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Forbes

The Strategic Blind Spot Holding Back Your Growth

David Goldstein is an entrepreneur and CEO of The 9% Club, a community for founders that provides tools and wisdom for business success. Companies love to celebrate when a new customer signs on. But what happens next? Too often, the answer is: not much. Once the contract is signed, attention shifts to the next lead. Meanwhile, the customer—full of potential—starts to drift. Not because they're unhappy, but because no one is making sure they're actually getting what they came for. It's not a lack of care. It's a lack of follow-through. 'Customer success' may be the title, but in many organizations, it's still just customer support with a new name—reactive, ticket-driven and disconnected from outcomes. And that's where growth quietly slips away. Success Isn't Just Solving Problems Many teams are stuck in response mode. A customer asks for help, and someone answers. A quarterly check-in appears on the calendar, and the team shows up. But by the time a problem surfaces, the damage may already be done. Proactive success is different. It's about knowing your customer's goals and helping them get there without being asked. It's about building momentum, not just removing friction. The companies that lead fix things quickly, but they also keep things on track. The Growth You're Overlooking Everyone agrees it's cheaper to retain a customer than to win a new one. Yet acquisition still gets the lion's share of attention and budget, while the post-sale experience is treated as a follow-up task. That mindset comes at a cost. When customers don't feel supported or see progress, they rarely complain. They disengage quietly. Their usage drops. They don't expand. They don't refer. Eventually, they leave. Not out of frustration, but indifference. But when customers are consistently moving forward, the story changes. Retention improves. Revenue compounds. Loyalty grows stronger, and growth becomes more predictable. What Proactive Success Actually Looks Like Being proactive doesn't mean adding more check-ins or overloading your team. It means building a smarter system—one that knows where the customer is, what matters next and when to step in. Here's what that can look like: Before onboarding begins, ask: What does success look like for this customer? What will make them say, 'This was worth it'? Lock in those answers early and align your team around them. Look beyond support tickets. Watch for signs like usage drop-offs, missed milestones or features left untouched. These are quiet red flags. You don't need sophisticated software, just a clear view of the customer journey. Success isn't just a post-sale function. Sales sets expectations. Product shapes experience. Marketing reinforces value. Everyone should understand the customer's goals and feel a sense of ownership in helping them get there. Ask Yourself: • Do we know what success means for each of our key customer segments? • Can we identify when a customer is falling off course before they raise their hand? • Are we helping customers make progress or just responding when things break? If these questions are hard to answer, that's your blind spot. Retention Isn't A Metric—It's A Strategy Customer retention isn't just about keeping churn low; it's about making sure your customers continue to see value. That requires attention, consistency and a culture that treats retention as a core growth lever, not a reactive function. Too often, retention is buried in dashboards and quarterly reports. But it should be front and center because it's one of the most powerful (and underused) growth strategies you have. And you don't need a massive team to make this shift. What you need is intent. A mindset that says: Our job doesn't end when the deal closes. That's when it begins. Final Thought You're not losing customers because something went wrong. You're losing them because nothing noticeably went right. The companies that stand out don't just deliver a product; they deliver progress. They know what their customers are trying to achieve, and they commit to helping them get there. That's how retention becomes a growth engine. Not through last-minute saves, but through consistent, proactive success by design. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?