Why customer-led growth is your secret sales superpower W/ Firaas Rashid

Is customer retention the new acquisition? You betcha, says Firaas Rashid, CEO & Founder of Hook, a predictive data platform that empowers customer success teams. This week, the Flying Cat Marketing podcast caught up with Firaas to learn about customer-led growth and how to upsell for success. Firaas kicked off by outlining the challenges inherent in “low-risk” SaaS subscription models in terms of customer retention and building relationships. That makes retention rates increasingly interesting for investors as an indicator of future revenue, especially in the current tech downturn. He then shared his tips for marketing to existing customers and maximizing revenue from them. Run targeted marketing campaigns to large accounts to sell into new departments. Incentivize adoption with competitions. Use customer advocacy to generate new leads by hooking your champions up with other potential customers. Next, he identifies the need for startups to create relevant, useful content beyond just plugging your product. “Your customers aren’t buying your product,” he explains, “they’re buying the solution to a business problem. Your product is a tech delivery platform to make that happen, and they’re interested in how you can facilitate other solutions to that problem” Finally, Firaas explained why companies should use in-app data to identify customers at risk of churning or ripe for upselling to a new feature or plan. And how Hook helps you do that. “We find that product behaviors can predict about 85% the likelihood of someone spending more money, without including any other data,” he says.  All this and more in the full episode! In this episode we talk about:Keyword 1 for this episodeCustomer-led growthKeyword 2 for this episodeSaaS upselling Keyword 3 for this episodeCustomer retention Timestamps:03:03 Why upselling and retention are essential in SaaS06:30 How to upsell with account-based marketing 07:15 How to incentivize adoption08: 15 How to use customer advocacy to generate new leads10:00 Why startups need to create more useful content for customers 12:05 How in-app data can identify customers at risk of churning or ripe for upselling13:14 The difference between product-led and customer-led growth   17:02 Why simple data points are best to measure customer-led growth  Connect with Firaas Rashid on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firaasrashid/While you’re hereFollow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics, and knowledge on content marketing:Listen to the Flying Cat Marketing Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dCyOzFGosoNYJhbDOvfQdApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/flying-cat-marketing-podcast/id1535206202?uo=4Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=579505&refid=stprFollow me onInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/flyingcatmarketing/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flyingcatmarketingLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flying-cat-marketing/