1
Start from the business case that was sold
Don’t rebuild the model. Continue it.
2
Get the baseline before anything changes
The step that makes everything else possible.
3
Keep the cadence small
One metric a month beats a quarterly scramble.
4
Open each conversation differently
A check-in, a QBR, and a renewal are not the same meeting.
5
Handle a bad number honestly
Name the gap before they do.
6
Extend a good one
Proof first, then the expansion it justifies.
Start from the business case that was sold
Resist the urge to build something new. The business case from the sales cycle already has the use cases, the calculations, and the assumptions the customer agreed to — rebuilding it means re-litigating a model they already signed off on. Add a Value Realization Scenario to that same business case instead. It copies the structure across and gives you a place to record what actually happened. Start Tracking Realized Value covers the mechanics end to end; this recipe assumes you’ve read it and is about the conversations that follow.Get the baseline before anything changes
This is the step that quietly determines whether any of this works, and it’s the one that gets skipped, because at kickoff nobody is thinking about a renewal fourteen months out. Send a kickoff baseline survey before implementation starts. You’re capturing the current value of every metric the business case promised to move — while it’s still measurable, and while the customer still remembers that these were the numbers the purchase was justified on. Once the rollout is underway, “what was it like before?” becomes a question nobody can answer honestly. Set Up Baseline Surveys covers building the templates; your admin has probably already made a Kickoff one.Keep the cadence small
Monthly, one tracked metric per calculation, ten minutes. Values carry forward automatically, so a month you skip inherits the last figure you entered rather than dropping to zero. Pair the numbers with milestones — rollout complete, second team onboarded, integration live. Milestones are what explain the shape of the curve. A flat quarter with “regional rollout paused for their fiscal year-end” attached is context; the same flat quarter with nothing attached is a problem you’ll be asked about with no answer ready.Open each conversation differently
Same underlying data, three genuinely different meetings.- Check-in
- QBR
- Renewal
One metric that moved and one milestone that landed. No deck, no Value Summary, no ceremony — just “handle time
came down another six percent last month, and the Manchester team went live.” Thirty seconds at the top of a
call you were having anyway.The purpose isn’t to impress anyone. It’s to make sure that by the time you’re in a room that matters, the
number is something they already believe, rather than something you produced.
Handle a bad number honestly
Sometimes the value isn’t there. You can hide the estimated-value curve so the chart shows only what was realized, and there are moments where that’s the right call — a board-facing readout that isn’t the venue for a variance discussion. Usually it’s the wrong call. They know what was promised; it’s in the business case they signed. Name the gap first. Churn Save is written around exactly this order: what’s at risk, then what did land, then a named cause, then a dated plan with owners against it. Not wins first, and never a version where the shortfall is quietly their fault for not adopting properly. A customer who watches you open with the bad news, unprompted, tends to conclude the good news was probably true as well.Extend a good one
When the number is genuinely strong, the mistake is to spend the meeting celebrating it. Upsell & Expansion puts the proof first — what they realized from what they already own — and then models the extension from the unit economics of that proof. If one team saved $340k, the case for the next three teams is arithmetic they can check rather than a new pitch they have to evaluate from scratch. Two things keep it credible. Label the extension as forward-looking and keep it conservative; the realized figure is the one carrying the argument, and mixing a projection into the headline undoes that. And make the ask specific — which team, how many seats, which use case, starting when. “There’s more value available here” is a sentiment. “Add the Manchester and Leeds teams in Q3” is a deal.Whichever direction the number went, you’re having a conversation about evidence. That’s the difference this makes
— not that the news is always good, but that it’s never a surprise.
Key takeaways
- Continue the business case, don’t rebuild it. Re-modelling invites a re-negotiation of assumptions they already accepted.
- The baseline is the whole thing. Capture it at kickoff or you’re measuring current state, not realized value.
- Small and monthly beats big and quarterly. Ten minutes a month, with milestones for context.
- Raise the gap before they find it. Self-reported bad news is a partnership; discovered bad news is a credibility problem.
- Proof first, projection second. Let realized value carry the headline and label the extension for what it is.