So we all know farmers.
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No, not that type of farmer…. the kind that grows trees. For thousands of years, they have been mastering a very simple, repetitive process – prep the soil, plant the seeds, water, provide nutrients, harvest, and repeat. It’s not a one-time effort and they want their crops to endure for as long as possible.
Well, what if I told you Customer Success is the same as farming? I know it sounds crazy. But after reading Farm Don’t Hunt, it will make a lot of sense. You see, the entire farming process and the things you provide your crops have a business equivalent in terms of time, money, and attention.
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Think about it:
- Simple repetitive farming tasks = replicable business processes
- Managing your grove of trees, all in various stages of maturity and growth = managing your customer portfolios
- Tending to seedlings with the right amount of light, soil, and fertilizer = onboarding
- Regularly watering, adding nutrients to the soil, checking for signs of disease = nurturing healthy customers
- Treating sick trees = saving at-risk customers
- Harvesting, sometimes using different techniques and specialist workers to gather the crop = renewal
The goal of farming is to yield more in the long-term, nurturing your crops to maximize their yield over many years, rather than focusing on an upfront reward. Sound familiar? That’s because Customer Success is the same thing – prioritizing the ways to use your limited resources to grow in terms of current AND future revenue.
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If you do this right, you will have forecasted and nurtured a healthy yield long before harvest time (renewal) comes around. When you proactively manage your customers like a farmer tends to their farm… the results can be very sweet!
If you are interested in learning more about the farming paradigm, check out Farm Don’t Hunt by Guy Nirpaz. It features the framework and best practices hundreds of teams are using to master Customer Success!
