Insights from the 6th Annual Customer Revenue Leadership Study
When growth stalls, many blame the market. But according to a new Customer Revenue Leadership Study, the real story is not market turbulence – it’s execution.
The research reveals that while macroeconomic conditions have stabilized, performance hasn’t rebounded. Revenue growth now depends less on headcount or spend – and far more on how well teams create, communicate, and sustain customer value.
In short: your value engine is your growth engine.
1. The Era of Customer-Driven Growth
After years of acquisition-focused strategy, the pendulum has swung decisively toward retention and expansion. In fact, 74% of companies now report that most of their revenue comes from existing customers.
Budgets are shrinking. Net-new pipeline is costly. But your existing base – if managed for realized value – is your most predictable growth channel.
Value Perspective: Value selling doesn’t end at “closed won.”
It begins there – evolving into value delivery, validation, and expansion.
Marketing, sales, and customer success must now work as one continuous system to:
- Prove business outcomes, not product capability.
- Reinforce realized ROI across the lifecycle.
- Build expansion readiness into every customer motion.
2. Stabilization Isn’t Safety
The data shows both NRR and GRR have stabilized, but at lower baselines than before 2022.
That means the storm has passed – but we’re still on rough seas.
Teams can no longer point to external volatility as an excuse. Execution is the differentiator.
Value Perspective: CROs and CS leaders must move from managing activities to managing outcomes. If your team isn’t measuring time-to-value, realized ROI, and expansion rate, you’re flying blind.
The value conversation must shift from “how many meetings?” to “how much measurable impact?”
3. The Mid-Life Growth Trap
Companies in the 11–15-year range are hitting what the study calls a “complexity wall.” Their NRR drops to 93–94%, compared to 100%+ for both younger and mature peers.
Why? Scaling introduces operational clutter – product bloat, customer sprawl, and inconsistent execution.
Value Perspective: Mid-stage growth companies are losing deals – and renewals – to complexity. The fix isn’t more software or hires; it’s a return to clarity:
- Simplify enablement.
- Align every team to one, more concise definition of value.
- Connect success metrics to financial outcomes, not satisfaction scores.
When everyone defines “value” differently, your pipeline – and your post-sale motion – leak it.
4. The Roles That Protect NRR
One of the clearest findings: teams that invest in Enablement, CSMs, Support, and Account Management see 5–9 points higher NRR.
Role Present | NRR | Role Absent | NRR |
Enablement | 99% | No Enablement | 94% |
CSMs | 98% | No CSMs | 90% |
Support | 98% | No Support | 93% |
Account Management | 98% | No AM | 94% |
Value Perspective: The modern revenue organization is a value organization:
- Marketing provides definition
- Enablement delivers clarity.
- Account Managers deliver commercial partnership.
- CSMs deliver continuity.
- Product delivers instrumentation.
Each role contributes to a unified purpose – proving and expanding realized value. When all GTM functions speak the same value language, revenue stops leaking.
5. Buying Readiness Is the New Forecasting Superpower
The study found that teams reporting “normal buying behavior” (no delay) achieved 100% NRR, compared to 93–94% for those experiencing elongated cycles.
Value Perspective: Buyer hesitation isn’t a timing issue – it’s a value clarity issue. Deals stall when buyers can’t articulate or defend your differentiating business value and ROI internally.
Forecasting should now include a “Value Readiness Score” – a measure of how well the business case is understood, validated, and championed inside the account.
Sellers who build that clarity early accelerate deals and protect renewals later.
6. Sales Budgets Down, CS Budgets Hold – Efficiency Rules
While sales headcount fell 29% and budgets dropped 52%, CS teams held steady. That’s not coincidence – it’s economics.
Customer acquisition has become unsustainably expensive. Customer retention, expansion, and advocacy are now the most efficient growth levers left (although we are not sure they are exactly running at peak effectiveness yet).
Value Perspective:
Value selling isn’t just a sales tactic – it’s a survival strategy.
- Marketing must shift from demand generation to confidence generation.
- Sales must drive higher win rates through quantified impact.
- CS must prove realized ROI to prevent churn.
- Product must instrument solutions to continuously prove value and ROI.
The GTM engine that wins in 2025 will be the one that can prove value faster and sustain it longer.
7. The Stack That Drives Value
Teams using core revenue systems – CRM, CSP, LMS, and Support platforms – outperform peers by 6–10 points of NRR.
Yet only 34% of organizations recognize Customer Success Platforms (CSPs) as a revenue driver.
Value Perspective: Your stack is your story. When your systems connect product usage, financial outcomes, and customer sentiment into one truth, every renewal and upsell becomes easier.
“Revenue teams don’t need more tools. They need connected truth.”
8. AI: Still Tactical, Not Transformative
Only 3% of respondents consider their revenue organization “AI-driven.”
Most use AI for tactical tasks like summarizing calls – not for predicting expansion or quantifying ROI.
Value Perspective: AI’s next leap in revenue isn’t automation – it’s Value Intelligence. Imagine AI that surfaces expansion signals, models ROI, or quantifies risk reduction automatically. That’s the next competitive advantage.
9. Metrics That Matter
Top-performing organizations now measure success by financial outcomes, not activity counts.
- NRR (51%)
- Churn Rate (48%)
- GRR (40%)
Value Perspective: The shift from volume to value is complete.
Revenue health is no longer about meetings, MQLs, or demos – it’s about measurable, defendable impact.
The organizations winning now can quantify how they improve revenue, efficiency, or risk – and prove it with data.
10. The Value Leadership Playbook
Priority | Business Value Focus |
Treat 2026 as a baseline year. | Reset systems, align to customer outcomes. |
Staff to win. | The new core: Enablement + CSM + Support + AM. |
Build a data-centric tech stack. | CSPs as the ROI operating system. |
Move AI from tactical to strategic. | Automate proof-of-value, not just tasks. |
Measure what matters. | NRR, GRR, and realized ROI as the new holy trinity. |
The Bottom-Line
“The new revenue frontier isn’t acquisition. It’s activation, adoption, and advocacy.”
Market stabilization doesn’t mean growth returns automatically. It means we’re now in a skills economy, where the winners are those who can quantify, communicate, and continuously deliver customer value.
In this Age of Business Value and the Outcome Economy, the best GTM teams aren’t just selling solutions – they’re selling decision and outcome certainty.
Next Steps:
- Explore the full research: Customer Revenue Leadership Study
Dive deeper: From Product to Value: Accelerating into the Outcome Economy - Discuss with us: How ready is your team to compete with value? Click here to schedule a consultation with us.