Trim Size: 6in x 9in  Mehta572763 c01.tex V1-04/03/2020 11:45pm Page 15 Customer Success: What It Is and Why It Affects Everything 15 to the economy mean that your company literally cannot survive long-term without making a solid commitment to Customer Success. Getting started is fairly easy as long as you keep in mind that Customer Success starts at the top. For it to work, it must be a company-wide commitment. The days of CEOs being able to say that customers are their top priority and then acting in exactly the opposite manner are over. By the way, this first law is the inspiration for us writing this book. Law#2:Sell to the Right Customer As a growth company, your entire organization must focus on selling to the right customer and being completely aligned with your product mar- ket fit (PMF). If your customer isn’t the right customer, the impact on your organization can be disastrous. The wrong customers can inhibit your organization and take you away from efforts that drive success, efociency, and scale. (On the other hand, occasionally a wrong customer can become  a critical design partner to help you extend your use case and PMF—but  only if you have honest dialogue with them and act on the feedback they give you.) Law#3:TheNatural Tendency for Customers Is Toward Churn Customersandvendorsstartofftheir relationship like two boats side by side in the middle of a lake. If both boats are unoccupied, they will begin to drift apart. Eventually, it’s highly likely that the two boats will end up far apart, perhaps even bumping into opposite shores. Howcouldyouchange that natural tendency? Simple: Put a person in one of the boats and give them a pair of oars. Better yet, put people with oars into each boat. Change is the constant. People change in vendor and customer companies: Business models change. Products change. Leadership and direction change. And on it goes. Only well-designed, proactive inter- action on the part of one or both companies will overcome the natural drift caused by constant change. When your company makes a meaningful commitment to Customer Success, you also commit to counteracting that natural drift.