The foundation of success for today’s businesses? Existing customers. While new customers will always be important, the rising cost of acquisition means organizations are relying on existing customers to drive growth.
Specifically for B2B SaaS companies, the average customer acquisition cost (CAC) is 76% higher for new customers than it is for expansion business. According to Benchmarkit’s 2024 B2B SaaS Performance Metrics Benchmark Report, the average new customer CAC for B2B SaaS companies is $1.76, while the average expansion CAC is only $1.00. What a huge difference! That means relying on new customer acquisition is expensive for any organization—and in uncertain markets, companies want to ensure that kind of investment leads to ROI quickly. That’s why more teams are shifting resources toward retaining and expanding their existing accounts.
No team is better positioned to help find quick revenue wins like the Customer Success (CS) team. As experts in customer relationships, CS professionals know what accounts are ready to expand their investments, plus who on the account will advocate for your organization. With the right tools and workflows, CS teams can help unlock meaningful expansion opportunities—fast.
To improve your win rate and drive sustainable revenue growth, we’ve put together a list of proven strategies for getting more from your existing customers. Here’s everything you need to know:
Use Customer Health as a Growth Signal, Not Just a Churn Alarm
Customer health scores are more than just an indicator of churn risk. In fact, a comprehensive look into customer sentiment, product usage, and community engagement can lead to a stickier product and greater expansion opportunities.
For accounts with high-touch customer journeys, health scores can uncover fluctuations that open the door for timely, personalized outreach. A spike in engagement might be the perfect time to introduce a new feature or discuss additional seats.
For Gainsight customer Launch Potato, introducing Staircase AI to get real-time visibility into a comprehensive customer health score empowered the CS team to react faster, optimize for growth, and improve retention.
If your organization has customers who require a variety of different customer journeys, then consider going beyond static customer health scores and leveraging dynamic health scores that help ensure CS teams never miss an important conversation.
Equip CSMs to Kickstart Revenue Conversations with Expansion Playbooks
Another successful strategy Revenue teams are starting to recognize is including Customer Success Managers (CSMs) in sales conversations. Organizations recognized that the time it takes to identify a revenue opportunity, pass the information along to Sales, and get a meeting scheduled was inefficient and often led to missed chances for growth.
To make their teams more efficient and ensure each customer gets the support they need, businesses have started creating expansion playbooks that CSMs can use to identify and initiate growth conversations in real time. CS teams certainly don’t need to take on the responsibility of completing contracts, but including them in a transition conversation based on customer data can result in revenue growth and reduced churn.
In one case, Gainsight customer Tackle created a notification system that pulls data from product usage, support tickets, and more, so their CS team always knows exactly when to engage and when to step back—avoiding awkward timing and missed opportunities.
For organizations who rely on lean teams to get efficient work done, this strategy can really make an impact quickly. For example, expansion playbooks help lean CS teams:
- Automated Upsell Campaigns: Use automated emails or in-app messaging to promote relevant add-ons based on customer usage patterns.
- Customer Journey Mapping: Create a customer journey map that highlights optimal points for expansion opportunities.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaborate with sales and marketing to coordinate targeted campaigns and support upsell efforts.
- Lifecycle Email Drips: Implement a series of lifecycle emails that educate customers on advanced features encouraging gradual upsell.
- Customer Health Segmentation: Segment customers based on health scores to prioritize expansion efforts on those most likely to convert.
- Success Milestone Celebrations: Celebrate customer milestone achievements and use these moments to introduce relevant new products.
- Proactive Check-ins and QBRs: Schedule regular check-ins and Quarterly Business Reviews to discuss growth strategies and highlight expansion opportunities.
- Educational Webinars or Tutorials: Host webinars or create tutorials showcasing advanced features that customers might be interested in expanding into.
- Referral and Loyalty Programs: Create referral incentives or loyalty discounts to encourage customers to expand their use of your services.
This list is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how expansion activities mapped to the customer lifecycle drive efficient business growth.
Automate Tasks and Free Up CSMs to Focus on Growth
As customer bases grow, CS teams often can’t scale headcount at the same pace. That’s where automation becomes critical.
By automating repeatable tasks—like internal updates, alerts, or data synthesis—you allow your CS team to focus more on what matters: driving value and uncovering revenue.
Companies like SAP LeanIX are using Gainsight specifically to keep team members across their organization updated about all customer accounts. People are busy and often don’t have time to keep up with every detail of all accounts. Automation can synthesize customer data in a succinct way that helps CS, Sales, and executives prepare for meetings and important revenue conversations.
In short, companies of all sizes can leverage AI for CS to create the most efficient team possible and empower both your team and your customers to be successful.
Drive Efficient Revenue with Gainsight
To learn more about how Gainsight can help drive revenue efficiently, contact us today. Our team will walk you through all that’s possible and help you reach your goals for 2025 and beyond.
