The Compounding ~customer: Customer Success Economic Model

The Customer Success Economic Model — build the board-ready business case in an afternoon

A plug-and-play spreadsheet that turns your retention, expansion and cost assumptions into the four numbers a board actually responds to: net revenue retention, ROI, the five-year compounding revenue gap, and the enterprise value Customer Success creates.

Every leader knows retention matters. Far fewer can put a number on it. This model closes that gap. You enter what you know about your business — ARR, churn, expansion, margin, the cost of your CS function — and it produces the financial case for Customer Success in the language executives and investors use.

It's the leader's counterpart to the tactical tools CSMs already have: built for the founder weighing the first CS hire, the CEO trying to understand why retention is dragging growth, the CRO deciding where CS should report, and the Head of CS who has the team but not yet the language to defend the budget.

No setup, no formulas to write. Open it, change the blue cells, and every output — including a one-page board summary and a "with CS vs without CS" compounding chart — recalculates instantly.

What's inside:

• Four-tab workbook — Read Me, Inputs, Model, and a board-ready summary page
• Live calculations across GRR, NRR, customer lifetime, LTV, LTV:CAC, annual CS ROI, five-year compounding impact, enterprise value and NPV
• A one-page Board Summary with the headline metrics and the compounding-gap chart — the page to put in front of a board or investor
• Colour-coded inputs so you always know which cells are yours to change
• A separate companion PDF guide explaining every input — why it matters, where to find the data, with worked examples — each referenced to the relevant chapter of the book
• Works in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers

Who it's for: Founders, CEOs, CROs and Heads of Customer Success in any recurring-revenue business who need to justify, size or defend the investment in CS — and want the numbers to do the arguing.

A companion to The Compounding Customer. Every figure traces back to a chapter of the book, so the model and the text work as one. Illustrative defaults included — replace them with your own. A decision aid, not financial advice.