“Triple, triple, double, double, double!” was a popular battle cry across the tech industry, describing an aggressive five-year revenue trajectory for tech startups. Aiming for a $1B valuation, companies aspired to triple annual recurring revenue for two years, followed by a doubling of revenue for three years. As long as capital was cheap and expectations were high, companies were rewarded for expanding quickly, even if the underlying economics were fragile. That all changed in 2023.
As interest rates rose and capital tightened, the conversation shifted sharply away from “growth at all costs,” toward durable growth. Investors and boards stopped asking how fast companies could expand and started asking whether growth was sustainable. Although durable growth is necessary, it is not enough for companies that want to thrive. The real foundation for long term company success is durable value.
Why durable growth is inadequate
“Do more with less!” quickly became mandates from leaders, as the durable growth era ensued. Durable growth, a reaction to the “growth at all costs” trend the tech industry thrived on for over a decade, became shorthand for efficiency, retention, margin discipline, and predictable revenue. It prioritizes wise growth over rapid, high-burn expansion, with a focus on conserving cash and operational discipline.
Durable growth is not enough for companies that want to prosper. By nature, durable growth is focused internally. With a focus on the business model, it asks whether revenue is predictable, whether margins are improving, and whether growth can continue without excessive spending or risk. These are important questions, especially in tighter economic conditions. But they are largely inward-looking. They describe how the company performs, not why customers stay. Teams optimize for efficiency, but not for impact. Over time, innovation slows, relationships weaken, and growth plateaus. Profitable companies need more than financial resilience; they need customer durability. Enduring growth is created by durable value.
Durable value changes the equation.
Durable value is the engine that makes durable growth possible. Where durable growth focuses on financial resilience, durable value aims for customer resilience. Durable value is a customer-centric priority that ensures customers realize recurring impact over their lifetime. It ensures that customers realize enough progress toward meaningful outcomes to justify their investment and deepen their commitment even as priorities shift and budgets tighten
Durable value is the result of delivering value to your customers long after early wins. It is not defined by a successful implementation or an initial renewal, but by whether customers continue to experience benefits and are able to justify their investment with your products over the long term. Customers who can articulate why the investment matters are far less likely to churn under budget pressure or leadership change, because they can prove the value your products deliver, and that value is seen as indispensable.
Durable value is designed, not assumed.
Many companies assume value will persist once it has been delivered. In reality, value decays unless it is reinforced. Durable value is the result of deliberate design: visible progress to meaningful milestones that deliver impactful outcomes.
Of course, durable value starts with delivering initial value during onboarding, but it must not stop there. You can’t deliver a great onboarding and implementation only to abandon your customers to fend for themselves (I call this the “value cliff”). Without reinforcement, initial results fade into the background of day-to-day work.
Rather than overloading new customers during onboarding, slow down. Create a continuous journey of value moments that deliver the right benefit to the right users at the right time with the right resources. Value journeys are especially critical when your company has a “land and expand” or consumption growth strategy. You want to drive customers from their initial use case or outcome to dive deeper and more broadly into your platform, so they keep learning, improving their use cases, and transforming their business because they use your product.
Durable value is scalable value.
Your company must deliver recurring impact to customers and do so in a way that is profitable over the long term for your company. Value that depends on individual efforts and reactive heroics is not durable. It’s expensive and unsustainable, which are opposites to durable. Treating every customer with special care, which I call the “special snowflake syndrome,” erodes your margins and delays your profits.
A high touch, white glove treatment which often seems to work well in the early days of a new business, holds your company back as it grows. That’s when the Pareto Principle, commonly known as the 80/20 Rule, is critical. Many companies I work with insist that value is different for every customer because each one has unique goals, priorities, and ways of using the product. That belief is convenient, but it breaks scalable value delivery. If you cannot articulate the repeatable value your solution delivers, you cannot design for it, measure it, or scale it. Durable value becomes unobtainable because every customer becomes a custom project. This is where disciplined companies do the hard work: define your ideal customer profile, clarify the core outcomes your solution reliably drives, and build a standard value journey that fits most customers. Then lead customers to value instead of letting every customer pull you into their version of it. Value should be intentional and repeatable, not improvised and customer driven.
When you deliver a foundational journey that fits 80% of your customers, you are on the path to durable success for both you and your customers. Durable value is sustainable value when value delivery is embedded into consistent and repeatable playbooks and processes, as well as operating systems that include one-to many, AI, and digital approaches to engaging and enablement new and existing customers. In product guidance, on-demand and instructor-led training through learning management systems are a great place to start scaling.
Durable value is defensible value.
If value disappears when a key person leaves at a customer’s company, it was never durable to begin with. Durable value can be explained, measured, and defended internally by the customer. Customers who can articulate why the investment matters are far less likely to churn under budget pressure or leadership change, because they can prove the value your product provides.
To ensure the value you deliver is defensible, start with success plans. A success plan is a single place to capture customer goals and desired outcomes, how and when you will reach them, and includes descriptions of the teams and risks involved. After onboarding is complete, regular value review meetings keep progress on top of mind for customers. Ensure the meetings are focused on outcomes achieved and progress toward upcoming goals. Ideally, your product also includes meaningful customer facing dashboards that quantify the value obtained and progress towards return on the customer’s investment.
When value is durable, each phase of the customer journey builds on the last. Renewals and expansions follows naturally because customers see the next horizon of value and trust that it will be delivered. Over time, customers require less persuasion, less support, and less recovery, while contributing more to growth through retention, expansion, and advocacy.
Durable growth comes from delivering durable value.
Durable growth keeps a company standing. Durable value is what allows it to move forward. Without durable value, durable growth becomes maintenance, expending energy to protect what exists, rather than innovating and driving momentum. Durable value ensures that customers continue to experience progress long after the initial purchase. It helps customers understand and defend the outcomes they are achieving, even as priorities shift. When value is durable, customers stay not because they are locked in, but because leaving would mean giving up something that clearly matters. In environments where capital is constrained and scrutiny is high, durable value becomes the most reliable growth strategy available.
DONNA WEBER is a globally recognized customer value and onboarding expert with a decades-long track record of success as a strategic consultant to high-growth companies. Renowned for her approach to turning customers into loyal champions, companies bring Donna in when they’re ready to level up by moving fast in the right direction. Her relentless focus on the customer helps them scale smarter by delivering on the lifetime value they promise from day one. Her bestselling book, Onboarding Matters, is considered a definitive guide to post-sale customer success. Learn more at donnaweber.com.
