Hey, everyone. How's it going?
I'm Mike.
Today, I'm here to talk to you
about renewals.
Specifically, we'll discuss
how to create a renewal process
That is data driven, well-timed,
and highly personalized.
I'll even share examples
of how we do it here
at Salesforce
using our own technology.
On Salesforce, an inside
look at our sales service marketing
businesses with helpful How to tips
you can use for your Business.
For Customer
Success, leaders will share tips
on how to efficiently onboard
your customers, how to successfully
implement new Salesforce
technology, and so much more.
As always,
you can learn more on Trailhead.
Salesforce Online
Learning Platform.
For more information on this topic
and many others
you might find useful
for your business.
If you're a SAS business
or subscription based company,
the Renos process is make or break
for your company's success.
That's why you need a seamless,
customer centric renos process
and rock solid forecasting tools.
So what are renewals
and how do they generate
when a customer's contract
for a subscription based product
or service expires and they decide
to continue using that service
by signing a new contract,
that's a renewal.
This subscription model
sets a foundation
for recurring revenue
and ideally sustained growth,
creating a renewals experience
for your customers That is simple
Doesn't happen overnight,
but with the right approach
and technology,
it is possible to create
an efficient
and cost effective renewals journey
while offering your customers
the perfect mix of automated
service and hands on attention.
So let me share three Pro tips
for improving your Windows process.
Tip number one Monitor Customer
Health Understanding
and how they engage
with your products and services
is key to understanding
their willingness to renew.
creating a system that monitors
customer health at Salesforce.
We actively monitor customer
usage of different features
We gauge customer health
and a rating system that allows us
to identify and engage customers
who need assistance right now.
We also have an early
warning system
that flags are most at risk
customers.
We can measure
every customer interaction
because it's built
on a fully integrated system,
giving us a 360 degree view of the
customer across every touchpoint.
One indicator
we look at is maturity.
How many products
is our customer using?
How long has a customer
had a contract with us?
We also look at customer support
and program engagement.
What does a customer case
volume look like?
How complex are the issues
and what is their CSAT score?
After contacting us for support,
are they accessing our learning
materials like Trailhead
or attending any of our events
like product webinars
or expert coaching sessions?
All of these combined factors
determine the health in the account
and their likelihood
of their renewal.
We build these systems
using reports and dashboards
and the account contact
and opportunity objects.
These are all examples of existing
Salesforce technology.
You can start leveraging today
in your renewals forecasting.
OC With solid forecasting in place.
That brings us to another
very relevant tip.
Tip number two,
timing is everything with renewals.
Timing is your best friend
and having a system in place
to measure customer health
means we can bring the history
of each customer salesforce usage
into real time conversations
about the renewal.
The approach of a renewal date
is a great time to review
customer health, evaluate
which products are up for renewal,
and identify opportunities
for add ons or swaps.
But this isn't
just about upselling.
We want to make sure each customer
is enjoying efficient growth.
That means we take a data
driven approach that tells us
is taking advantage
of their investment in Salesforce
or if they're not using
the products as much
because that's a key
indicator of attrition.
At Salesforce, we typically start
reviewing accounts
12 to 9 months away from renewal.
Review involves ongoing check
ins to the last few weeks before
the renewal date and conversations
with an account manager.
if you're using Salesforce
for your own renewals processes,
you can also track
and automate the process
through a standard
Salesforce feature. The opportunity
changes automatically update the
opportunity stage in Salesforce.
These in turn can be surfaced
to leadership via auto updated
dashboards, easily
identifying accounts
that need extra support
right when they need it.
This allows our renewals team
to be more productive
and focus their attention
on the accounts
that are most at risk at any
given time.
We love meeting our customers
where they're at.
Some customers like to have
a lot of interaction with us.
Some customers thrive in set it
and forget it mode.
And that brings us
to our final tip.
Tip number three
include a self-service option.
we've
developed a self-service program
that allows customers
to renew their existing contract
without having to go through
our full renewal process
with a renewed manager.
As you heard in tip number two,
timing is everything and talk about
well timed.
So we're automated emails.
At Salesforce, we send emails
to the customer's contract
owner 96 and 45 days
before the renewal deadline
to let them know that
it's time to renew their contract.
We share all of the same great
information
that our renewals team would person
to person, but in email format.
This process,
which used to be entirely manual,
reduces cost and frees up
a ton of time for our renewals team
to focus on higher priority tasks
from either their email or a linked
landing page.
Customers can easily
and quickly self renew
the landing page
Built on marketing.
custom account information
that the customers can review
the opportunity to modify
and renew their existing contract.
In addition
to automated email sends,
we alert customers
about their upcoming window
dates
through the use of in-app prompts.
In the Salesforce instance,
they use every day.
We ensure these in-app prompts only
show up for the contract owner.
Remember with Salesforce
Customer 360,
you always have a single share
view of your customers.
That means account and success
managers working in sales.
Cloud always have eyes
on what's happening
with the renewal campaigns
within Marketing Cloud,
allowing them to be more productive
by getting involved
only when they're needed.
Following these updates,
we've seen a 52% year over year
increase in self-service renewals
and we're seeing 70%
of our renewals
pipeline exclusively
leveraging the self-service option.
Forecasting, timing, self-service.
Putting these concepts
into practice ensures
that ah, renewals
revenue is on track
and that every customer is enjoying
personalized proactive support.
All the while
we're helping our customers
maximize their investment
in Salesforce.
We bring our best business ideas
to life on the Salesforce platform,
and so can you check out the other
resources provided to learn
renewals here at Salesforce
using our own technology?
360 blog, Trailhead and the other
episodes in this series to learn
how we use Salesforce products
to deliver amazing
customer experiences.
