Do your commercial teams fight over crumbs?

Building High Performance Teams in Premium B2B Subscription Settings is about the team not the individual. It’s about using metrics that matter, not “me-tricks” to flatter. I don’t care how many leads or meetings you think you got. I care about quality of conversations converting to continuing value.

I think the best B2B subscription businesses operate in a similar way to an elite sports team. When an elite sports team takes to the field, their performance is the result of more than individual talent. Every player knows their role, understands the game plan, and has clear metrics for success. “My role is to defend.” “My role is to attack.” No one on the field has any doubt in their mind.

Carrying on with the analogy, in an elite sport setting, support staff provide relevant intelligence, leadership sets clear strategy, and teams collaborate off the field to make the on-field performance the best possible.

My view is the best B2B subscription businesses operate in a similar way to an elite sports team. Different roles – from new business to account management to customer success – must work as one. They need clear game plans from leadership. And decent intelligence about what makes a result more likely from support functions.

To me, the most important for subscriptions is a team who know how they impact on the fundamentals – protecting and growing the installed base.

What Must Be True

For a subscription business to perform at its best, I think three elements must align:

1. Clear Game Plan
   • Segment specific strategies
   • Well defined roles
   • Shared success metrics
   • Regular performance reviews
2. Enabled Team
   • Right skills in right roles
   • Clear view of performance
   • Tools for success
   • Collaborative environment
3. Aligned Incentives
   • Rewards right behaviors
   • Encourages teamwork
   • Simple to understand
   • Fair to measure

Making It Work

Teams should collaborate top down on Segment Strategy and bottom up Account Planning to prepare the right performance conditions.

Segment Strategy

Good looks like:

• Quarterly segment reviews
• Joint success planning
• Resource alignment
• Learning sharing

Account Planning

Good looks like:

• Clear segment strategies
• Unified success metrics
• Shared accountability
• Simple execution plans

Signs It Is Working

Your compensation design is successful when teams naturally:

1. Understand Segments
   • Know where each account fits (not how much they spend)
   • Apply appropriate strategies
   • Focus on outcomes
   • Share relevant learnings
2. Collaborate Effectively
   • Plan together naturally
   • Share insights freely
   • Support each others’ goals
   • Celebrate joint wins
3. Drive Right Outcomes
   • Premium segments maintain value
   • Growth segments scale effectively
   • Emerging segments validate quickly
   • All segments improve over time

Performance by Segment

Different customer segments require different strategies:

Premium Segments

Strategic imperative:

• Defend and grow high-value relationships
• Maintain premium pricing
• Drive strategic value
• Enable executive engagement

Growth Segments

Strategic imperative:

• Increase market penetration
• Scale adoption effectively
• Build success stories
• Enable smooth expansion

Emerging Segments

Strategic imperative:

• Test new approaches
• Validate value delivery
• Learn expansion patterns
• Develop reference cases

Performance Framework

The 4 zones of the performance framework – and the way results are changing – should inform your “NRR stack” – in other words, how do each of your segments create your overall NRR result?

To answer this, teams should align around four key performance zone strategies:

Double Down (High Growth + High Sentiment)

Nirvana! You have product market and go to market fit. Go Big. What is your plan to acquire and grow more customers in this zone?

• Premium pricing achievement
• Strategic relationship development
• Natural expansion motion
• Strong advocacy generation

Defend (Lower Growth + High Sentiment)

Either defend your base because you are creating network effects or penetrating a market, OR, double down on go to market because you have signals of product market fit.

• Value protection focus
• Relationship maintenance
• Selective expansion
• Reference cultivation

Reboot (High Growth + Lower Sentiment)

In a deliberate strategy, you plan to revolutionise your pricing to convert existing customers into a higher growth segment. And realistically you know this involves sacrificing some of your installed base.

If this is a zone you find yourself in by accident, it is a sign your commercial teams are desperately hiking prices to compensate for the impact of churn on their commissions. Check the gap between GRR and NRR – is it more than 20%?

The unintended consequence is that loyal customers can get squeezed and you end up in the worst zone (see below).

• Value alignment correction
• Quick win identification
• Success pattern development
• Risk mitigation

Develop (Lower Growth + Lower Sentiment)

This is the hardest zone to climb out of – where both product market and go to market fit becomes hard work.

If you acquire a brand, my bet is you should spend time making sure this isn’t the gravitational pull. That’s because the implications in this zone are:

product is underinvested in, there’s a disconnect with customers, and value is leaking like a burst pipe.

• Fit assessment
• Value demonstration
• Success enablement
• Migration planning

Putting It All Together

How do you compare with the criteria for success?

1. Teams understand their role in the bigger picture
2. Collaboration happens naturally, not by force
3. Different segments receive appropriate strategies
4. Success is measured and celebrated as a team
5. Individual excellence drives collective success

Perfect compensation plans probably don’t exist. The goal is to get everyone facing in the same direction so that momentum builds momentum.

Thinking about optimising your subscription performance? Contact andy@substribe.co