Introduction
Accurate renewal forecasting and maintaining visibility into renewal processes are critical for proactive customer success management. By combining comprehensive tracking of key renewal interactions with customer input and CSM insights, you can create a robust and accurate renewal forecast. This comprehensive approach allows you to identify potential risks early, manage renewals proactively, and reduce churn effectively.
If you haven't already set up basic risk tracking, start with our article on "Establish Basic Risk Tracking with Playbooks" to lay the groundwork for your risk management strategy.
Why does this matter?
Effective renewal forecasting allows you to anticipate risks early, enabling proactive management that can significantly impact your organization's bottom line.
- Improves Renewal Forecast Accuracy: Provides a clear picture of renewal likelihood by combining multiple data sources.
- Enhances Visibility and Collaboration: Ensures that all relevant teams are on the same page, facilitating better decision-making.
- Reduces Risk and Churn: Identifies at-risk renewals early, allowing for timely intervention.
- Increased CSM Confidence: Gives Customer Success Managers reliable data to support renewal conversations.
- Revenue Retention: Helps maintain gross revenue retention and recover at-risk revenue.
- Visibility and Comparison: Allows comparison between automated and manual forecasting measures for future iterations.
Hot to get started
To begin improving your renewal forecasting and managing risks proactively, follow these combined steps:
Track Key Renewal Interactions
- Implement Systems to Log Communications:
- Use tools like Timeline, Gainsight Assist, and Sally Slackbot to log all renewal-related communications.
- Train teams on the importance of logging communications accurately to maintain comprehensive records.
- Create a Holistic View of Your Renewal Pipeline:
- Develop dashboards that pull details from Gainsight, CRM, and other systems.
- Use these dashboards to prioritize renewals and escalate at-risk renewals.
Capture Customer and CSM Insights
- Survey Customers Ahead of Renewal:
- Kick off the Pre-Renewal Workflow: Use a survey to ask your customers if they intend to renew. This provides direct insights from the economic buyer.
- Automate Survey Distribution: Utilize Journey Orchestrator to email the survey 135 days before the renewal date. If there’s no response or if the response indicates potential churn, trigger a CTA for the CSM to follow up.
- Analyze Survey Data: Create reports based on customer responses and CTA follow-up data to gain a clear picture of renewal likelihood.
- Capture CSM Insights on Renewal Likelihood:
- Create a Custom Field: Add a custom field in the Account object called “Internal Renewal Likelihood.” This field should be a picklist with values ranging from “Very Unlikely” to “Very Likely.”
- Integrate into Renewal Process: Add this field to your Renewal Opportunity page layout in Gainsight.
- Train CSMs: Train your internal teams to fill out this field honestly and accurately when they have conversations with customers. Encourage them to assess the customer’s likelihood to renew based on their interactions.
- Utilize CSM Data: Use this data to supplement your existing renewal forecasting models. Create reports showing the percentage of accounts that are “Very Likely” to renew and use this data to adjust your renewal forecast accordingly.
Gainsight features you'll need
To successfully implement the above steps, you’ll need to leverage the following Gainsight features:
- Timeline: To log and track all renewal-related interactions.
- Gainsight Assist: For integrating email communications into the tracking system.
- Sally Slackbot: For tracking and logging communications via Slack.
- Dashboards: To create comprehensive views of the renewal pipeline.
- Journey Orchestrator: For sending surveys and managing customer communication.
- Surveys: To gather customer input on their likelihood to renew.
- Custom Fields: To track and analyze survey responses and follow-up data.
- Renewal Center: To manage and forecast renewals effectively.
- CTAs (Automated): To follow up on survey responses and manage risk alerts.
What’s next?
You've now developed a comprehensive approach to renewal forecasting. Continue refining your strategies and explore advanced features for even greater accuracy with below steps:.
- Continuous Monitoring: Regularly review survey responses and risk alerts to ensure timely follow-ups.
- Data Analysis: Analyze the data collected from surveys and risk activities to refine your renewal forecasting models and risk management strategies.
- Customer Feedback: Gather feedback from customers on the survey process and use it to improve your workflows.
- Advanced Features: Explore additional Gainsight features and integrations to further enhance your customer success efforts.