In the “Software as a Service” world they have a metric they pay a lot of attention to: “time to value”.

It's the time from someone signing up for a service (for example on a free trial or paid plan) to them first realising how valuable the product is going to be for them.

Once they realise that value, of course, they're hooked.

If they don't realise the value before their trial ends or they have to pay another monthly subscription, there's a high chance they'll quit.

Realising the value doesn't mean they need to have already got all the end results they're looking for from the service. Just enough of an indication of what they're likely to be.

Dropbox, for example, know that once someone has added a file to their shared folder, they'll “get it”. Facebook know that once a new user connects with ten friends, they'll begin to get things on their feed they're interested about and get engaged.

So not surprisingly, the goal of these SaaS companies is to get their new users to take those actions as soon as possible.

So they make it really simple. And they lead them through taking those actions as part of onboarding them into using the service.

And if they don't take those actions, they remind them in the app or by email.

They obsess about this because they know that the number one determinant of whether someone will stay with them is how fast they get value or at least see what it's going to be.

Not how much they sell the service. Or the quality of their copywriting. Or how well they build a relationship.

They know it's time to value because they measure everything obsessively.

Now most of us run human businesses, not software businesses. But there's a lot we can learn from this approach.

Firstly: do you know what value your potential clients are looking for from you when you first connect with them?

A quick hint here: people who connect with you on Linkedin or meet you at an event are looking for something very different to people who sign up for your email list.  

Secondly: are you doing everything you can to deliver the value they're looking for as fast as possible? Minimising time to value.

Do you “onboard them” when they first meet you like a SaaS firm would do?

Do you know what actions will lead them to see the value they're looking for? Do you lead them step-by-step through those actions?

Because if you don't get them to see value quickly you'll lose them.

They'll unsubscribe or stop paying attention to your emails. They won't make an effort to speak to you at the next event you're at. They won't pick up when you call.