Renewing accounts without surprises
Most renewal losses aren't a buyer leaving. They're a rep who didn't notice the buyer was already gone.
Renewals feel like they should be the easy part. You already won the account. They just have to re-sign. And yet most field orgs lose one in five renewals they counted on.
Why renewals are surprisingly fragile
Field accounts change underneath you and nobody tells you. The contact you built the relationship with moves to a different division. A new ops lead gets hired who wants to "put this out to bid." The parent company acquires them and standardizes on a competitor. None of this shows up in your CRM unless you were visiting the account recently enough to hear it.
The six-month signal
A healthy renewal has at least one meaningful touch in the six months before it lands. Meaningful means in-person, with a decision-maker, not a ticket reply. If you can't name the last in-person touch, the renewal is at risk — regardless of how green the pipeline dashboard looks.
The pre-renewal ride
Block two weeks on the calendar, 90 days before renewal. Drive the territory. Every renewing account gets a visit. Not a QBR. Not a pitch. A conversation: what's working, what's not, who's new on your team.
You'll learn about three deals you were about to lose that you didn't know were at risk.
The renewal conversation itself
Never open with "so, renewal time." Open with "what's changed for you in the last six months." Let them tell you. Half the answers you're worried about won't come up. The other half, you'll have 60 days to fix.
The rep who knocks on the door in month nine closes renewals at 95%. The rep who emails a quote in month eleven closes at 75%. The gap is the visit.