Company Overview
Kumo was a SaaS platform serving small and mid-sized organizations. Over several years, the company had invested heavily in product development, content marketing, and customer acquisition.
The results were impressive. Monthly demo requests increased from approximately 40 to 300 per month. The sales cycle decreased from over 90 days to just 14 days, and the average number of sales touches required to close a deal dropped from 20 to only 3.
The company had successfully solved Product-Channel Fit. Yet despite this progress, growth was not accelerating as quickly as leadership expected. Helix Advisors worked with Kumo to identify and address the next dominant growth constraint: Retention & Expansion.
The Challenge
Like many SaaS companies, Kumo initially assumed growth would continue simply by generating more leads. The logic seemed reasonable. More leads should create more customers. More customers should create more revenue.
However, the data told a different story. While customer acquisition continued improving, several warning signs began to emerge:
- Larger customers were leaving for competitors
- Expansion revenue was effectively non-existent
- Customer Success operated primarily as a support function
- The company had no structured upsell strategy
- Pricing had remained largely unchanged for years
Helix Diagnostic Findings
The Helix Diagnostic identified Retention & Expansion as the dominant growth constraint.
The company had already demonstrated strong Product-Market Fit and Product-Channel Fit: demand generation was working, sales conversion was strong, customer acquisition costs were healthy, and lead volume continued growing. The challenge was no longer getting customers through the front door. The challenge was helping customers grow with the platform and ensuring the company captured a fair share of the value being delivered.
Several opportunities emerged: pricing was materially below customer willingness to pay, product packaging limited expansion opportunities, Customer Success was not driving feature adoption, and larger customers lacked several capabilities needed as they matured. The company was leaving significant revenue on the table.
The Helix Approach
1. Challenging Pricing Assumptions
For years, Kumo had believed that low pricing was one of its competitive advantages. Customers frequently told the team they wanted simplicity, affordability, and transparency. Leadership assumed raising prices would reduce conversion rates.
Rather than relying on assumptions, Helix recommended testing the hypothesis directly. The team began systematically tracking pricing objections during the sales process and established a simple goal: continue increasing pricing until at least 20% of opportunities cited price as a primary objection.
The results surprised everyone. Prices were increased repeatedly. Then doubled. Then tripled. Pricing objections remained rare. Customers were not buying because the platform was inexpensive. They were buying because it solved important problems. This insight fundamentally changed the company's understanding of value.
2. Creating a Path for Customer Growth
Historically, nearly every customer purchased the same package. The company assumed customers preferred simplicity. In reality, many customers felt frustrated paying for functionality they did not yet need.
Helix recommended restructuring the platform into a core offering with optional add-on modules. Initially, leadership worried customers would view this approach as overly sales-focused. The opposite occurred. Customers appreciated the flexibility. They could start with the core platform, gain confidence, and add functionality as their needs evolved. Rather than creating friction, modular packaging increased customer control and improved purchasing confidence.
3. Transforming Customer Success
At the time, Customer Success focused almost exclusively on support. The team was highly effective at solving problems, answering questions, and helping customers navigate the platform. However, very little attention was given to helping customers discover additional ways to create value.
Helix worked closely with Customer Success leadership to reposition expansion as customer enablement rather than sales. The objective was simple: help customers become more successful. Workshops, guided feature adoption programs, educational content, and targeted outreach campaigns were introduced to help customers understand functionality they were not yet using. The team was trained to identify opportunities where additional modules could save customers time, improve efficiency, reduce manual work, and unlock additional outcomes.
This shift proved transformational. Because Customer Success already had trusted relationships with customers, adoption conversations felt helpful rather than transactional. Customers responded enthusiastically.
4. Reducing Preventable Churn
While reviewing churned accounts, another pattern emerged. Many larger customers were not leaving because of poor service or dissatisfaction. They were leaving because the platform lacked a capability required as their organizations became more sophisticated.
The Product team analyzed churn data and identified the most common missing capability among higher-value accounts. Rather than attempting to build a complete solution immediately, the team released a simplified version designed to address the most urgent customer needs. The release significantly reduced churn among larger organizations while providing time to continue expanding the functionality.
Key Helix Insight
Kumo initially believed growth would come from acquiring more customers. The Helix Diagnostic revealed a different reality. The company had already solved customer acquisition. Its next stage of growth required helping existing customers achieve more value, expanding alongside their needs, and reducing preventable churn among higher-value accounts.
By improving pricing, packaging, customer success, expansion strategy, and product retention simultaneously, Kumo unlocked a new stage of growth without dramatically increasing customer acquisition investment. The result was a healthier business, stronger customer relationships, and a significantly more scalable growth model.