In Part I of this book, we laid the foundation for customer success. We discussed the history of the subscription economy and SaaS and how the concept of customer success was the inevitable result of this new model. We talked about organizing around the philosophy of customer success, and then we got pragmatic about the actual organization called customer success (or something like it) and how it's changing the enterprise by impacting virtually all of the other key organizations, too. And then we debunked the theory that customer success might be relevant only for B2B SaaS companies. The truth is that it's conceptually relevant for every company and can be put into actual practice by not only B2B SaaS companies but also any subscription-based or pay-as-you-go company, including B2C and, more and more, traditional companies that are embracing the promised benefits of becoming customer success–centric and most likely trying to move at least part of their business to subscription.

Now it's time to get very practical. In 2010, Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture capital firm, put together a practical guide for people starting, running, or interested in understanding a SaaS company. It was called The Ten Laws of Cloud Computing also often referred to as the Ten Laws of SaaS. It was extremely well received and has been read by thousands of CEOs and entrepreneurs who wanted to venture into the wonderful world of SaaS. It became the handbook for that time and space and remains a reference guide to this day. In 2015, Bessemer decided to double-down on that success and commission the creation of The Ten Laws of Customer Success to provide similar guidance for those wanting to understand and deploy customer success. This section of the book uses that wisdom, authored by 10 different experts, in its entirety with extended commentary from this author.

The Ten Laws of Customer Success is not a practical guide regarding how to do customer success per se. It comes from a slightly higher angle, offering the principles that a company striving to be world class as a recurring revenue business will need to embrace and execute at a very high level. Some of the laws are mostly applicable to B2B SaaS, while many can be more broadly applied to all the types of companies we described in Chapter 3. We've indicated at the beginning of each of the chapters (one for each law) the relevance of that law to each of the different types of companies we've previously discussed:

• B2B SaaS
• Subscription-based
• Pay-as-you-go
• B2C
• Traditional

This will allow you to skim quickly when it's less relevant and to slow down and absorb what is specifically applicable to your world.

The authors of the Ten Laws were hand-picked for their expertise in customer success across a wide range of businesses including

• SaaS—both B2B and B2C
• On-premise traditional software
• Finance
• Education and training
• Collaboration
• Project management
• Sales enablement
• Customer success management
• Compensation management

I'd like to personally thank each of them for their contributions to the industry and practice of customer success, which goes far beyond this book, and for their specific contributions herein.

One last reminder: The Ten Laws of Customer Success answers the question, What does my company need to do to be great at customer success and build a thriving recurring revenue business? Without further ado, here are the 10 laws.