2/19/2025-A bullseye renewal strategy

Find out the facts about how your customer feels about your company’s execution and service and use it to improve execution. Your renewal rates will go up when execution is strong.

It would be inappropriate to start pitching Contract #2 the day after scoring Contract #1; there’s activation work to be done. But you should start developing your renewal strategy soon after the celebration balloons fall to the ground.

The honeymoon phase is the best time to gather info you didn’t get during your courtship phase.

Start by discovering why the customer bought you. You might think you know, but you’ll hear more truth after the deal closes than before.

If you’ve recently closed a deal, call every KDM on the buy side of the account and ask them the same question…

"Hey…you know I’m excited to do the deal with you, but I’m curious… why’d you buy us?"

Follow it up with this, "Is there anything you’re concerned about on your end about execution or value that we should pay attention to?"

You’ll be surprised by what you hear.

Never assume you know the truth about why the buyer bought, or what they’re thinking after they bought.

Just because your client bought once doesn’t mean you’ll skate through the renewal process and they’ll buy again.

In fact, it’s just the opposite.

When your customer is ready to go again, they’ll know much more about how your company services them and how your performance meets their objectives.

Don’t gripe if you don’t like what happens when you hand over your Closed-Wons to other teams in the org…but don’t sit back either. Your reputation and credibility with the customer are at stake, so at the least, help the org understand how your client wants to be onboarded and serviced.

According to the book Marketing Metrics, businesses have a 60 to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is only 5% to 20%. This fact strongly suggests you must help your company get their house in order so that it’s easy for your clients to keep buying.

In this epic Mad Men scene, Don must shift into hyper-aggressive seller mode because he’s conquesting. He has no choice but to go for the jugular if he wants to rip an account away from another vendor.

Renewing a piece of business affords you the luxury of the opposite approach.

Take advantage of the excitement everyone feels right after you break a big piece of biz to learn what you need to know to sign ’em up again.