FREE TRAINING for SaaS Leaders
Turn Every Customer
Into a Success Story.
Fix Adoption. Accelerate Renewals. Unlock Predictable Growth.
In this short training, you'll learn how top SaaS vendors turn user behavior into predictable revenue growth - and how you can do the same.
Watch this short video to learn how to fix poor user adoption and unlock revenue growth.
Every week, another SaaS renewal slips away - not because the product failed, but because people never truly adopted it.
If your renewals feel harder each quarter, it's probably not your product - it’s adoption.
In this free training, you'll learn how top SaaS vendors turn behavior change into revenue growth.
Learn how to:
  • Identify the real causes of poor user adoption.
  • Quantify what it's costing your business and customers.
  • Apply a proven framework to operationalize adoption at scale.
  • Shorten your path to revenue with the Adopt Chain system.
🔥 Learn more about Adopt Chain on our website
👇Enjoy this free, text-based training & guide
Hi, I'm Jason Whitehead
Early in my career, my boss told me, "If you can't get people to use the system - and executives don't see value - we don't need the system. Or YOU!"
That moment changed everything.
I've spent over 20 years helping SaaS companies and their customers maximize user adoption and get real business results from software.
Now I'm using that experience to make adoption success faster, easier, and more scalable for everyone.
If you want your customers to use your product, see value, and keep renewing - then this is for you!
What You'll Learn in This Free Training
Each lesson gives you actionable steps to fix adoption, drive renewals, and scale customer success.
You can scroll through the full training or jump directly to a section:
Table of contents
PART 1 - The Hidden Cost of Poor Adoption
Even a 10% drop in adoption can quietly erase $2M in ARR for a $20M vendor
Let's begin by understanding the scale of the problem - because the real issue isn't your software; it's what happens after it's sold.
You've seen it. The system works perfectly, but no one uses it. That's not a tech problem. It's a people problem.
Most software failures aren't technical - they're human.
According to McKinsey, about 70% of large-scale transformation projects fail to achieve their goals due to behavioral and organizational factors - not technology.
So, Why do some customers succeed while others fail?
The product is the same.
The documentation is the same.
The training is the same.
The support is the same.
The difference isn't the product — it's the people using it and the environment in which they work.
Each organization has its own unique ecosystem of culture, leadership, communication norms, and capacity for change.
The way they respond to new systems and processes determines whether your software becomes indispensable or ignored.
Too often, vendors focus on technical fixes - adding more features, improving UI, or offering additional product training - when the root problem lies in behavioral adoption.
Product training is necessary, but not sufficient. Teaching users how to click through screens won't change how they work, collaborate, or make decisions.
Adoption requires changing mindsets, habits, behaviors and team dynamics - and that's where most efforts fall short.
When users don't adopt your software, here's what happens:
Customers don't realize value or ROI.
Renewals stall and upsells evaporate.
Product reputation suffers.
Your CS team burns hours firefighting instead of growing accounts.
Sales leaders tell us all the time:

"I can't sell them more until they use what they already bought."
Think about it: If even 10% of your customers aren't achieving full adoption, how much ARR is quietly slipping away each quarter?
What's the cost of that in renewals, advocacy, and referrals?
Every day without a structured adoption strategy is another day your customers fall behind - and your revenue does, too.
Key idea: It's not the software. It's what people do with it (or not), that matter. You need an effective adoption program to drive success.
Most software doesn’t fail because it's broken.
It fails because people never changed how they work.
PART 2 - Why Customer Adoption Fails (and What Most Vendors Miss)
Now that you've seen the scope of the problem, let's dig into why adoption fails so consistently.
We've all felt this - the rollout that starts strong and fades within weeks.
Across hundreds of SaaS rollouts, the same six problems appear again and again - and none of them are technical.
Customers don't know how to lead change.
Most customers have never been trained in change management or adoption. They rely on intuition, not best practices.
Customers need access to skilled professionals with experience in driving user adoption to lead and facilitate their adoption programs.
Adoption Programs starts too late.
Adoption programs need to begin early, even before the software selection is finalized and implementation begins.
Systems today can move faster that an organizations can adapt and users can adopt. Early adoption efforts are essential to ensure success.
Vendors lack internal adoption expertise.
Even your best CSMs may not know how to assess adoption risk or create actionable recovery plans.
If your CSMs lack knowledge and skills in user adoption, they are ineffective at driving customer adoption efforts.
Product training ≠ adoption enablement.
Training users on features is necessary, but it's not enough to drive behavior change.
True adoption happens when there is a structured user adoption program, that removes organizational barriers to adoption, aligns incentives, sets clear adoption goals, and measures results.
Adoption isn't discussed early enough in sales.
When you skip that conversation, customers enter implementation unprepared for the effort required.
You may win the deal, but you set up both sides for disappointment.
There's no consistent, lifecycle-wide adoption program.
Most vendors have isolated efforts - a workshop here, an email there - but no integrated system that ties adoption activities to each stage of the customer journey.
Adopt programs need to continue over the life of the system.
Recognize any of these in your accounts?
Every one of these issues is fixable - once you know where to start.
When these six factors combine, customer value realization breaks down. Users plateau after go-live, enthusiasm fades, and expansion opportunities vanish.
The result: Slow time-to-value, higher churn risk, and stalled growth.
Ready to See the Fix?
The right adoption strategy turns customer frustration into predictable renewals.
See how top SaaS vendors make adoption their competitive edge.
📅 Book a 1:1 Strategy Call →
Share Key Insights with Your Leadership
Download the summary: "Fix Adoption. Accelerate Renewals. Unlock Predictable Growth."
  • A 3-page executive summary of the key insights and ROI impact.
  • A quick reference to share with executives or investors.
  • Instant access to upcoming live info sessions.
PART 3 - What Successful SaaS Vendors Do Differently
Top vendors don't fight adoption - they design for it.
Most teams think success happens at go-live - but that's when the real work begins.
Adoption is where value - and renewals - are won.
Your customers have numerous up-front costs on the way to go-live. At go-live, your customers have (hopefully) reached maximum sunk costs.
The only way up the value curve is through user adoption. And adoption can't be just by a few power users. It needs to be everyone using the system, effectively and collaboratively, as designed.
That's the hard part. It means changing how dozens - sometimes thousands - of people work across different departments, time zones, priorities, and skill levels. Aligning them around new ways of working takes structure, leadership, and persistence.
Progressing up the recovery curve often takes longer and more effort than expected. Some customers never make it to break-even, and that’s what kills ROI and renewals.
SaaS vendors often celebrate reaching “first value,” but for customers, that's just the beginning. True success only happens when adoption drives sustained results and the organization climbs all the way into positive ROI territory.
Adoption isn't a nice-to-have. It's the bridge between investment and return.
Now that we've looked at why so many adoption efforts fail, let's explore what the best SaaS vendors do differently - and how they make adoption a core growth strategy.
Winning vendors don't just "teach the product."
They teach their customers how to change behavior around it.
They make adoption part of the sales process.
Top performers discuss adoption early - qualifying the customer's readiness for change and helping them plan for success before contracts are signed.
They focus on behavior change, not just training.
They teach customers how to lead change internally, motivate managers, and sustain new ways of working.
They go beyond teaching what to do - they help people understand why and how to do it.
They use structured frameworks.
Rather than reinventing the wheel with every account, they follow proven methods that deliver repeatable success.
They enable their own teams.
Their marketing, sales, onboarding and customer success teams receive the same adoption education they give their customers.
Everyone speaks a common language.
They measure what matters.
Success isn't defined by logins or usage stats - it's defined by behavior change and the business outcomes achieved and sustained.
If you put this structure in place, you'll instantly stand out to prospects and drive stronger renewals from your existing base.
When you fix adoption,
renewals take care of themselves.
Turn Adoption Into Your Next Growth Engine
Don't leave adoption to chance.
Build a system that consistently drives ROI, renewals, and expansion across every account.
PART 4 — How to Operationalize Customer Adoption
It's super, super important to understand how adoption is your problem as a vendor.
Even after you push everything live, there is a continuous education that you need to have with your end users to help them measure the benefits of using your product and also transform them into champions that can continuously advocate for the value that your organization is bringing.
Ramona Aubry, Phd. Global VP of Sales and Customer Success.
Here's how to turn theory into a repeatable system for every customer.
You don't need a big consulting team — you need a repeatable system your sales and CS teams can use across every account.
That's where the Adopt Chain Framework comes in. Adopt Chain is a complete, structured system that makes adoption scalable, consistent, and measurable.
The Five Core Stages
Early Adoption Qualification
Identify potential adoption risks during the sales process.
Ask prospects about their history of successfully adopting technology and generating measurable ROI from their IT investments.
  • Do they have a structured process for managing change and driving adoption?
  • What is their typical level of adoption with previous systems?
  • Do they define goals, set adoption targets, and measure actual business results?
Enquire about their internal capacity for leading change.
  • Do they have the right people with the right skills and experience available to ensure the system is used and delivering results?
  • Do they have a senior executive assign accountability for ensuring adoption and outcomes?
  • Do they have the right process to ensure the system is adopted?
If your prospect hasn't been able to drive adoption and IT success with previous systems, why will they be able to do it with yours?
By talking about adoption early:
  • You begin to refocus customer thinking and start the change process before the deal even closes.
  • You shift your customers from focusing solely on technical functionality to adoption, behaviors, and business outcomes.
By discussing user adoption and highlighting your adoption enablement program during your sales conversation, you differentiate yourself from the competition. You position yourself as a trusted advisor, not just a vendor.
This reduces perceived buyer risk and can actually accelerate the sale.
Customer Enablement
Empower your customers to own their adoption success.
By giving them the skills, tools, and structure to lead adoption internally, you build self-sufficient champions. And you free your post-sales teams to focus on growth, not firefighting.
Give customers the knowledge, templates, and skills to drive adoption on their own.
This includes providing access to eLearning on user adoption, templates to facilitate internal change, and guides for managing resistance.
Train their managers to lead change and track progress, ensuring adoption becomes a shared responsibility.
Through this enablement, you help customers build repeatable adoption skills they can apply across future initiatives.
Motivate their internal sponsors and adoption teams.
Give your customer's team members a clear, proven roadmap for driving adoption - and help them grow their own careers in the process.
When customers lead the change themselves, you reduce post-sales workload and build lifelong advocates.
Plan for Adoption - and Renewals - From Day One
Co-create a focused, actionable plan that drives adoption from rollout through renewal.
Align your teams and your customer's teams around clear goals, responsibilities, and success measures.
Define Success Early
Help customers pinpoint the outcomes they need, identify measurable indicators of progress, and outline the specific actions and behaviors that lead to those results.
Eliminate Barriers Before They Stall Progress
Work together to uncover and remove adoption blockers - from unclear ownership and poor communication to competing priorities - before they impact ROI or renewals.
Drive Shared Accountability
Make adoption a joint effort. Clarify who owns key actions, communications, and success tracking to keep momentum strong across both organizations.
Defined Business Outcomes = Renewal Criteria
When you know your customer's success goals, and how they will measure them, your customer is telling you their renewal criteria.
When you learn this up front, you can actively guide them to achieve it - and forecast renewal and churn risk with far greater confidence.
Launch Adoption Support
After Go-Live: The Real Test Begins
This is where most vendors lose momentum. This is because guiding customer behavior after go-live requires expertise most CS teams don’t have.
The first 12 months after go-live are the make-or-break phase for customer success.
This is when users move from theory to action. They begin adopting new behaviors, integrating technology into their daily work, and achieving measurable results.
It's also when unforeseen system, data, process and people challenges emerge, requiring expert guidance and proactive support from your team.
Guide Customers Through the Transition
Go-live is not a technical milestone - it's a behavioral shift.
Your role as a SaaS vendor is to help customers lead that change internally: coach managers, reinforce clear communications, monitor user actions, and reward and reinforce desired user behaviors.
Equip Your Team With Adoption Expertise
Most CSMs aren't trained in change management or user adoption - and that's where adoption efforts often stall.
By developing or accessing specialized expertise, your team can confidently guide customers through resistance, sustain engagement, and accelerate ROI during the critical first year.
Stay Proactive During the Critical First Year
Your customers will encounter real-world issues, such as data gaps, workflow confusion, shifting priorities.
Provide structured communication, leadership engagement, and ongoing adoption expertise to help them adapt quickly and maintain progress.
This is where trust is earned and long-term success is built.
Adoption Expertise Turns Go-Live Into Real Value
Helping customers through post-launch change requires more than product knowledge - it takes adoption expertise.
Vendors who master this phase turn new customers into renewal engines.
Continuous Adoption Support
Your customer's business won't stand still - neither can adoption efforts.
Adoption isn't a one-time project. It's a continuous practice that evolves with every change in people, processes, and business priorities.
Sustained adoption transforms initial success into long-term value and keeps customers achieving measurable results year after year.
Keep Adoption Top of Mind
Provide customers with access to ongoing adoption expertise and periodic check-ins that help them stay ahead of new challenges, user turnover, and evolving workflows.
Adapt to Change and Growth
Every organization evolves. New employees join, leaders move on, features expand, and strategies shift.
Help customers anticipate and manage these transitions, so your system continues to deliver real business outcomes, no matter what changes.
Reinforce, Refresh, and Reignite
Ensure customers revisit adoption goals quarterly. Help them celebrate success stories, embrace new features, and re-engage users to keep performance and value high.
Continuous reinforcement turns adoption into a habit - and a source of ongoing competitive advantage.
Adoption Is Never “Done”
Continuous adoption builds customers for life.
Implementation Benefits:
Why This System Works:
A scalable structure that new customers an CS staff can learn and apply immediately.
Predictable adoption outcomes across accounts.
Clear accountability between vendor and customer.
Reduced customer risk perception and smoother renewals.
When your customers and internal teams follow this system, adoption becomes predictable.
And renewals become routine.
You Don't Need to Build It From Scratch
The system works - and it's already built.
Adopt Chain gives you the framework, content, and cadence to operationalize adoption immediately with your customers.
PART 5 - The Shortcut: Partnering for Faster Results with Adopt Chain
If you want these results fast, without reinventing the process, Adopt Chain gives you a ready-to-run solution.
Sure, you could build this system yourself
But, building a scalable adoption program takes cross-functional coordination, deep expertise, and time your team simply doesn’t have
Most vendors can't afford to wait while renewals are at risk.
The truth: building adoption systems in-house takes longer, costs more, and rarely scales.
Even great SaaS teams underestimate what it takes. It's not lack of effort - it's lack of time, experience, and bandwidth to make adoption a repeatable success.
That's why we created Adopt Chain
Adopt Chain is a complete, ready-to-deploy Adoption Enablement Program that helps SaaS vendors and their customers succeed faster.

www.SuccessChain.net

Ramona Aubry, Phd. Global VP of Sales and CS

Learn how Success Chain's client, Ramona Aubry, has benefited from taking our "Master Proactive Software User Adoption" course.

Adopt Chain is built on three pillars that together create a scalable, repeatable system for driving adoption across every stage of the customer lifecycle:
1. Enable Your GTM Team
Drive adoption during the sales process.
We teach your marketing and sales teams to effectively engage prospects on user adoption needs - helping them qualify deals based on readiness to change, set realistic expectations, and build credibility early.
By having structured adoption conversations before the deal closes, your team reduces post-sale risk and differentiates your brand as a partner committed to customer outcomes.
2. Empower Your Customers
Accelerate internal customer adoption.
We teach your customers how they can drive adoption of your system inside their organization.
Through eLearning, templates, and live sessions, customers learn proven strategies to lead change, communicate effectively, and sustain long-term success.
They also gain repeatable adoption skills that strengthen their organizations and enhance their own professional development - including certificates they can share on LinkedIn.
3. Elevate Your Operations
Guide customers to success with confidence.
We equip your onboarding and customer success teams with the frameworks, tools, and training needed to confidently guide customers through adoption challenges.
They learn how to spot early warning signs, use data to drive adoption conversations, and deliver consistent, measurable value across every account.
Together, these three pillars create a unified system that embeds adoption thinking into every interaction - from the first sales call to renewal and expansion.

www.SuccessChain.net

Client Testimonial: Mike Ferry, Senior CSM

Hear from Success Chain's customer, Mike Ferry, as he shares how he has benefited from completing our Master Proactive User Adoption Strategies eLearning course.

With Adopt Chain, your organization can be up and running in days, not months or years.
We've already built the structure, content, and cadence your teams and customers need - so you can focus on execution, not development.
What's Inside Adopt Chain
Unlimited eLearning Access
Train both your internal teams and your customers without seat limits. Everyone learns the same adoption language and methods.
Our comprehensive eLearning program, "Master Proactive Software User Adoption Strategies," offers a strategic framework and practical guidance for maximizing user adoption.
This course, suitable for all skill levels, takes approximately 4-6 hours to complete across 28 in-depth lessons.
Templates, Toolkits, and Talk Tracks
Adopt Chain provides ready-to-use resources that make it easy for both sales and CS teams to communicate, plan, and execute adoption strategies.
These include conversation guides for sales reps, planning templates for onboarding teams, and practical tools for CS managers to sustain adoption with every customer.
Customer Adoption Journey Mapping
Analyze and redesign your sales, onboarding, and success workflows to embed adoption activities at each stage.
Monthly Peer Learning Sessions
Delivered by Success Chain experts, these sessions keep your customers learning and motivated - something most SaaS vendors struggle to deliver consistently.
Vendor-Specific Workshops
Co-delivered with your CS leaders, these workshops help align your internal approach with your customers' adoption strategies.
Expert Coaching and Consulting
For your customers with complex organizational or change management challenges, Success Chain's adoption experts can engage directly to provide targeted guidance, coaching, and consulting.
This ensures customers get deep expertise while reducing the demand on your own CS and support teams.
Program Benefits - For Your Customers and You
Adopt Chain delivers measurable impact for both your business and your customers.
For Your Customers:
  • Lead internal change with confidence.
  • Gain professional development and certification they can add to their LinkedIn profiles.
  • Reduce time to value and achieve measurable ROI faster.
  • Build repeatable adoption skills and a sustainable process for future implementations.
For You (SaaS Vendor):
  • Achieve higher retention, expansion, and customer lifetime value (CLTV).
  • Differentiate competitively with a branded adoption enablement program.
  • Strengthen onboarding and reduce CS workload.
  • Scale adoption success without adding headcount or reinventing processes.
  • CSMs focus on growing accounts, not saving them.
Adopt Chain is not just a program.
It's your next growth engine.
It's a growth multiplier that delivers results for both you and your customers.
How to Get Started
Every month you delay improving adoption, your customers continue to underperform, your renewals slip, and your brand reputation suffers.
The cost of waiting is real - both in lost revenue and lost opportunity.
We've made it easy to bring Adopt Chain to your customers and see immediate results.
Getting started takes just a few minutes, and you can be live with Adopt Chain in days - not months.
You can:
Schedule a 1:1 Adoption Strategy Call
Explore how Adopt Chain can fit your business and customer success model.
Join an Adopt Chain Info Session
See how the program works in action and how to operationalize customer adoption.

Not ready to schedule yet? Download the Executive Summary – a concise version of this training to review or share with your leadership team.
Let's turn adoption into your next growth engine.
You'll see measurable results faster, your customers will achieve success sooner, and your teams will have a proven system upon which they can rely.
Adoption is the foundation of your renewals.
Let's make it your competitive advantage.
Your customers deserve success.
Let's make sure they achieve it - with you!
© 2025 Success Chain. All rights reserved. | Visit our main site at www.successchain.net