A PE-backed B2B information business had been through a pricing consultancy exercise under its first owner, done to prime the business for sale. By the time it changed hands to a second owner, every number PE cares about looked strong. New business was up. AOV was up. NRR was high. Margins looked healthy too, partly […]
NRR may stunt your growth
The £20-30M business intelligence company where high growth was hiding a crisis (this Substribe case study is on a NDA). Executive Summary The Impact: Improvement in revenue stability (GRR: 71% → 91%) whilst switching from volatile to sustainable growth. The Story: A PE-backed data intelligence company with 130% NRR. Substribe highlighted they were heading for […]
10 Home Truths about B2B Subscriptions and Memberships
A home truth is an uncomfortable fact someone needed to hear but wasn’t being told. Not an opinion. Not a perspective. A thing that is true, that you may have been avoiding, that someone who cares enough to be straight with you will say out loud. I’ve been inside subscription and membership businesses since 2001, […]
Why Your Happiest Customers Might Be About to Leave
The Churn Signal NPS And Satisfaction Scores Fail To Detect. You may or may not use customer sentiment to keep an eye on the road ahead and what might be lurking around the corner. Here’s a view from the Substribe files, where we have 1000 data points across B2B information services from the customer sentiment […]
Why Expensive Pricing Strategy Divided A Company
And What To Do To Avoid It Happening To You. Your leadership team has repositioned your value proposition to the market. You’ve moved from promising “operational efficiency” to “strategic competitive advantage.” The insight is sound. The opportunity is real (in the right situations). But your teams aren’t aligned (they may be nodding their heads though). […]
Why Pricing Revolutions Fail (And What Actually Works)
You bring in the expensive pricing consultants. The analysis looks bulletproof. Market data. Competitive benchmarking. Willingness-to-pay studies. The PowerPoint deck gets board approval. Six months later? Your renewal rates are soft. Sales are negotiating around the new pricing. And your best customers are asking uncomfortable questions. Here’s what happened. The pricing revolution was done to […]
Why New Customer Wins Create Churn Problems
Do strong retention rates hide your biggest growth problem? “Our retention rates for mature accounts is good. When we reach the three year mark they’re keepers. It’s the new customers that are hurting our growth.” What Causes New Customer Churn in B2B Subscriptions? You built something people value. Existing customers stick around. Renewal conversations make […]
Subscription growing pains
Sarah returned back to the office from her well deserved holiday. She stared at the dashboard. Revenue up 32% year-over-year. Her team was crushing it. So why did her stomach feel like she’d swallowed lead? Sarah was reflecting on one of the problems that hit the business just before her break. Sarah’s biggest client moved […]
The four phases of B2B subscription success
B2B subscription businesses live or die by the quality of their lifecycle management. The Substribe Customer Lifecycle Framework maps the entire journey into four phases with clear metrics. Like all of the Substribe thinking, the practical approach breaks traditional silos and connects every activity to measurable outcomes. The Framework at a Glance The Substribe Customer […]
The Value Trap of Legacy Subscription Metrics
Value and Volume Renewal Rates are the markers of legacy B2B subscription metrics. Substribe argues they risk creating a smoke screen around performance issues, holding back long term growth and risking revenue. B2B information companies have long relied on two legacy metrics: volume renewal rate (the percentage of accounts renewed) and value renewal rate (the percentage of revenue renewed). […]
