Newsletter Content

Subject: The counterintuitive reason your retention is broken

Hey there,

I spoke with Sarah Chen this week—she's helped three B2B companies cut churn by 30%+. She told me something that completely flipped my thinking about customer retention.

**The insight:** Most companies focus on preventing churn. That's backwards.

"The best retention strategy is making customers successful before they think about leaving," Sarah explained. "By the time they're considering cancellation, you've already lost."

Here's what she means:

**Track leading indicators, not lagging ones**
Don't wait for declining usage or support tickets. Sarah's teams monitor product adoption milestones: Are customers using core features within the first week? Have they completed their setup? 

**Intervene early, not late**
When someone misses a milestone, reach out immediately—not with a sales pitch, but with help. "How's it going?" beats "Want to upgrade?" every time.

**Make success visible**
Show customers their progress. Sarah's team sends automated reports highlighting what customers have accomplished, not just what they've used.

**This week's takeaway:**
Identify one success milestone that matters in your product. Track how many customers hit it in their first 30 days. That number predicts retention better than anything else.

Until next week,
[Your Name]

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