Lifetime value

The whole worth of a customer over the length of the relationship, not the first sale. It changes what you can afford to do well.

Lifetime value reprices the customer from a transaction to a relationship. The first sale may barely cover its own acquisition; the years after it are where the worth lives. The number is an argument about time, and it rewards companies that intend to be around for it.

It changes what you can afford to do well: real support, generous fixes, patience with a slow-starting segment, all irrational against one sale and obvious against a decade. The abuse is spreadsheet optimism, inflating projected years to excuse today's spending. The relationship must be earned annually; the model only forecasts it.