Churn rate

Measure the percentage of customers who stop paying to identify retention problems and calculate the true cost of growth in subscription businesses.

Churn rate

Churn rate

definition

Introduction

Why it matters

How to apply it

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Growth orchestration

Get a grip on what's actually working and what needs course correction. Use data and experiments to make decisions instead of opinions. See how changes in one part of the system affect everything else. Random tactics don't compound, coordinated ones do.

Explore playbooks

Tool selection

Tool selection

Select tools across your growth stack using clear evaluation criteria. Avoid common pitfalls, ensure integrations work, and build a system that scales with your business.

Customer research

Customer research

Uncover specific pain points, validate assumptions, and reveal what actually drives buying decisions. Run research that produces actionable insights, not just interesting quotes.

Quarterly strategy

Quarterly strategy

Run quarterly business reviews that assess current state, set ambitious but realistic goals, build actionable roadmaps, and define key results that keep everyone aligned.

Monthly review

Monthly review

Analyse monthly performance data across all four growth engines. Identify what is working, what is not, and make tactical adjustments using a structured decision framework.

Related books

Company of One

Paul Jarvis

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Company of One

Lessons for keeping work simple and profitable. Focus on retention, systems and selective growth that preserves quality.

Related chapters

1

How to choose the right metrics

Focus on metrics that drive decisions and reveal bottlenecks. Avoid vanity metrics that look good but don't help you grow.

2

Lists and segmentation

Build active lists that update automatically as contacts meet criteria, create segmentation rules based on behaviour and attributes, and set up list hygiene automation that removes inactive or unqualified contacts.

Wiki

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Select metrics that reveal whether you're achieving strategic goals to track progress and identify problems before they become expensive to fix.

Pipeline coverage

Calculate how much pipeline you need relative to quota to ensure you generate enough opportunities to hit revenue targets despite normal conversion rates.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Track predictable monthly subscription revenue to monitor short-term growth trends and make faster decisions than waiting for annual revenue reports.

Inbound Marketing

Attract prospects through valuable content that solves real problems, building trust and generating qualified leads who approach you.

Product-market fit

Achieve the state where your product solves a genuine, urgent problem for a defined market that's willing to pay and actively pulling your solution in.

A/B testing

Compare two versions of a page, email, or feature to determine which performs better using statistical methods that isolate the impact of specific changes.

UTMs

Track campaign performance precisely by appending parameters to URLs that identify traffic sources, mediums, and campaigns in your analytics.

Hypothesis testing

Structure experiments around clear predictions to focus efforts on learning rather than random changes and make results easier to interpret afterward.

Growth mindset

Cultivate belief that skills and results improve through deliberate effort, treating setbacks as learning opportunities rather than fixed limitations.

Buyer persona

Document your ideal customer's role, goals, and challenges to tailor messaging and prioritise features that solve real problems they actually pay for.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

Track predictable yearly revenue from subscriptions to measure business scale and growth trajectory in B2B SaaS and recurring revenue models.

Event tracking

Capture specific user actions in your product or website to understand behaviour patterns and measure whether changes improve outcomes or create friction.

P-value

Interpret experiment results to understand the probability that observed differences occurred by chance rather than because your changes actually work.

Deal stage

Define pipeline progression steps to standardise how reps advance opportunities and give managers visibility into where deals stall or convert unexpectedly.

Product-led growth

Drive acquisition and expansion through product experience where users discover value before sales conversations and upgrade based on usage.

Cohort analysis

Group customers by acquisition period to compare behaviour patterns and identify which acquisition channels and time periods produce the best long-term value.

Growth marketing

Apply disciplined experimentation across the entire customer lifecycle, optimising every stage through rapid testing and data-driven iteration.

Positioning statement

Define how you're different from alternatives in a way that matters to customers to guide all messaging and ensure consistent market perception.

Competitive advantage

Identify what you do better or differently that competitors can't easily copy to defend margins and win customers consistently over time.

Growth plateau

Diagnose and break through stagnation by identifying which business mechanisms have reached capacity and require new approaches.