Does the thought of losing customers rack your brain when you try to sleep at night? Does the worry continue churning in your mind during your waking hours too?
You're not alone.
Revenue leaders in every corner of the market are facing a harsh reality. The economy's struggling. The future's unpredictable. And customers are tightening up.
Without dynamic and executable churn strategies, your hard-earned business will walk out the door. Who knows if it will ever come back?
Clari's SVP of Product, Kurt Leafstrand, met up with a dozen top revenue executives to get their take. He asked:
- What's working and what's not working?
- What strategies are busting churn and growing accounts?
- How are you evolving revenue motions for long-term success?
Here are eight strategies they're putting into place.
Play 1: Adjust to market realities
"Tech is undergoing a major adjustment at the moment."
Market correction is real.
But it's not hitting all customers the same. Big Tech versus SMB. MarTech vs cloud security. A wide lens doesn't show the whole picture.
Zoom in.
To fully adjust to market realities, you need to take a close look at your customers.
Who's resizing?
Who's holding steady?
Who's on a growth trajectory?
Make sure you're 20/20 on your market and adjust accordingly.
Play 2: Get back to customer lifecycle basics
"What we're doing to mature prevention is going back to some of the basics around how we're thinking about the customer lifecycle."
Everything comes back to customer experience.
Churn is the outcome when you miss a step in the life cycle. That's why many revenue leaders are going back to basics. Specifically:
- Telemetry and adoption tracking (starting 18 months out)
- Renewals and early expansion efforts
- CX plays to understand customer needs
Map your customer journey. Look for weak spots.
Play 3: Anticipate tech consolidation talk
"One of the things we've seen is the tech consolidation play. A customer admittedly knew that they might replace us with a lesser product with less impact. But it was either free or less expensive—it was easily consolidated into their tech stack."
Tech consolidation is here.
With the market tightening, your competitors are looking for an edge. And a consolidated tech stack is just what they need to lure your hard-earned clients away from you.
What's worse, many revenue teams miss the chance to catch it early. They've waited until the end of the renewal cycle, only to be surprised by a consolidation play.
The solution: Start tech talks early.
Give your team runway to bring in other options and point out flaws in lesser products.
Remember, the best defense is a good offense.
Play 4: Take full advantage of automated alerts
"We have a license usage alert inside our app. So when adding a new employee would exceed their existing license plan, we automatically receive an alert. Then, they are prompted to fill out a form, which sends the lead straight to our sales team."
You can't be everywhere at once.
But your automated alerts can. Set them up once, and they'll supply a steady stream of high conversion conversations.
Don't let "free growth" happen under your nose. Identify where you can add alerts to create easy win.
Play 5: Bring in churn prevention teams
"We often see that after we sell, in some cases to a big customer, they implement incorrectly. They just aren't using it in the right way or they missed a couple of steps."
Are you 100% confident in your early-stage customer onboarding?
If new customers are stumbling out of the gate, they've already begun the path to churn. That's why revenue leaders are going beyond the sale to patch any adoption issues.
One company set up a team of "churn prevention" consultants. Experts tasked with monitoring usage data and stepping in where there's a problem.
The result: 80%+ retention of new customers. Plus, churn prevention teams were able to spot upsell opportunities.
Increased retention. More upsells.
That's how you win.
Play 6: Earn your current customers
"We're looking at this the same way we look at new business. You need to earn it."
You go all-in to land the sale.
Then what?
You have to earn your current customers.
One team does this through what they call "snackable" pieces of content. Targeted emails to executives that offer insight and pull them through the cycle.
Another team compiles customer value quotes and brings them to the QBR. There, they discuss tactics for delivering value in the next business cycle.
Regardless of your approach, the message is clear.
Earn your current customers.
Play 7: Engage the right stakeholders
"Who are we engaging? That's a really good conversation. Is it just the owner of the software that we're using, or are we thinking about the CFO?"
End users versus Finance.
Retaining clients requires getting both stakeholder groups on board.
Your end users drive the value conversation. They adopt and optimize your solution.
But Finance has the final say. They can pull the plug. Or they can pump in the cash, especially if they're seeing a strong ROI.
Make sure you're visible to both groups.
Play 8: Work smarter, not harder
"I think the common theme across all of this was work smarter, not harder."
Retention is a full-time job.
But nobody's job title.
One exec recommends a two-pronged approach to smart retention busting.
- Culture: Build a customer-first culture to ensure your team understands and anticipates your customers' needs. This will make signs of churn obvious before even your customers recognize it.
- Automation: Don't overlook the key to scaling your own product. Automation at critical touchpoints frees your reps up while maintaining a firm customer experience. Analyze the entire customer journey and look for opportunities to position your team to grow with your customers.
Smarter, not harder.
That's the playbook for long-term success.
Ready to get a good night's sleep?
Make sure you have an airtight churn strategy. Customer lifecycle, automation, and stakeholders all rolled into one.
That's where Clari comes in. Our AI-powered Revenue Platform fights churn with advanced forecasting and insights to help you understand the full customer journey.
Chat with us to learn how we can help prevent churn and boost revenue retention.