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PLAYBOOK · CUSTOMER SUCCESS
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Save an at-risk renewal

A renewal is slipping. Catch it early and save it before it is a loss.

[ SALES OPERATOR ]

Save an at-risk renewal

G / Groundthe problem that started all of it
CS

A renewal is slipping.

Catch it early and save it before it is a loss.

A / Assignthe build, block by block, and who owns each one. Open a step to see it run.
HUMAN + AI, IN THE LOOP
The skills run the work. You stay in the loop on the calls that need judgment.
Salesforce01
Get a renew-or-not verdict on every renewal before the meeting.
Details
Call the verdict and the risk before the meeting, not a checklist.
Powers up with
AI
Gong02
Read the whole relationship at a glance.
Details
See if the champion has gone dark.
Powers up with
AI + human
Amplitude03
Run a churn-save on the real reason, not the stated one.
Details
Diagnose the real reason behind that verdict, then build the sequenced save plan that verdict alone does not produce.
Powers up with
AI
Salesforce04
Walk into the renewal with a plan, not a flinch.
Details
Protect net retention in the renewal conversation.
Powers up with
AI
T / Tie backthe result it drove, and how they know
RESULT · 01

Churn and downgrades down 28%

Proactive retention: a 90-day early-warning motion.

OUTPUT · 01

An early verdict

OUTPUT · 02

The real reason

OUTPUT · 03

The right levers

OUTPUT · 04

A save sequence with exit criteria

The Sales Operator
01 / WHY RUN IT
RUN THIS AND YOU CAN
An early verdict
The real reason
The right levers
A save sequence with exit criteria
02 / THE RUN, STEP BY STEP

The workflow that solves it, one step at a time.

Each step is the plain question you are already asking. The skills answer them in order, one handing its receipt to the next.

1✓ TESTED
Get a renew-or-not verdict on every renewal before the meeting.

Combines adoption, champion stability, support sentiment, and competitive signals into one per-deal verdict.

YOU GETThe adoption / champion / sentiment inputs and the renewal verdict.
OPEN THE SKILL →
2✓ TESTED
Read the whole relationship at a glance.

Puts meetings, replies, and sequence activity on one timeline and flags the moment a champion goes dark.

YOU GETThe relationship timeline and the champion-drop detector.
OPEN THE SKILL →
3✓ TESTED
Run a churn-save on the real reason, not the stated one.

Diagnoses the actual cause, matches commercial and non-commercial levers to it, and runs a multi-touch save sequence.

YOU GETThe root-cause diagnosis, the lever match, and the save sequence with exit criteria.
OPEN THE SKILL →
4✓ TESTED
Walk into the renewal with a plan, not a flinch.

The value recap, price and term options, the concession ladder, and the answer to 'we want a discount,' protecting net retention.

YOU GETThe value recap, the options, the concession ladder, and the floor.
OPEN THE SKILL →
WHERE YOU LAND

An early verdict, the real reason, the right levers, and a save sequence with exit criteria.

EVERY STEP, TESTED AND PASSED
EVAL RESULTPASS4/4 dimensions
HOW WE EVAL →
Skills resolve
Structure + proof
Example chat
Quality judge
  • All 4 chained skills resolve to real, scored skills.
  • Has a problem, an outcome, 2+ steps, and proof from a real build.
  • Ships an example chat showing the play run in Claude.
  • Reads in plain operator voice, grounded in a real build.
Last eval run 2026-09-12
DEEP EVAL · PASS
THE STANDARD →

We did not just check the structure. A judge read this play against the full text of every skill it chains (composition), then ran it on a real scenario end to end (simulated). It passed both. Test scenario: Priya, a CSM, has a renewal in 45 days that 'feels off' and needs a straight read plus a save plan.

03 / WHO ELSE HAS TO MOVE

This play runs across the org, not inside sales.

Every function below owns a piece of the play. Skip one and it stalls where most GTM plays stall: in the handoff.

PRODUCT
Fix commitments and dates for the issues driving the risk

Without it: The save plan promises what nobody is building

FINANCE
Discount and term guardrails for the renewal conversation

Without it: Every save becomes a discount and net retention bleeds

SALES LEADERSHIP
Executive sponsor calls on accounts that need air cover

Without it: The CSM fights an exec decision alone and loses

04 / SEE IT RUN

Watch the skills answer in order.

Describe your situation in plain language. The right skill fires on its own and hands its receipt to the next.

EXAMPLE CHATPriya, a CSM, running the loop in one sitting
P
I've got a renewal in 45 days and something feels off. Can you give me a straight read on whether it renews?
S
Step 1· Renewal Health Analyst
Combined adoption, champion stability, support sentiment, and competitive signals into one verdict. Adoption dropped a third since Q1, the original champion left in March, and two support tickets went unresolved. Verdict: at risk.
adoptiondown 34%
championgone
Receipt
Renewal verdict: at risk, driven by champion loss and a 34% adoption drop.
P
Walk me through what's actually been happening in the relationship. When did it start slipping?
S
Step 2· Conversation Analyst
Put every meeting, reply, and sequence touch on one timeline. The slip started right when the champion left in March, replies got slower, and the new stakeholder has never joined a call. That's the champion-drop moment.
Receipt
Timeline shows the drop-off began at the March champion exit, 3 unanswered touches since.
P
Okay, I need to actually save this. What's the play?
S
Step 3· Save Play
Diagnosed the real cause, not the stated one, this is an orphaned account with no internal owner, not a product gap. Matched levers to that: re-anchor with a new economic sponsor and rebuild value, not a discount. Built a multi-touch save with exit criteria.
Receipt
Save play built on the real root cause, 4-touch sequence to re-sponsor the account.
P
They're going to ask for a discount to stay. How do I handle the renewal terms?
S
Step 4· Renewal Negotiation
Wrote the value recap, laid out price and term options, and built a concession ladder so any discount buys us a multi-year term or an exec sponsor. Set the floor that protects net retention and scripted the answer to 'we want a discount.'
floorflat renewal
trade2-yr term
Receipt
Renewal plan protects net retention, save path closes the renewal flat on a 2-year term.
05 / SEE IT IN PRODUCTION

Before you run it, I ran it for real.

This workflow is genericized from a real build. Here is the number it moved, and what I actually did.

THE BUILD · RETENTION + NRR
Proactive Retention
-28%
churn and downgrades, the year I took over
7 figures
churned-customer win-back the same read produced
66%
of renewals were getting zero renewal activity
69 to 180 days
first renewal touch, moved from late to early
WHAT I DID
01
Build the autopsies first. I ran churn, closed-won, and closed-lost analyses to learn what actually predicted a loss. Not opinions, patterns. You cannot build an early-warning system until you know what the early warnings are.
02
Give every CSM a book-of-business view. One place that showed every account, its health, its renewal date, its risk. Not a spreadsheet someone updated when they remembered.
03
Score the risk. Account-health churn-risk scoring that flagged the accounts turning cold while there was still time to do something. The signal, not the surprise.

If your CSMs find out about churn from the customer, you do not have a retention motion, you have a notification system. Build the autopsy, score the risk, and start the renewal conversation ninety days out.

Dig into the full build
06 / ROLL IT OUT AND INSPECT IT · THE OTHER HALF

The verdict is only as good as the call that follows

The skills hand a CSM an early verdict, a read on the champion, a sequenced save plan, and a negotiation frame; the renewal is saved in one honest conversation about why it is really slipping. Here is how a CS leader makes that conversation happen early instead of at the eleventh hour.

THE FRAMEWORK BEHIND IT
The early-verdict fire drill

A red flag from renewal-health-analyst starts a clock: diagnosis run, save plan drafted, customer conversation booked inside the window you set. CSMs rehearse the hard call before the drill ever goes live.

  1. 01
    Teach the reads behind the verdict

    Walk CSMs through what a dark champion from conversation-analyst and a usage slide each mean, so a red flag earns action instead of debate.

  2. 02
    Set the flag-to-conversation SLA

    Every red verdict gets a booked customer conversation within the week. Open the renewal review with the flags still waiting.

  3. 03
    Rehearse the why-are-you-leaving call

    Roleplay the conversation where the CSM asks what is really wrong and does not flinch at the answer. The save-play only works on the real reason.

  4. 04
    Coach the saves and the losses together

    Review which levers flipped accounts and which discounts just delayed the exit, then reweight the save-play. A save that holds through the next renewal is the only kind that counts.

07 / INSTALL THE WHOLE PLAYBOOK

One plugin. 4 skills, bundled.

The whole playbook installs as a single plugin in Claude Code, no copy-pasting 4 times. Or grab any single step above. It runs on what you paste; connect your stack to go live.

OR KICK IT OFF IN CHAT
Here is my situation: [describe your workflow or account in a sentence or two]. Walk me through Save an at-risk renewal step by step, and run each skill as we go.
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