Aligning Marketing Promises With Customer Experience

💡Below are screenshots of ClickUp's homepage in 2017 and now in 2025. In 2017, ClickUp made a bold claim: 📌 "The most beautiful project management platform in the world." Fast forward to 2025, and the message has shifted: 📌 "The Everything App for Work." One app to replace Notion, Asana, Trello, Monday, Slack—even AI-powered workflows. So, here’s the question 💭: Did ClickUp truly evolve into the 'all-in-one tool' they envisioned, or did they refine their positioning to match user perception? My bet's on the latter. And here’s why 👇🏽 B2B marketing is built on a simple idea: Tell a great story, and customers will buy into it. But too often, companies don’t sell reality. Rather, they sell the vision of their product, the potential of their features, and the ideal user experience. So when customers finally get their hands on the product; 🚨 The onboarding feels clunky. 🚨 The promised "seamless integration" turns into a six-month implementation. 🚨 The ROI claims don't match the day-to-day struggles of the user. Most companies assume the solution to this is "better messaging." But rewriting copy doesn't fix the gap between what’s marketed and what's delivered. 🎯 The real solution is aligning marketing with actual product experience. Here are two simple ways to bridge this gap: 1️⃣ Let Product Reality Shape Marketing—Not the Other Way Around Too many marketing teams write positioning statements before fully understanding what users experience after they buy. Instead: ✅ Track where customers struggle the most—onboarding, feature adoption, integrations. ✅ Use real customer feedback to refine positioning, instead of just competitor comparisons. ✅ Make product marketing a reflection of what's true today—not what the roadmap might bring in 12 months. 👉 Example: HubSpot HubSpot doesn't just call itself a "powerful CRM." It knows small businesses don't want complexity, so it leans into ease of use, clear onboarding, and educational content. It doesn't oversell what's coming next. It sells what works today. 2️⃣ Use Customer Struggles as a Marketing Advantage Every product has flaws, limitations, and challenges. The best companies turn these into selling points. In my case, one of my cybersecurity client's implementation took 45-60 days to fully complete. Meanwhile, competitors claimed "instant protection." Instead of hiding it, we leaned in: ✅ "Enterprise-grade security takes 60 days to implement properly. Anyone promising instant protection is selling you a false sense of security." 👉 Another Example is Gong Gong knows AI alone doesn't close deals. So they don't market themselves as "AI-powered sales". Rather, they position as a "revenue intelligence" platform that enhances sales teams. Now my question to you is: 🔖 If a customer used your product for 30 days, would they describe it the way you do?

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 - 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀. I once worked with a company that had an impressive mission statement and a sleek values page on their website. But when it came to customer experience, those values disappeared in practice. After digging into the disconnect, we found: → Customers felt unheard. → Frontline teams lacked decision-making power. → Leadership focused on transactions, not relationships. We were operating with intentions, not execution - and that’s where most companies fall short. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻: Why do so many businesses struggle to align core values with customer success? → Employees don’t see the connection between values and their daily work. → Leadership preaches values but doesn’t reinforce them in decision-making. → Success metrics prioritize revenue over impact, trust, and accountability. When this happens, customers experience inconsistency, and trust erodes. 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲: Misalignment happens because: → Values aren’t operationalized. Teams need clear guidelines to apply them in real-world scenarios. → Accountability is missing. If leaders don’t uphold values, neither will employees. → Customer feedback is ignored. If clients feel like just another number, they’ll go elsewhere. 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲: How do you integrate values into every customer interaction? → Empower employees to make decisions aligned with company values. → Tie success metrics to customer experience, not just revenue. → Reinforce values daily - not just in onboarding but in real-time decisions. → Listen to customers and adjust processes to meet their evolving needs. 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀: When you truly align values with customer success, you create: ✅ Increased trust - customers stay loyal when they feel valued. ✅ Higher engagement - employees take ownership when values have real meaning. ✅ Stronger reputation - your company stands out for delivering what it promises. ✅ Long-term growth - business thrives when customer success is intentional, not accidental. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻 - 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲. → How does your company reinforce core values in customer interactions? → What’s one example where values made or broke a client relationship? 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 - 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁? - Chris Clevenger #Leadership #CustomerSuccess #Integrity #Accountability #BusinessGrowth

90% of marketing efforts fail to deliver on their promises. Curious how the other 10% succeed? Let me introduce a powerful approach: The Performance Promise Framework. This model emphasizes the alignment of promises with actual performance, ensuring trust and credibility with your audience. A) Understanding Promises: ➔ Brand Promise: Defines what customers can expect from your product or service, answering “What do we stand for?” ➔ Customer Commitment: Articulates the dedication to delivering value, reflecting the relationship you build with your audience. ➔ Value Proposition: Communicates the unique benefits your offering provides, answering “Why should they choose us?” B) Enhancing Performance: ➔ Operational Excellence: Focuses on optimizing processes and resources to fulfill customer expectations efficiently. ➔ Continuous Improvement: Encourages regular assessment and enhancement of services and products to meet changing market demands. ➔ Customer Feedback Loop: Utilizes insights from customers to refine offerings and improve satisfaction continuously. C) Measuring Success: ➔ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establishes metrics to track promise fulfillment and overall performance effectiveness. ➔ Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Gathers feedback on experiences to gauge the success of your marketing efforts. ➔ Brand Reputation Metrics: Monitors public perception to assess alignment between promises and delivery. This framework empowers marketers to: 1. Clearly define their brand promises. 2. Align operational performance with customer expectations. 3. Measure success through relevant metrics. Remember, successful marketing thrives on the integrity of promises and performance. Are your marketing promises truly aligned with your performance?

🤝 Brand Management & Customer Experience: Two Sides of the Same Coin 🤝 What does CX have to do with brand management? As it turns out, everything. Brand management and CX often operate in silos, yet they are inextricably linked. When misaligned, the results are fragmented strategies, miscommunication, and eroded trust—internally and with customers. CX isn’t just about service metrics or satisfaction scores—it’s the delivery of the promises made by your brand. A 2021 Qualtrics study found that only 28% of marketing and CX leaders have processes that allow brand strategy to feed into CX design and delivery. This disconnect often stems from a common misconception: * Brand Management is viewed as a marketing function—a profit center. * CX is relegated to a tactical role—a cost center. But here’s the truth: A brand is an experience, living at the intersection of promise and expectation. CX is where that promise is either fulfilled—or broken. To align brand management and CX, organizations must adopt a holistic approach. Here’s how: 1️⃣ Break Down Silos: Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to ensure alignment across departments. 2️⃣ Engage the Entire Organization: Involve both Experience Creators (customer-facing roles) and Experience Enablers (support roles). 3️⃣ Reinforce Through Communication: Ensure everyone understands the brand promise and their role in delivering it. 4️⃣ Empower Teams: Provide the tools, authority, and governance needed to build trust and accountability. 5️⃣ Measure What Matters: Focus on KPIs like retention, loyalty, and customer lifetime value, not just surface-level metrics. When brand management and CX are aligned, organizations deliver consistent, authentic customer experiences that build loyalty, drive innovation, and generate business growth. The CX industry is evolving, but the opportunity for strategic transformation lies in connecting the dots between what your brand promises and how your customers experience it. Are you ready to break down silos and align your brand management with CX? Let’s start the conversation! 👉 Share your thoughts in the comments. How is your organization aligning brand and CX? 👉 Learn more about my work at ImprintCX. Together, we can redefine customer experience.

Here’s where most companies fail—they tweak targeting or messaging but leave everything else untouched. ICP research is not an exercise to get voice of the customer data for copywriting. A winning GTM requires a full recalibration. Tweaking your messaging or targeting is a start, but if the rest of your go-to-market strategy isn’t aligned with your ICP, you’re leaving massive growth potential untapped. Here’s all that ICP research need to influence: 1. Messaging & positioning: Address your ICP pain points and goals directly, in a way that highlights your onlyness (where you win). 2. Demand gen targeting: Focus your spend where your ICP actually spends time. Know the communities they belong to, newsletter they read, etc. 3. Product roadmap: Build what your ICP needs—not just what sounds exciting. Their priorities are your priorities. 4. Sales enablement: Equip your team with playbooks and objection-handling scripts tailored to your ICP’s specific concerns. 5. Sales process: Simplify the buying experience to match how your ICP likes to purchase. Align timelines, remove friction. 6. Content creation: Create resources that speak directly to their challenges and goals. 7. Customer marketing: Turn ICPs into advocates. Build strategies for retention, advocacy, and expansion that deepen relationships. ICP alignment is a transformation that touches every part of your strategy.

"This isn't what we signed up for." I've seen it way too often: a customer signs the dotted line, full of excitement about solving their biggest challenges with a new solution. But once they get started, the cracks appear. What they thought they bought doesn’t quite match what they actually received. Blaming sales feels easy, but it’s not the whole story. These days, buyers are 70% of the way through the sales process before they even talk to a sales rep and confirmation bias is in full swing. B2B buying cycles are long, but sales motions are lean. Sales can’t possibly show every use case or predict every scenario. That’s where Customer Success is indispensable. The CSM’s role is to bridge the gap between expectations and reality, ensuring customers get the value they hoped for—even when the path looks different than they imagined. Here’s how: 👉 Align expectations. The transition from sales to CS is one of the most critical moments in the customer journey. A great CSM resets expectations, aligns goals with reality, and creates quick wins to build trust and momentum. 👉 Act as a consultant. Understand your customer’s goals, but don’t stop there. As the expert on your product, it’s your job to guide them. Share proven best practices and strategies that help them fully realize the value of your solution. Resist the urge to just say "yes" to their wishes, especially when you know that will cause problems downstream. 👉 Challenge their thinking. Customers often try to solve their problems with the same approaches, even after the technology has changed. They’re stuck in the status quo. Be bold. Show them a new way of thinking. Help them break free from old habits to unlock real transformation. A great CSM bridges the gap by doing more than answering questions or managing tasks. They reset expectations, bring fresh perspectives, and empower customers to embrace a better way of working. Sound like something you’re struggling with? DM me—I’d love to chat.

The most powerful growth engine I've ever seen wasn't a brilliant marketing campaign, revolutionary sales approach, or customer success initiative. It was getting all three functions to actually talk to each other. I've watched companies invest millions in sophisticated tech stacks and expert teams, yet still struggle with the basics. Marketing creates leads that sales doesn't want. Sales makes promises customer success can't deliver. And customer success discovers insights that never make it back to marketing. These departmental silos are growth killers. Breaking down these walls doesn't require a complex restructure or expensive technology. It starts with something far more fundamental. Creating shared goals and genuine human connections. Through years of working across different organizations, I've found several approaches that have consistently helped bridge these divides. They're not universal solutions, but they've made a meaningful difference: 1. Unified Metrics That Matter When each department has different success measures, conflict is inevitable. Marketing celebrates lead volume, while sales focuses on deal size, while customer success prioritizes retention. Instead, align around shared metrics like customer lifetime value or revenue from existing customers. 2. Regular Cross-Pollination Nothing builds understanding like walking in someone else's shoes. Create regular opportunities for team members to experience life in other departments: - Have marketers join sales calls - Bring salespeople into customer success reviews - Include customer success in marketing planning sessions 3. The Customer Journey Council Establish a cross-functional team with representatives from each department that meets regularly to discuss specific customer experiences. Review actual customer journeys, identify gaps, and collectively solve problems. 4. Shared Celebration Rituals Create traditions that celebrate cross-functional wins, not just departmental victories. When a customer renews and expands their contract, that's a win for the entire revenue team. 5. Language Matters Pay attention to how people talk about other departments. Replace "they don't understand what we need" with "we haven't effectively communicated our needs." This subtle shift transforms blame into responsibility. Breaking down silos creates a fundamentally better customer experience. When all revenue functions work as one team, customers feel understood, supported, and valued throughout their entire journey. What's one step you've taken to improve cross-functional collaboration in your organization? --- This cross-functional approach guides my work as an on-demand CMO. I help growth-focused leaders build marketing strategies that align seamlessly with sales and customer success goals. If you're looking to transform siloed departments into a unified revenue engine, let's connect.

One of THE biggest pitfalls in a marketing approach (in fact, in all facets of business planning) is a focus on new revenue growth at the expense of client retention. We tend to overfocus on the funnel when most practitioners agree that the funnel is now an hourglass; i.e., it’s not just about filtering the market down to leads and then to closed sales, but it is about then engaging with those closed sales (aka “clients”) to get them excited, turn them into promoters, and then eventually to renew and not churn. More than once, I’ve come into a firm and heard, “Clients are leaving because they think we don’t have functionality XYZ, but we rolled it out 6 months ago”. Ok, how did you communicate that? Besides your one email blast or bullet point in the release notes, how did you engage your existing clients around it? Before you built it, were they included in the prioritization process through steering groups and user forums? Were you promoting the functionality pre-launch to get them excited? Did you invite them all to a virtual demo by your product leads (NOT your salespeople) where they can get their questions answered by the SME who built it? Did you get them to do a review of the new functionality through beta and production and let me know how that feedback is driving the next development cycle? No? Remember, your clients don’t actually want “functionality XYZ”; they want their business problem to be solved, so they have to think about it less and go about the rest of their day. Making them feel like you understand their business problem, are keeping them engaged as you solve it, and deliver an ongoing experience of solving it better is equally (or more) valuable than just making the promises in the sales cycle. Once they’re in, it’s even MORE important to stay engaged in their journey from “closed sale” to “raving fans”. (I left a comment on a #productmarketing thread about client retention, but due to character limitations, I couldn’t post this whole diatribe, so I made it its own post.) #b2bmarketing #clientretention #productrollout #communications

Does your company have a customer experience vision? Is it public? Does your experience match the expectations set by the vision? 📃 Customer experience vision statements are public promises that you must keep. 🚚 Whatever it is the #CX Vision promises, you must know that your customers will take it at face value as an expectation about the experience you will deliver. 💡 If you can't meet that expectation, then don't make the promise. 🌍 In other words, CX Vision statements have real-world consequences that CX teams must be aware of. If you can’t keep those promises the vast majority of the time, you are much better off not making them at all. Now, even thought most companies aren’t delivering great experiences today, I believe that every company should still have a CX vision. 📶 The question then is how to make it something that is aspirational but also that sets an expectation you can live up to. Don’t promise customers the best experience they’ve ever had. Promise them something that you can deliver. Here’s an example. Years ago, I worked with a bank on the end-to-end process of closing loans for their small-business customers. ⌛ From their customers' perspective, the process took too long, and was too uncertain in how long it would take. ⌛ The bank couldn't meet the customers' expectation for how fast they wanted it, but they could become much more consistent in how long it took. 🗓 And so they set an expectation that they would complete the loan process in 4 weeks, and then hit that mark. Not ideal for customers who wanted it even faster, but far better than the old experience that was too slow and too uncertain. So consider the expectations you are setting with your CX vision, and make sure that you are setting expectations you can deliver on.  

Most coaches think:   “If I deliver results, the client will be happy.” But that’s not always true. Because success is subjective.   It depends on what the client thought would happen. Here’s the real formula for client satisfaction:   Expectations – Reality = Happiness If you promise too much and reality falls short, they’re disappointed. Even if you delivered a great result. If you set realistic expectations and beat them, they’re thrilled. Even if the progress was slower than they hoped. That’s why the first step in client success isn’t delivery.   It’s alignment. Here’s the 3-step process we use to create happy clients inside Opny: 1/ Align Sales and Success · Clients get frustrated when salespeople sell a dream, but client success delivers something else. · Before onboarding, confirm outcomes, timelines, and fit.  · Make sure they know exactly what they signed up for. 2/ Set Clear Expectations · Don’t assume they understand the process. Tell them what to expect at every stage. · Explain what success looks like and how long it’ll take. · The clearer you are, the less confusion there is later. 3/ Show Progress Often · Most clients forget how far they’ve come. Remind them. · Celebrate small wins. · Track milestones. · Reinforce the transformation they’re going through. Happy clients don’t happen by accident.   They happen when expectations and delivery align. Your results don’t matter if your clients don’t feel them.   Make sure they see it. Believe it. Own it. That’s how you build loyalty.   That’s how you scale. Are you using this system in your business yet? Reshare ♻️ to help others who need to hear this. And follow me for more posts like this.