This article comes from Charlie Sonnenberg’s insightful talk at our San Francisco 2024 Chief Revenue Officer Summit. Check out his full presentation and our wealth of OnDemand resources.

What’s your company’s plan for growth in today’s market? If your strategy still revolves around acquiring as many customers as possible and worrying about retention later, you might be in trouble.

For years, we lived in the era of "growth at all costs." The playbook was simple: throw money at acquiring customers, expand the team, stack the tech, and focus on top-line growth. The assumption? We’d figure out retention and expansion later.

And for a while, that worked. Budgets were big, software decisions were made quickly, and there wasn’t a lot of scrutiny around tech stacks. Companies could operate at a loss and still attract investors.

But those days are gone. Acquisition is down across the board. Companies are being much more selective about their software investments. Sales cycles are getting longer, deals are more complex, and CFOs and CTOs are scrutinizing every expense.

So where does that leave us? The companies thriving today are the ones proving value not just at the point of sale but throughout the entire customer journey. That’s where customer-led growth comes in—and if you haven’t shifted your focus here yet, it’s time to start.

Why companies are struggling to drive expansion

Ask any RevOps leader if customer expansion is important, and you’ll get a resounding “yes.” But when you dig into the execution? That’s where things fall apart.

Most companies rely on a set of tactics that sound good in theory:

  • Being more proactive with customer outreach
  • Treating renewals as selling events
  • Moving to a consumption-based model
  • Adding price uplifts at renewal

The problem? These tactics are internally focused. They’re about squeezing more revenue out of customers—not about proving value. That’s why they don’t work in the long run.

The only way to achieve sustainable customer-led growth is to ensure customers see real, measurable value at every stage of their journey. More importantly, they need to be able to prove that value internally when budgets are under review.

So how do we make that shift? Let’s talk strategy.

Why the CRO role remains misunderstood, with Grainne Maycock [Video]
On this episode, Warren Zenna sits down with Grainne Maycock, CRO at Acolad Group to discuss how the CRO role is still misunderstood, the qualities that make a great CRO, the best way to approach working with your CMO, and more.
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