This process tells you exactly what you will do on a yearly basis with your client.

Do not let your customer decide everything and steer you. A lot of SaaS companies fall into this pattern, and their teams are doomed to firefighting. Yes, your customer's goals are important, but you set the target and the cadence. This advice runs counter to a lot of Customer Success literature, and there's a reason we're OK with being controversial here: you are the expert in your product, and you know how your best customers use your product.

So, let's set up your annual lifecycle. The following process examples are best for a high-touch, B2B SaaS with a $30k+ annual contract value in mind. If you're B2C, mid-touch or low-touch, that's OK because these principles apply across the board.

Step 1 - Define the three key outcomes you want your customer to achieve in Year 1

What are the top 3 things your customer needs to have achieved by the end of the year for there to be a very high likelihood of renewal? If you don't know, take a look at your most successful customers and see what they have in common. Then, write them down.

Step 2 - Define a plan on a timeline to achieve the three outcomes

In Q1, you'll run your onboarding process, which we'll get into shortly. You will spend a lot of time getting your customer up to speed, providing guidance and getting them to value quickly.

However, when Q2 and Q3 arrive, your Customer Success Managers might find themselves lost. This issue occurs when they 'run out of stuff to talk about' because your team does such a good job of getting the customer up to speed, that the customer becomes the expert. Then, you spend Q2 and Q3 trying to figure out how to add value, stay connected and keep up to date.

Don't create a vacuum for firefighting because there's nothing else to share or teach. Your CSMs will happily jump all over customer issues as soon as they pop up because it helps them stay connected to the customer. When you ask a CSM how things are going, they will say something along the lines of "Yeah, we're in good shape. They're having problems, but I talk to them all the time and am helping them work through it."

This approach is haphazard and leaves way too much to chance. By doing this, you set your customer up to take the lead and control the cadence of your relationship. By the time Q4 comes around, it's time to renew the contract. If you have any level of confidence in the renewal, you're a brave person… because it's much closer to a coin-toss at this stage.

To execute on Step 2 on the annual lifecycle, take the outcomes from Step 1 and then put them on a timeline. (Putting them on a schedule means that different parts of the year are focused on the different goals). There is a logical flow of attention and focus throughout a year as a customer becomes more familiar with your product. For example, It makes more sense to concentrate on expanding to other departments within the company after you have solved their initial use case, they are getting value, and you can tell a great story to make your client look like a champion.

You would be surprised by how many companies will sign up a customer, overwhelm them with a ton of information in Q1 and then spend the rest of the year trying to play catch up. It doesn't need to be challenging and with an annual lifecycle, you know exactly where you are going and have a specific plan to get you there.