Losing a big customer is hard.  Don’t be the last to know.

Every person in Customer Success knows the feeling.

That punch in the gut when a customer tells you they’re leaving.

Especially one you were SURE was renewing.

It reminds me of my first girlfriend, let’s call her Sheryl (because that’s her name).

Man, I loved Sheryl.  She was my first.

We were high school sweethearts.

When we started to drift apart, I didn’t want to see it.

One night, she told me she was staying in.

But something felt off.

So I snuck over to her house, and peeked in her basement window.

My heart sank, and then it broke.

There she was, with all my friends – music blasting, everyone drinking and dancing.

Having the time of their lives.

That was a gut punch too.

But the truth – Sheryl had been telling me for months that it’s over.

Not with her words, but with her actions.

I was blind to it.

I wanted it to work, so bad.

So Customer Success leaders, listen up.

You can learn a lot from my teenage heartbreak.

Because just like Sheryl, customers will SHOW you they’re leaving long before they TELL you.

→ Execs stop showing up for meetings – slowly, then all at once.
→ Your contact starts postponing meetings – then cancelling them.
→ Your champion gets promoted.  This sounds like good news, but they quickly disengage.
→ One or two superusers leave and are replaced. You train them, but usage never recovers.
→ Nothing you do seems to work like it used to, and you spend all your time chasing.

It’s easy to explain any one of these.

Ah, it’s not that big a deal.  Everything is ok.

You want to believe it so bad, you are blind to the evidence right in front of you.

If this sounds familiar, try this instead:

1️⃣ Flip the burden of proof for renewals.  It’s not the CSMs job to identify risks, it’s their job to PROVE the customer will renew with their actions.
2️⃣ Have systems and data to trigger warnings that your CSMs might miss. Use AI, it’s getting really good at this.
3️⃣ Create repeatable playbooks that CSMs can use to intervene, so they don’t have to figure it out on their own every time.

And if you want to chat, DM me.

Oh and Sheryl, if you’re out there…it’s ok.

I’m over it.

Mostly.