On this month’s episode of The Customer Success Channel Podcast, brought to you by Planhat, I chatted with Irit Eizips, Chief Customer Officer & CEO at CSM Practice about how to close a renewal with an upsell.
Irit Eizips is a world-renowned expert in customer retention and upsells strategies. She has been shaping Customer Success methodologies and has been nominated as a top Customer Success strategist and influencer, year after year since 2013.
In 2022, Irit was named as one of the Top 50 Customer Success Influencers and Top 25 Most Innovative Leaders in CX. Irit frequently produces thought leadership on her YouTube channel (CSM Practice) and is often featured as a speaker at conferences and Customer Success publications.
In our discussion, Irit helps answer some of the tricky questions when it comes to securing a renewal with an upsell:
- In your opinion, what does a renewal process look like at the SaaS business you have worked with?
- How far out do you need to start the renewal process? What are some key indicators for a CSM to understand when a renewal needs to happen?
- If a CSM is responsible for renewals and commercials and not salespeople, how you should compensate for renewal?
Some key takeaways from this discussion:
- Customer success managers who included these four steps actually close above 51% of their renewal contracts with an upsell.
- When you started 120 days before the renewal date, all of a sudden, most of your renewals are actually being completed ahead of time. And there’s a higher probability for net retention and for them to be completed with an upsell.
- Common steps on how to build the best renewal process 1) Product roadmap call 2) Quarterly business review 3) A 12-months success plan 4) Review the renewal contract with the customer.
Make sure you listen to the full episode and let me know your thoughts in the comments!