Robbie Kellman Baxter

For over two decades, I have been helping organizations leverage subscription pricing, digital communities, and freemium models to build deeper relationships with their customers and generate predictable recurring revenue. I am the founder of Peninsula Strategies, a consulting firm that has worked with some of the most well-regarded brands in the world, such as Netflix, Microsoft, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as with visionary start-up entrepreneurs and mission-driven nonprofits and associations.

I am also an advisor, a speaker, an educator, and an author. I serve on the advisory board of Strava, a social network for athletes, and I share my insights and expertise on subscription and membership models through keynote speeches, podcasts, and LinkedIn Learning courses. I have written two books, The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, that anticipated and defined the massive transformation from ownership to membership and the rise of subscription pricing. My passion is to help organizations create forever transactions with the people they serve and achieve long-term growth and sustainability.

Founder, Peninsula Strategies

We help organizations build forever transactions with the people they serve. This forever transaction is the secret to predictable, recurring revenue, higher corporate valuations and deeper, more meaningful relationships. We've worked with some of the most well-regarded brands in the world, including Netflix, Microsoft and the Wall Street Journal, as well as with visionary start-up entrepreneurs and mission-driven nonprofits & associations. You can read more about our clients' results here: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/clients/

Robbie Baxter

In honor of International Women’s Month 💜

My sister is a therapist, and honestly, some of the most powerful life lessons I’ve learned have come from conversations with her.

Here are 3 things she’s taught me about living a more intentional and rewarding life:

1/ You can only have 3-5 values.

If you know what they are, you can make decisions more quickly and easily and move forward faster. But this means that some really good values won't be on your list.

For example, prioritizing Service, Relationships, Self-Care, Personal Growth, and Integrity might mean there isn't room to knock the ball out of the park when it comes to having a lovely house. Or perhaps you sometimes sacrifice working out (unless that's what you mean by self-care). This might make you sad, but mourning the other values you can't prioritize is a natural part of making space for the ones that you do.

2/ Everyone's tank depletes at a different rate.

That means I might need more "refueling" than you. Part of this is arbitrary and depends on the body you're born into (realizing you need more refueling than others can be a bitter pill to swallow), but part of it is about the intensity of your operation.

If you have very high standards, you may require more refueling. Remember, Ferraris need more fuel than a Prius!

3/ If your head says no, go back to your values. If your gut says no, listen.

Sometimes we try to "rationalize" our instincts, but our intuition is a combination of our unconscious mind, emotions, experiences, and knowledge. That "feeling" isn't just a feeling; it's a powerful indicator that we'd do well to listen to. 

This month, I’m grateful for the women in my life who share their wisdom, challenge me to grow, and remind me to live with intention.


P.S. Who are the women whose wisdom shaped your life?


👋 I'm Robbie, I'm a consultant, author, and speaker covering all things subscription businesses.
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Advisor to the world's leading subscription-based companies | Keynote Speaker | Author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction | Host of Subscription Stories Podcast

Happy Weekend to those that celebrate.

It's a good time to remember that AI can't replace trusted relationships.

Invest in connections with other human beings, especially those who are outside your regular group and outside your comfort zone.

Loose ties can help you find a new job, learn a new skill or meet a life partner.  And they stretch your brain and your empathy.

So maybe talk to a stranger at this weekend's party, or get curious about someone you don't know well.  

In a time where we feel like so much is out of our control, building friendships is something we can still do.

AI is rewriting the SaaS pricing playbook.

For more than 20 years, growth in SaaS followed a relatively predictable formula: when customers grew revenue, they hired more people, needed more seats, and vendors grew alongside them.

That equation is now breaking.

Companies are increasing revenue without increasing headcount, while AI is drafting content, analyzing data, qualifying leads, and automating workflows at a meaningful variable cost to vendors. Traditional seat-based, feature-tiered pricing simply was not designed for this reality.

In this article, originally posted by Topline Media, I outline 7 guidelines for navigating AI era pricing in a way that protects margins while strengthening customer trust and long term relationships.

1/ Acknowledge the real cost structure and price accordingly
2/ Give customers predictability and control
3/ Use hybrid models to balance fairness and sustainability
4/ Price the actual value delivered, not the access point
5/ Use outcome-based pricing when it is clear and measurable
6/ Make the value visible
7/ Build flexibility into your pricing model

Read more about the 7 guidelines below 👇

I’ve spent more than 20 years helping companies price and package subscription offerings, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shift as destabilizing as

Open article: Rethinking SaaS Pricing for the AI Era by Robbie Kellman Baxter • 9 min read

Growth Canvas Consulting LLC

Spearhead business strategy and go-to-market (GTM) optimization efforts for data, information and analytics companies and teams from Financial Services, Medical, Tech, Energy, and Higher Education. Partner with business leaders to drive sales and marketing improvements, streamlining and optimizing customer acquisition, retention, expansion, and advocacy.  

Identify adjacent opportunities, refine sales strategies, and improve competitive positioning through deep customer insights, value chain mapping and ecosystem analyses. Deliver strategic M&A assessments to support business development and CSuite decisions.

Hone competitive differentiation and market segmentation, surfacing new value drivers for product positioning, and funding sources to enable growth.  

Strengthen cross-functional GTM alignment through data-driven storytelling to make the case for changes that deliver maximum value for organizations and customers.

Founder and Principal

Outsell, Inc.

Consulting Partner & Marketing & Sales Council Chair

CSaaS Corporation

Advisory Board Member

Vistage Michigan

Trusted Advisor 

ProQuest

Led enterprise growth transformation initiative, developing and championing a new global strategy for attracting equity investment. Drove efforts to describe current state of the business, review opportunities and challenges, and prioritize potential growth initiatives including product and pricing synergies, adjacent markets, and acquisitions and partnerships. Mapped out new growth strategy with compelling data-driven story.  Tapped to revamp marketing for Dissertations Research Solutions product line and launch new SaaS solution for academic video archiving and discovery.

Executive Director - Marketing and Strategic Initiatives

Realigned marketing efforts from product line to market-based focus. Led all marketing functions for $185M+ Academic, Community College, and Government markets. Oversaw development of Net Promoter Score research capabilities and Foresee Results web surveys. Orchestrated live and online events, email marketing, web and SEO efforts, blogging, social media, PR, digital advertising, website, and development of collateral, demos, videos, and tools. Supported M&A by developing a comprehensive business assessment of a competitor and making recommendations for potential acquisition. Directed 14 staff and administered $1M budget.

Executive Director, Marketing

Directed marketing functions and led all efforts to improve customer communications and drive rapid revenue growth across 3 academic product lines (Chadwyck-Healey, XanEdu, and Research Collections). Managed North America Tradeshow team. Drove multiple product launches, oversaw email marketing and sales tool development, and leveraged promotional tracking to effectively demonstrate that promotional efforts were a significant contributor to sales and margin growth.

Director of Marketing and Marketing Services

Recruited to drive immediate and sustainable growth for the Chadwyck-Healey product line. Led efforts to redefine marketing strategy and develop comprehensive marketing plans, updated marketing collateral and target lists, ramped up email marketing efforts, and initiated highly targeted marketing campaigns.

Senior Marketing Manager

Thomson (Gale)

Drove revenue growth for higher education/library digital solutions provider. Oversaw training and support for 4 regional sales offices and 100 distributors, 10-language global advertising program, PR across 150 international outlets, and 60 major international tradeshows.

Director of International Marketing

International Trade Administration

Supported international market entry and expansion efforts for US companies. Directly recruited 18 senior executives for aerospace trade mission to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Industry Analyst, Aerospace and Computers

From churn chaos to customer collaboration 🌀 I help info and tech company GTM leaders expand client relationships and build customer lifetime value

Struggling with customer retention?

Not sure how to stop revenue leakage that keeps growing every day?

(keep reading)

As a marketing leader and consultant with recurring-revenue businesses, I have seen the debilitating impact that churn has on profitability and growth. To avoid this recurring-revenue death trap, you need to build stronger customer relationships that reduce your reliance on adding new logos and a ‘growth at all costs’ approach.

If you are an info or tech company that depends on recurring revenues, and you’re struggling with churn

❌ Always in reactive mode, plugging revenue leaks and replacing lost revenues
❌ Tired of key account fire drills which usually don’t work (11th hour ultimatums, renewal delays)
❌ Sick of unpredictable revenue performance (and customer acquisition is already taking longer)
❌ Done with infighting and finger pointing (you’ve already tried NPS, Health Scores, and QBRs) 

I’ve got something that’ll put an end to your misery, once and for all.  It’s called Customer Synergy Engine, a system that information, technology and software providers can use to improve customer retention and expansion. Through this system, you’ll identify avenues for enhanced and highly profitable revenue growth through a cheap, efficient, and dependable source of leads and new revenue: your current customers.

When you harness Customer Synergy Engine for your business, you will: 

✅ Improve net revenue retention by reducing leakage and improving expansion
✅ Increase consistency and sustainability of  top- and bottom-line performance 
✅ Stop firefighting to address customer crises  (negotiations and saves) at  the 11th hour
✅ Build customer relationships and positive word-of-mouth to propel your business forward  

Most consulting programs are about quick fixes and playing defense, but not ours. Customer Synergy Engine tackles retention, and then we proactively harness customer insights and success to amp up upselling and cross-selling and positive word of mouth. And you'll find innovative approaches to take your customer relationships to the next level. 

With the right system in place, you can stop reacting and start increasing expansion and referrals because you will have developed a consistent and dependable revenue engine that is powered by customers who know, love and trust you. 

Let’s talk about how you can start Customer Synergy Engine  today. Book a call with me here: 

https://calendly.com/growthcanvasconsulting-2468/30min

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The Battle

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Robbie Baxter's LinkedIn Performance

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