Usage is down 30%, your champion has changed jobs internally, and the renewal is in ten weeks. He will tell you everything is fine.
A customer success manager at a project-management platform.
Ellis Faraday has been your main contact at Brightsea Media for two years. Weekly active users have fallen from about 140 to 95 over four months. He moved from Head of Delivery to a new role in June and has been slower to reply since. The renewal is in ten weeks and is worth 62,000.
Find out what has actually happened to this account, whether the renewal is at risk, and leave with something that moves it.
Ellis
Director of Operations, Brightsea Media
She opens relaxed, and she is holding 4 things back — 1 near the surface, 1 that take real questioning, and 2 you will only get to if the conversation genuinely goes well. What they are, and what makes her say them, is the part you have to find. She is not scripted to volunteer any of it.
The objectives for this scenario, and the four axes every customer success call is graded on.
Did they surface the real state of the account — adoption, champion strength, unspoken dissatisfaction — rather than accept 'everything's fine'?
Could they connect what the customer has actually got to what the customer originally wanted, in the customer's own numbers?
Did they ask the uncomfortable one — about the renewal, the quiet users, the new stakeholder — or manage the relationship around it?
Did the account move: a commitment, a plan, an escalation path, or a named risk with an owner?
A real commitment with a date behind it.
No commitment yet, but a specific plan with owners.
A nice call. The risk is exactly where it was.
The account is in trouble and the call did not find it.
Finding risk in a friendly account, and asking the renewal question early. 15 minutes, live voice, and a scored debrief you can replay. The first call is free.