Growth vs. GTM Efficiency
Companies tend to place a lot of focus on revenue and growth.
And not nearly enough on churn.
At first, your Go-To-Market (GTM) motion might look like it’s working:
- Deals are closing.
- Marketing is generating pipeline.
- Revenue is climbing.
But is your revenue actually growing….or are you just replacing what you’re losing?
If churn is high, your company isn’t really scaling, it’s just constantly making up for lost customers as even a seemingly small 3% monthly churn rate can significantly impact your customer base over time.
Most teams assume the fix is more leads, more sales activity, and bigger targets. But in reality, what they need isn’t more acquisition, it’s less churn.
Fix churn, and you’re not just keeping customers, you’re making every sales and marketing dollar go further.
3 Reasons Why Churn Is a Big Problem
Churn isn’t just about losing customers.
It’s about how much it costs to replace them.
Most teams measure Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) based on how much they spend to acquire a new customer.
But what happens if that customer churns quickly?
- A CAC payback period of 12 months means every customer needs to stay at least a year just to break even.
- If a customer churns at 9 months, you’ve already lost money, even if you hit your acquisition target.
- Now, your GTM team needs even more pipeline just to cover the revenue gap.
Key takeaway: High churn forces marketing to spend more to replace lost revenue instead of compounding growth.
In an efficient GTM strategy, new customers don’t just bring in revenue, they also lead to referrals, expansion, and more future deals.
But if churn is high, that cycle breaks. New customers leave before they can create any long-term value.
- Reps aren’t generating referral business from happy customers.
- Expansion opportunities shrink because Customer Success (CS) is stuck saving accounts instead of growing them.
- Sales cycles lengthen because churn erodes customer trust and case study availability.
Key takeaway: When customers leave, it’s not just revenue that disappears, it’s every future deal that could have been influenced by that account.
You can’t scale your GTM strategy if your revenue is unpredictable.
When churn is high, sales reps struggle with forecasting growth.
- Finance teams can’t confidently plan Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
- Hiring decisions become risky because future revenue is unclear.
- Budgets and sales quotas constantly shift to make up for lost customers.
Key takeaway: Instead of driving growth, the company is stuck reacting to churn, always playing defense instead of building a sustainable, predictable revenue engine.
3 GTM Mistakes That Cause Churn
Most companies try to fix churn at renewal time. But by then, it’s already too late.
The real causes of churn start before the customer even signs a contract.
If your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is built around who converts the fastest instead of who retains the longest, your GTM motion is designed to fail.
- Sales teams prioritize deals that close quickly but won’t expand.
- Marketing optimizes for lead volume instead of retention potential.
- Customer success is left managing accounts that were never a great fit to begin with.
Most churn is predictable within the first 90 days.
Why?
Because customers that don’t see value fast enough never become long-term users.
- Slow implementation = frustration before the customer even gets started.
- Complex onboarding = low adoption, leading to disengagement.
- Lack of clear milestones = customers who don’t realize the full potential of your product.
Most GTM teams focus only on acquiring new customers, leaving expansion revenue as an afterthought.
- If renewals are just contract extensions, you're missing a major revenue opportunity.
- If CS doesn’t have clear expansion targets, upsells and cross-sells won’t happen.
- If sales doesn’t stay engaged with existing customers, LTV stays flat.
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3 GTM Plays That Stop Churn Before It Starts
Most sales teams optimize for who converts fastest, not who stays and grows.
And that’s a churn problem waiting to happen.
- Refine your ICP using LTV, retention, and expansion data, not just conversion rates.
- Adjust lead scoring to prioritize qualified leads who align with your target market and are most likely to expand.
- Structure sales incentives around long-term retention, not just closed deals.
Onboarding helps customers get started.
But it should also set them up to grow.
- Define the key activation metric that predicts long-term success.
- Remove unnecessary steps that slow down adoption and delay value.
- Set expansion expectations from Day 1, ensuring that your customer journey includes structured touchpoints that align with their buyer personas and needs.
Expansion should be a structured GTM motion.
- Assign a dedicated expansion team, just like you do for new business sales.
- Use product adoption signals to proactively trigger upsell and cross-sell plays.
- Make Net Revenue Retention (NRR) your primary GTM KPI. If NRR isn’t improving, efficiency is declining.
3 Internal GTM Gaps That Make Churn Worse (After the Deal Closes)
Most churn discussions focus on what happens before the contract is signed: bad-fit customers, poor onboarding, or lack of expansion.
But even if you fix those, internal inefficiencies within your GTM motion can still drive customers away.
Closing a deal and keeping a customer should feel like one continuous motion, not a disconnected one.
- Sales focuses on getting the deal closed, but doesn't share critical insights with CS.
- CS inherits customers without understanding what was promised during the sales cycle.
- Expansion opportunities get missed because Sales and CS aren’t working toward a shared goal.
The Fix:
- Make Net Revenue Retention (NRR) a shared KPI between Sales and CS.
- Have Sales document key customer goals, pain points, and expectations so CS can tailor onboarding accordingly.
- Create an expansion pipeline where CS and Sales work together on upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
Churn rarely happens suddenly.
There are almost always warning signs. But if your GTM motion isn’t set up to catch them, customers will leave before you even realize there’s a problem.
- Product usage drops, but no alerts are triggered to flag potential churn risks.
- CS teams only find out about issues when a customer is already frustrated.
- No structured playbook exists for proactively re-engaging disengaged accounts.
The Fix:
- Set up automated health scores that monitor customer engagement, product usage, and NPS trends.
- Train CS teams to intervene proactively when warning signs appear, not just react to cancellations.
- Create a "win-back" motion where Marketing and Sales re-engage churned customers with targeted offers or solutions.
Many companies approach renewals like a legal process instead of a chance to strengthen customer relationships and drive expansion.
- Renewals are last-minute, reactive conversations instead of proactive value discussions.
- Customers only hear from CS when it’s time to renew, not throughout the year.
- Expansion isn’t baked into the renewal process, so deals stay flat instead of growing.
The Fix:
- Start renewal conversations at least six months in advance.
- Use renewal time to introduce expansion opportunities based on usage data, not just confirm contract terms.
- Shift the mindset from "Can we keep this customer?" to "How can we grow this customer?"
The GTM Endgame
Churn isn’t just lost customers.
It’s lost momentum.
The fix? Make churn prevention a GTM priority, not a CS afterthought.
- Sell for retention, not just conversion. Right-fit customers stick around and grow.
- Onboard for expansion. Customers should see value fast and have a clear path to grow.
- Align Sales, CS, and Marketing. NRR should be everyone’s goal, not just net-new pipeline.
- Catch churn risks early. Don’t wait for cancellations—re-engage before it’s too late.
- Turn renewals into revenue plays. Growth should be built into every contract.
Stop replacing lost customers.
Start building lasting, scalable growth.
