Series 2 Preview | Rising Through the STARS
Inspiration for the Series
While at IE Business School, I was introduced to the STARS model of business evolution. This framework, developed by Michael Watkins, outlines the different stages businesses go through—from Startup to Sustaining Success to Realignment to Turnaround—and the implications for how leadership must adapt in each situation. What struck me most about Watkins's perspective was its ability to capture the dynamic nature of an organization's movement through different phases. It recognizes that no business—or relationship—remains static. This view really resonated with me.
Since my time at IE, I have continuously applied the spirit of this perspective to the customer relationships I have been tasked with developing. Viewing client relationships through the STARS "lens" has helped me approach clients more optimally and tailor my communication and engagement strategies more effectively. It has also complemented my ability to accelerate deals in most situations—from recovering at-risk accounts to accelerating high-potential relationships.
Beyond client success, this mode of thinking has also enhanced my collaboration with internal stakeholders, including my leadership teams. It has improved my ability to articulate challenges, growth opportunities, and key inflection points in a way that catalyzes internal buy-in, aligns cross-functional teams, and instills confidence at the executive level in my strategies and execution.
This ongoing refinement has reinforced a core belief: relationships, like businesses, require adaptability, strategic critical thinking, and personalized engagement.
Remember, Customer Experience is Lived Experience. Deeply Personal. Difficult to Quantify. And Easy to Damage.
A Useful Analogy to Help
I want to avoid giving the impression that I am offering a competitive view of existing frameworks like MEDDPICC, LAER, or any other customer success-oriented framework. This series is not about challenging or dismantling them. There are very important reasons why our companies operationalize those frameworks, and they are very effective in their applicable contexts.
This series offers a complementary perspective that can be embraced at the individual level and help support our ability to align our behavior with where customers are at the time of our engagement.
Take the most popular sales qualification framework in the B2B Technology Sales as an example- MEDDPICC.
MEDDPICC ensures that deals are systematically qualified, progressed, and closed in sales, keeping account executives focused on decision-making, influence, and risk mitigation during a sales cycle. We don’t have time for strategic blueprints in a live deal cycle—we need to adapt, qualify, and close in real time. When we use MEDDPICC, we aren’t concerned with long-term strategy but with winning the engagement by addressing objections, navigating internal politics, and securing commitment.
MEDDPICC is the equivalent of MDACC for military operators in live combat. Most are probably unfamiliar with MDACC. It stands for Motion, Distance, Angles, Cover, and Concealment. It is a pneumonic device for maneuvering through high-risk, live combat. It is designed to help an operator remember to maneuver safely and effectively, make fast, calculated moves while minimizing exposure, maintain offensive and defensive control, and exploit enemy weaknesses.
MDACC provides no value whatsoever for the Military Strategist or Planner.
MEDDPICC does not help our account strategy, trust development, or competitive positioning; it is purely a deal execution framework.
MEDDPICC and MDACC provide clear frameworks for decision-making, risk assessment, and successful execution in the field.
Opportunities for Development
I drew the above analogy because it supports 2 conclusions:
The underlying dynamics of customer relationships shifting and evolving over time are key to effective account or relationship strategy development. In other words, we have to think beyond the here and now to be truly effective.
To increase our effectiveness, we need to discuss engagement history and dynamics so that our colleagues and leadership can quickly grasp and rally behind us.
So the first opportunity for development lies in effectively understanding each phase of relationship evolution—are we in a growth cycle, recovery cycle, or crisis cycle? Just as businesses move through stages of startup, growth, realignment, and sustaining success, customer relationships at the individual level follow a similar pattern.
By learning to diagnose these stages clearly and precisely, we can anticipate what strategies (a predictable set of behaviors) will provide the best outcomes, proactively address risks, and guide customers toward long-term relationship success.
The second opportunity is to apply this understanding internally, shaping how we plan, communicate, and motivate our cross-functional teams to support our strategy. Account management does not happen in isolation; success results from seamless collaboration between sales, customer success, product, and leadership.
When we can precisely articulate the phase an account is in, we can better align internal stakeholders on the right priorities at the right time—whether that means rallying support for a turnaround effort, securing investment in an at-risk but high-potential account, or reinforcing the value of a well-performing partnership.
By developing both the insight to recognize relationship evolution and the ability to translate that insight into strategic action, we can move beyond transactional account management and build a more proactive, cohesive, and ultimately successful approach to customer growth and retention.
So, in this series, I will do my best to fulfill the following objectives:
Deepen Our Understanding – Gain a clearer perspective on how B2B relationships evolve over time, recognizing the dynamics that shape customer engagement, loyalty, and growth.
Develop a Shared Language – Equip ourselves with the terminology needed to effectively identify, articulate, and discuss these account relationship dynamics.
Enhance Strategic Thinking – Leverage this precise language to refine our approach to account planning, strategy, and long-term customer management.
Strengthen Client Relationships – Use this clarity to engage with customers more effectively, fostering trust, alignment, and stronger long-term partnerships.
Improve Internal Influence – Communicate challenges and successes clearly and in a structured way – both within individual accounts and across a portfolio—to drive greater organizational support and appreciation.
Disclosures:
This content is intended in the spirit of experiential knowledge sharing. I do my best to accurately describe strategies and techniques I use in the field for creating great customer interactions but I am not responsible for their use or misuse nor the outcomes that result from either.
I use GrammerlyAI to: 1) proofread for spelling & correctness 2) make changes/updates to grammar, sentence structure, etc. to improve clarity and readability and 3) ensure my writing is absent of any plagiarism
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