RevOps playbook · AI Employee: Rev

Renewal Pipeline Review

Renewals never surprise CS

Install this playbookBack to marketplace
The problem

Renewals should be predictable and they aren't. CSMs think a customer is happy; the customer's champion just left; procurement is looking at three competitive alternatives; the renewal date arrives and everyone is scrambling. Every quarter has one or two surprises — a $200K account that lapses because nobody chased the AP contact, a $500K account that downgrades because usage cratered in the last quarter and no one looked. Retention numbers wobble on the last week of the quarter.

At a glance
Trigger
Cron (per week)
Approvals
None
What it does
Read-only
Systems
Salesforce · CS platform
How it feels in production

An hour-by-hour walkthrough.

Every Monday at 08:00, Rev opens the renewal pipeline for the next 120 days. For each renewal, it assembles the current health picture: - Contract: product, ACV, term, renewal date, auto-renew status - Usage trend: 90-day active-user delta, feature adoption trend, integration usage - Engagement: last CSM touch date, last exec touchpoint, ticket volume + sentiment, NPS response - Champion status: is the champion still at the company, still in the role, active in the account - Payment: past-90-day payment behaviour, any invoice disputes, credit hold status - Competitive: mentions of competitor names in support tickets, Gong calls, or email correspondence - Renewal signal: has the customer asked about pricing / new features / roadmap in the last 90 days Rev scores each renewal (0-1) and buckets: high-confidence (auto-renew safe), attention-needed (CSM engagement required), at-risk (executive engagement required), critical (multi-team recovery plan). CSM sees their bucket at 09:00 Monday: their renewals for the next 120 days with health scores + specific playbook. High-confidence: just confirm the auto-renew notification. Attention-needed: schedule a 30-minute check-in this week. At-risk: build a 90-day recovery plan with product + support. Critical: exec-to-exec sponsor. Weekly CS-leader digest: pipeline value by bucket, top at-risk accounts with story, forecast retention rate vs. quota. Renewals stop being surprises.
How it works

Step by step.

  1. 01

    Pull renewal pipeline + assemble health per account

    Every renewal within 120 days. For each: contract, usage trend, engagement history, champion status, payment behaviour, competitive signals, renewal-conversation signals. All from existing systems; no CSM data entry.

    Salesforce · HubSpot · Product analytics · Gong · Zendesk · Stripe
  2. 02

    Score + bucket every renewal

    Multi-factor score against your own historical renewal outcomes. Buckets: high-confidence, attention-needed, at-risk, critical. Each bucket carries a specific playbook + expected time investment.

    Historical warehouse · Scoring model · Playbook library
  3. 03

    Draft the CSM Monday-morning digest

    Per-CSM digest with their renewals bucketed + the specific playbook per bucket. Playbooks include the exact next actions with time estimates so CSMs can plan their week.

    Slack · Teams · Email · CSM dashboard
  4. 04

    Coordinate the multi-role plays

    At-risk + critical renewals often need product, support, exec sponsor. Rev builds the multi-role plan, routes coordination tasks to each stakeholder, tracks response, keeps the CSM in the loop.

    Slack · Teams · Task queue · Exec sponsor registry
  5. 05

    CS-leader weekly rollup + forecast

    Weekly digest: pipeline value by bucket, top at-risk accounts with story, forecast retention rate vs. quota, week-over-week movement. Escalations surface + resolutions tracked.

    Analytics · Slack digest · CS-leader dashboard
Systems and wiring

What you connect to make this run.

Salesforce · HubSpot

read+write

Renewal opportunity data + contract metadata. Write health score + bucket + playbook status back to the opportunity so pipeline reports show consistent data.

Product analytics · Amplitude · Mixpanel · Pendo

read

Usage trend, feature adoption, integration usage. The strongest single predictor of renewal — a customer whose active-user count is trending down for 60+ days is materially at risk.

Gong · Chorus · Zendesk · Intercom

read

Support ticket sentiment, competitor mentions, exec touchpoint frequency, customer concerns raised in calls or tickets. Cross-checked for consistency between voice + written channels.

Slack · Teams · CSM tools (Gainsight · ChurnZero)

read+write

CSM digest, exec-sponsor coordination, task queue. Writes back to CSM tool where one is in use; otherwise CRM notes.

What changes

Before and after, honestly.

Gross retention rate
Before
82-89%
After
91-96%
At-risk renewals identified 90+ days out
Before
20-40% (surfaced at 30 days)
After
85%+ (surfaced at 120 days)
Recovery rate on at-risk renewals
Before
15-30%
After
45-65%
CSM time per renewal cycle
Before
4-8 hours (mostly data gathering)
After
1-2 hours (mostly customer conversation)
Related

Playbooks that pair with this one.

RevOps

Deal-at-Risk Detection

New-business deals and renewals share the same at-risk detection engine.

RevOps

Expansion Signal Detection

Renewal cycle is often the expansion opportunity too; joint planning saves cycles.

RevOps

Weekly Forecast Roll-Up

Renewal forecast feeds the total forecast; same weekly cadence.

Frequently asked

Answers about this playbook.

Doesn't this over-engineer high-confidence renewals?

High-confidence renewals get a single confirmation task, not a coordinated play. The value is in identifying the 15-25% that need attention, not in adding overhead to the healthy majority.

How does it handle multi-year contracts?

Multi-year contracts get anniversary health-checks + full renewal review 120 days before the multi-year end. Mid-term upsell opportunities surface separately when signals warrant.

What about auto-renew contracts?

Auto-renew is a convenience, not a safety net. Still reviewed at 120 days for health; still coordinated where at-risk. Customer surprises on auto-renew are the fastest path to churn.

Can we customise the playbooks per segment?

Yes — SMB, mid-market, enterprise segments carry different playbooks. Enterprise at-risk always involves exec sponsor; SMB at-risk may just be a targeted email + call sequence.

How does this affect the CSM comp plan?

CSM comp typically ties to retention + expansion. This playbook makes the leading indicators visible so CSMs can hit their targets rather than reacting after the miss. Transparent health scores + interventions.

See it run on your data.

Free plan, no credit card. Connect the systems this playbook needs and run it against a past event first.

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