

But that’s not all. The podcast also highlighted the importance of seizing expansion opportunities, which should be noticed more. Companies should encourage further product engagement and recurring revenue once a customer’s initial problem or need is met. This requires a more sophisticated approach to customer growth, emphasizing delivering continued value beyond the initial purchase.

The podcast emphasizes the importance of putting the customer first and building a growth strategy around their needs. By improving the customer experience and leveraging expansion opportunities, companies can attract and retain the right customers and gain a competitive edge. It’s a refreshing perspective that challenges the traditional approach to business growth and encourages companies to listen and respond to their customers truly.

Stop guessing; listen to customers.

In this episode, we explore the pivotal role that customer experience plays in driving business growth. The speakers emphasize the importance of addressing messaging, positioning, and product onboarding issues to attract and retain the right customers. They believe marketing and lead generation efforts should focus on fixing customer experience issues first and foremost.

The podcast dives deep into the need for companies to leverage opportunities for expansion and recurring revenue to achieve more mature customer growth. Once this stage is reached, the conversation should shift from churn to net revenue retention, focusing on customer marketing and expansion programs. It’s fascinating to learn about the importance of this shift in focus.

To achieve customer-led growth, the podcast underscores the need for a culture of open communication and a commitment to understanding and meeting the customer’s needs. The speakers advise companies to listen to their best customers to understand their requirements and desires. By doing so, they can find answers to the questions they are likely asking about how to grow their company. It’s inspiring to hear how customer-led growth can be achieved by embracing a customer-centric approach.

Driving customer-led growth

The podcast episode highlights the crucial role of customer experience in driving business growth. Companies must prioritize fixing customer experience issues before investing in marketing or lead generation. They should listen to their best customers to understand their needs and leverage expansion and recurring revenue opportunities. Ultimately, achieving customer-led growth requires a culture of open communication and a commitment to meeting the customer’s needs. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in driving business success through a customer-centric approach.

Some topics we discussed include:

• Discover the significance of customer-led growth phases and KPIs in catapulting your SaaS company to success.
• Uncover the impact of cultivating a deep understanding of customers on achieving long-term, scalable growth.
• Master the art of jobs-to-be-done interviews to reveal valuable psychological customer insights.
• Unlock the potential of segmenting your customer base to create profitable and contented groups.
• Tap into the power of focusing on expansion and high-value customers for exponential revenue growth.
• Pull together a cross-functional marketing, customer success, and product personnel team to evaluate your customer experience.
• Determine if you bring the right customer to your business and evaluate their engagement.
• Measure your customer’s engagement in a meaningful way.
• Focus on building a customer-led growth strategy appropriate for your best customers.
• Recognize the need for improvement and identify any shifts or changes in your customer base.
• Use customer experience mapping to identify success milestones and potential growth opportunities.
• Operationalize the process of helping customers reach their goals and align your team with a deep understanding of your customers.
• Utilize a content series like Forget the Funnel to help in-house marketers think more strategically and holistically about marketing.
• Start by deeply understanding your customers, their needs, and the value your solution provides to them.
• Build a scalable, effective, and highly converting product-led experience by being customer-led first.
• And much, much more.

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Related links and resources

Connect with Georgiana

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