[tomblomfield]

Whatever kind of company you run, dig below the top-line growth numbers. Look into churn and revenue by cohort.

There are b2b companies with very high churn (Groupon's merchant acquisition is arguably an example) and those with very low churn (Stripe, GoCardless).

As an aside, there are some b2b companies with a pretty high viral coefficient. B2B invoicing platforms are a good example - a business might bring all of its suppliers/customers onto a platform. This is basically Tradeshift's strategy.

[elohesra]

Thanks for that information, that's interesting. Either way, I thought it was an interesting article, and it was well written too. I also agree with the core point that growth without retention is meaningless. I suppose I just take issue with the term 'viral' here, although your point stands even with business-to-business: if you've had a sudden influx of customers, then you'll need to fight to keep them rather than just considering them an unchanging constant of your business forevermore.