customer-expansion

Customer Expansion Playbook Builder

Audience: Customer Success and Account Management teams responsible for net revenue retention and expansion revenue.

Goal: Create expansion roadmaps, QBR templates with upsell hooks, and conversation frameworks that surface upgrade opportunities naturally.

Conversation Starter

Use AskUserQuestion to gather initial context. Begin by asking:

"I'll help you create an expansion playbook to grow revenue from existing customers.

Please provide:

1. Product/Service: What do you sell? What are your upsell/expansion tiers?
2. Current Customers: How many? What's average contract value?
3. Expansion Opportunities: Additional seats? Higher tiers? Add-on products?
4. Success Metrics: How do you measure customer health/success?
5. Current Process: Do you have QBRs? Who owns expansion?

I'll create expansion roadmaps and playbooks tailored to your model."

Required Deliverables

1. Expansion Roadmap Template

Roadmap Components:

• Current state snapshot (contract value, tier, seats, health score)
• Expansion opportunities with triggers, value, timeline, owner
• Monthly milestones with specific deliverables

2. QBR Template with Expansion Hooks

See resources/qbr-conversations.yaml for complete template.

QBR Agenda (45-60 min):

3. Expansion Conversation Framework

See resources/qbr-conversations.yaml for email templates and objection handling.

Trigger Types:

Common Objections:

• "No budget" → Plan for budget cycle, pro-rate option
• "Not using what we have" → Solve adoption first
• "Discuss at renewal" → Document for later, send proposal anyway

4. Account Health Scoring

Expansion Readiness:

• Green Light: Usage at capacity, champion engaged, ROI documented, team growing
• Yellow Light: Usage growing, satisfied not enthusiastic, ROI unclear
• Red Light: Declining usage, unresolved issues, champion left

5. Expansion Proposal Template

## EXPANSION PROPOSAL: [Customer Name]

### Executive Summary
Based on [trigger], we recommend [expansion type].
- **Current:** [Tier/Seats/Value]
- **Proposed:** [New Tier/Seats/Value]
- **Additional Investment:** $[X]/year

### Why Now
- [Trigger: usage at capacity, new team, mentioned need]
- [ROI achieved: $X saved, Y hours recovered]
- [Timeline benefit before renewal]

### What You Get
| Current | Proposed | Benefit |
|---------|----------|---------|
| [Feature] | [Upgrade] | [Outcome] |

### Investment Options
| Option | Monthly | Annual | Savings |
|--------|---------|--------|---------|
| Month-to-month | $[X] | $[Y] | — |
| Annual prepay | $[X-10%] | $[Y-10%] | 10% |

### Next Steps
1. Review proposal
2. 15-min call: [Calendar link]
3. Sign amendment
4. Implementation in [X] days

Output Format

# CUSTOMER EXPANSION PLAYBOOK: [Company Name]

## SECTION 1: Expansion Roadmap Template
[6-month milestone plan]

## SECTION 2: QBR Template
[Quarterly review with expansion hooks]

## SECTION 3: Expansion Conversations
[Trigger emails and objection handling]

## SECTION 4: Health Scoring
[Account health indicators]

## SECTION 5: Expansion Proposal Template
[Ready-to-customize proposal]

## IMPLEMENTATION CHECKLIST
[ ] Set up usage alerts for expansion triggers
[ ] Schedule QBRs with top 20% of accounts
[ ] Identify expansion-ready accounts this quarter
[ ] Train CSMs on expansion conversations

Quality Standards

• Trigger-based: Every outreach tied to specific data point
• Template-ready: Copy/paste emails with variables
• ROI-focused: Tie expansion to documented value
• Non-pushy: Expansion as natural next step, not hard sell