The Hockey Stick Hustle: Surviving (and Thriving) in Recurring Revenue

Who doesn't love a hockey stick graph?

Once you get past that initial phase where costs outweigh revenue, it’s all gravy. But until then, it’s a grind. Most marketing for a recurring revenue business is about maximizing post-marketing revenue: the gap between the beautiful green hockey-stick growth curve and the steady, predictable marketing investment.

The Variables You Can Optimize

Winning at recurring revenue means pulling the right levers, including:

• Churn & Retention – Keep them coming back.

• LTV (Lifetime Value) – Maximize what each customer brings in.

• Conversion Rate – Turn more visitors into prospects.

• Close Rate – Ensure prospects actually become customers.

• MtBE (Months to Break Even) – How long it takes to make back your initial investment in customer acquisition.

• Expansion & Contraction – Upsells, downsells, and keeping the balance in check.

• Product Pricing – Are you charging what you're worth, and communicating your value?

• Top-of-Funnel Offers – How are you getting people in the door?

Why This is a Data-Driven Marketer’s Playground

Because recurring revenue models generate so much data and have so many levers to play with, financial success is a game of predictive modeling. The trick is surviving the flat part of the hockey stick and setting yourself up for the steep climb.

Here’s what to consider along the way:

Competition Costs

Even if you’re in a new market, you have competitors vying for your audience’s attention. That means there’s a minimum cost to reach them, and an upper bound on how much volume you can get before costs skyrocket.

Learning & Optimization Need Scale

If you have $100K to spend on marketing, spread it over a year—not a decade. A slow drip of spend means slow (or zero) learning. I’ve talked to founders who’ve spent tens of thousands without knowing what’s working. Don’t be them.

Sales Cycle Lag

If your sales cycle isn’t instant, factor that into projections. Leads today don’t mean revenue today.

Cash Flow is King

Plan for sustainability. You need to invest enough to learn, but not so much that you sink the ship.

Churn is Unavoidable

Not every customer sticks around forever, especially once you move beyond referrals into cold acquisition. Plan for it.

Don’t Forget Management Costs

A good marketing partner is an investment, not an expense (she said, totally unbiased). But whether it’s an agency, a consultant, or an in-house hire, factor in these costs upfront.

Achieving Recurring Revenue Victory

Recurring revenue businesses have many paths to victory—but none of them are automatic. If you want help mapping your customer acquisition strategy, let’s talk. We’ll walk through these factors (and more) to figure out where to start.