Renewal and sales partnership
Objective. Prepare a renewal by summarising realised outcomes, unresolved risks, roadmap boundaries and the expansion handoff into a renewal readiness pack, while following internal commercial ownership - so the renewal is decided on evidence, not on a last-minute scramble.
A renewal is won across the whole year and merely confirmed at the end - or it is lost quietly and discovered too late. This lesson teaches you to assemble a renewal readiness pack that tells the truth about outcomes and risks, respects what the roadmap can and cannot promise, and hands expansion to sales cleanly, so the commercial conversation rests on evidence you have been building since C01.
See it in the demo
The customer problem
The dangerous renewal is the silent one: usage looks fine, no one has complained, and sixty days out the CSM assembles a case only to find there is no agreed outcome, an unresolved risk nobody logged, and a sponsor who cannot articulate why they would re-sign. By then it is a scramble, and scrambles concede on price or lose. The deeper problem is treating renewal as an event rather than the sum of the year's value work. Business impact: a renewal defended with a disciplined, evidence-backed story - realised outcomes against baseline, risks honestly stated and owned, a clear next-year plan - renews at value and often expands; a renewal defended with optimism renews at a discount or churns. The readiness pack forces the honesty early enough to act.
How Time Champ addresses it - the readiness pack
Assemble four parts. (1) Realised outcomes: the success-plan measures (C01) against baseline, presented with the C08 disciplines - confounders named, capacity kept separate from cash, customer-validated. This is the core of the pack and it should already exist from your QBRs. (2) Unresolved risks: the open items from your risk and escalation records (C10), stated honestly with their owners and status - a hidden risk that surfaces during the commercial conversation is far more damaging than one you raised and are managing. (3) Roadmap boundaries: what the customer is asking for that the product does and does not do today; be honest about what is committed versus aspirational, and mark anything uncertain 'confirm with product' rather than implying a commitment that does not exist. (4) Expansion handoff: the qualified expansion from C09, if any, framed for sales. Read the evidence from RCM Operations outcomes, Work Output cost views and Value Leakage verified recovery.
What to say / do - partner with sales, own your part
Renewal has a commercial owner - follow internal commercial ownership and do not improvise pricing or terms. Your job is to make the commercial conversation evidence-rich: hand sales a pack they can act on - what value was realised and validated, what the customer still needs, where the risks are, and what the qualified expansion is. Brief sales the way S09 briefs a CSM at handover: no promise hidden in free text, no risk omitted, no unvalidated number presented as fact. Talk track to sales: 'Here is the validated value story against the January baseline, two open risks with owners, the roadmap questions I have flagged as confirm-with-product, and one qualified expansion that clears the C09 tests - the renewal case stands on the QBR evidence, not on goodwill.' Internally, name who owns the commercial close and by when, so the renewal has an owner just as a risk does.
Honesty about roadmap and limits
The fastest way to poison a renewal is a roadmap promise that does not land. Customers remember commitments, so separate three things cleanly: what the product does today (demonstrable), what is genuinely committed on the roadmap (confirm with product before stating), and what is merely desirable. Where a customer's renewal hinges on a capability you are not certain exists or is entitled, say 'let me confirm with product' and get the real answer before the commercial conversation - never let a hopeful implication carry a renewal, because it becomes next year's trust problem (C10). The same applies to the value story: present only what was measured and validated (C08); an inflated renewal number that finance later questions is worse than an honest smaller one. The renewal pack is a truth document, and its credibility is the renewal's foundation.
Objections and honest limits
'Why should we renew, nothing has obviously changed?' - this is the silent-renewal failure; if you cannot answer with validated outcomes, the gap is the year's value work, and you surface it now rather than at signature. 'Will you add [feature] if we renew?' - do not promise roadmap you cannot confirm; say 'let me get you the real status from product' and come back with fact. 'Can you drop the price?' - pricing is sales-owned; your contribution is a value story strong enough that price is not the only lever. Honest limits: you prepare and evidence the renewal; you do not own the commercial terms. Where outcomes are thin because adoption stalled (C07) or a risk went unmanaged (C10), the honest renewal pack says so and proposes the recovery - a renewal built on a hidden weakness is a churn deferred, not avoided.
Interpretation check
A renewal pack is a truth document assembled from the year's QBRs and risk records - not a last-minute sales deck. Hiding a risk or inflating a number to ease the renewal defers churn; it does not prevent it.
In the field
KnackGlobal's renewal is a displacement defence: the pack must lead with validated output-per-FTE and cost-per-claim against baseline, state the open trust/metric risk honestly with its owner, flag any roadmap asks as confirm-with-product, and hand any qualified expansion to sales - a scramble here is exactly what ProHance is waiting for.
Practical task
Build a renewal readiness pack for KnackGlobal or OVO: realised outcomes against baseline (validated, capacity vs cash separated), unresolved risks with owners and status, roadmap boundaries with any 'confirm with product' flags, and the expansion handoff if one is qualified. End with a one-line internal note naming who owns the commercial close and by when.
Self-check
Why include unresolved risks in a renewal readiness pack rather than leaving them out?
A hidden risk that surfaces during the commercial conversation is far more damaging than one you raised and are visibly managing. Including them with owners and status shows control and keeps the renewal honest and defensible.
A customer asks whether a feature will be added if they renew. What is the correct response?
Do not promise roadmap you cannot confirm. Say you will get the real status from product and return with fact. Separate what the product does today, what is genuinely committed, and what is merely desirable.
Where does the CSM's role end and sales' begin at renewal?
The CSM prepares and evidences the renewal - validated outcomes, risks, roadmap flags, qualified expansion - and follows internal commercial ownership. Pricing, terms and the commercial close belong to sales; the CSM hands over a pack they can act on without hidden promises.
Outcomes are thin because adoption stalled during the year. How does the honest pack handle it?
It states the thin outcome and its cause (the C07 adoption layer that failed), and proposes the recovery - rather than inflating the value story. A renewal on a hidden weakness is churn deferred, not avoided.
Verified vs demo. The outcome and recovery evidence screens are demo-shown. Roadmap commitments, entitlement and all commercial terms are not demo-verifiable - confirm with product and leave pricing to sales; present only validated outcomes.