5.     Time to Revenue: Companies growing recurring revenue grew revenue 20% faster and enjoyed 25% higher profit margins than their peers.

6.     Critical Business Value: Recurring revenue, on average, accounts for 30-40% of revenue and 50% of profits for technology companies (Source: Morgan Stanley)

7.     Ongoing Benefits: Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer (Source: Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy & Mark Murphy)

So now that you know the facts, how can you make CLV a bigger priority? Start with your data.

Most channel organizations suffer from outdated or incorrect customer data and as a result are missing out on significant recurring revenue in the form of renewal, up-sell and cross-sell opportunities with existing clients.

With cleansed and enriched data – extracted from CRM, quoting, ordering and other transactional systems – you can create an essential foundation for your CLV initiative.

Also, don’t forget that teamwork is best when it comes to uncovering recurring revenue opportunities. Work in tandem with your distributors and manufacturing/vendor partners to collect the customer data you need to properly track, manage and predict next steps with your existing customers.

To do that, put in place best practice approaches to data management, including optimizing your organization’s Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) process, which will allow you to more efficiently identify your customers’ expiring service contracts, as well as their tech-refresh and upsell and cross-sell needs. The better you become at building an arsenal of high quality data, the better you’ll be able to grow customer value over time. It’s that simple.

Kelly Crothers is VP of global marketing at MaintenanceNet, Inc.