# Lincoln Murphy

> Expansion revenue and customer lifetime value, by Lincoln Murphy. The current
> work is the money already sitting in a company's customer base that nothing in
> the business is built to notice or collect. Lincoln invented Customer Success
> and co-authored Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn
> and Growing Recurring Revenue, the first book on the subject. He writes on
> growth, retention, expansion, and the operating model underneath all three.

## About

- [lincolnmurphy.com](https://lincolnmurphy.com): Personal hub — bio, speaking, books, and links to all projects.

## Projects

- [LTV Max](https://ltvmax.com): Frameworks, workshops, and consulting on expansion revenue, retention, and building CS as a revenue function.
- [Sixteen Ventures](https://sixteenventures.com): Over 800 articles on Customer Success, SaaS growth, retention, and maximizing lifetime value.

## Essays

Longer pieces that don't belong on the other properties.

- [Cold Leads Take More Work. That's the Source, Not the Quality.](https://lincolnmurphy.com/essays/cold-leads-take-more-work/): Every closed deal requires the same trust work: find the right person, catch the right timing, build enough trust to buy. A referral had all of that done before the first call, which is why referral close rates run 80-90% and why that number belongs to the referrer. A cold-sourced lead has none of it done, so qualification and trust-building move inside the sales process instead of before it. Same destination, more steps. Covers why complaints get worse once positive replies start landing rather than before, the avoidance behaviour that follows, why booking and holding the meeting is itself the selling once borrowed accountability disappears, and how to tell a real burn from a repeat of the same arc.

## Free Tools

- [NRR Decomposition Scorecard](https://lincolnmurphy.com/nrr-scorecard/): Your NRR is a single number hiding three different stories. Input your numbers, answer 12 questions, see the truth.

## Book

- [Customer Success (English)](https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Success-Innovative-Companies-Recurring/dp/1119167965): The first book on Customer Success, co-authored by Lincoln Murphy, Dan Steinman, and Nick Mehta.
- [Customer Success (Portuguese)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WYD2VMC): Portuguese-language edition.
- [Customer Success (Japanese)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/4862762719): Japanese-language edition.

## Speaking & Events

- The Upsell:MAX Build: Dallas, TX, September 23–24, 2026. Recommendation-only two-day working session for teams building their expansion revenue machine. Not open to the public. You can't buy entry to the Build until you've been vouched for. Vouch process: https://ltvmax.com/build

## Connect

- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lincolnmurphy/)
- [X / Twitter](https://x.com/lincolnmurphy)
- Email: lincoln@lincolnmurphy.com