Renewals might seem like just another checkbox on the to-do list, but for subscription-based businesses they can contribute to a steady cash flow and long-term growth. Without a strong renewals process, you could unknowingly let revenue slip through your fingers.

This is what we call revenue leakage. 

Maybe it’s a missed upsell, overlooked billing details, or even an underpriced renewal. Whatever the cause, it adds up, and before you know it, it will impact your bottom line.

Renewals are also a golden opportunity to strengthen your partnership with customers, revisit their needs, and explore new ways to add value. Don’t just try to keep them on board, make sure you’re getting the full potential out of the relationship.

In this blog, we’ll break down where things can go wrong with renewals and, more importantly, how you can fix it. 

The ‘Normal’ Renewals Process 

For many companies, the renewals process boils down to a single goal: getting the customer to sign on the dotted line again. While that’s certainly important, it’s also a missed opportunity. 

Renewals aren’t just about maintaining the status quo, they’re a prime time to explore new ways to grow revenue and deepen your relationship with your customers.

Here’s how the typical renewals process tends to play out:

• Focus solely on securing the renewal. The emphasis is on getting the customer to renew without looking for opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, or renegotiate. This means ignoring potential revenue, and value. 

• Customer relationships are overlooked. The foundation of any successful renewal is a strong relationship with your customer. Happy customers are far more likely to renew than frustrated or neglected ones. Yet, many companies only address customer issues reactively, rather than proactively working to keep them engaged and satisfied.

• Time and energy are spent on lost causes. Not all churn is salvageable. Some customers simply won’t renew, no matter what you do. Spending too much time trying to convince them to stay can drain resources and lead to neglecting other customers. Customers who are far more likely to stick around.

• Inefficient processes. Outdated contact and billing data, delayed communications, or disorganized renewal tracking can all lead to unnecessary friction. Without an efficient system in place, you risk delays, confusion, and even losing customers unnecessarily.

• Last-minute communication. Waiting until the last minute to discuss renewals often leaves little room to address customer needs, let alone identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling.

Here’s how you can flip the script:

• Start with happy customers. If your customers feel valued and see the tangible benefits of your product or service, they’ll be more inclined to renew, and more open to conversations about expanding their usage. Address issues promptly and stay in regular contact to build a strong foundation.

• Know when to let go. Learn to recognize the signs of unsalvageable churn. Accepting when a customer is likely to leave allows you to redirect your time and energy to retaining other accounts that are still engaged.

• Organize your internal process. Use tools like automatic notifications, dashboards, and reports to ensure renewals stay on track. Make sure your contact and billing information is always up to date, especially for long-term contracts, where organizational changes on the customer’s end are common.

• Reach out early. Contact your customers well in advance of their renewal date. This gives you time to discuss any changes to their needs, make sure they’re properly equipped, and explore upsell or cross-sell opportunities without pressure.

By moving beyond the “just renew” mindset, you can turn renewals into a growth engine for your business. It’s all about preparation, and improving the customer experience.

Revenue Leakage During the Renewals Process

Renewals present a critical moment for your business. While the goal is often securing a customer’s continued commitment, this process can unintentionally lead to lost revenue if it’s not handled well. Revenue leakage during renewals isn’t always obvious. It might come from overlooked pricing adjustments, mismatched usage and billing, or discounts that are no longer sustainable. If these areas aren’t proactively managed, the financial impact can quietly build over time.

Let’s take a look at some common culprits:

1. Sticking to outdated pricing

If your customer has enjoyed long-term price protection, failing to renegotiate the price at renewal can leave significant money on the table. Think of a customer who’s been paying the same discounted rate for years while your costs or market value have increased, if you don’t address this, that’s revenue you’re losing unnecessarily.

The solution is to bring up pricing early in the renewal process. This way, your customer won’t feel blindsided by a sudden increase. Framing the conversation around the value they’re receiving makes it easier to justify adjustments while maintaining trust.

2. Not benchmarking your renewals

Every company gives discounts to win customers, it’s part of the game. But without revisiting those discounts at renewal, you risk locking yourself into unprofitable deals. Do you know the average discount rate across your accounts? How about the average price customers pay? These benchmarks are crucial to ensuring renewals reflect the true value of your product or service.

A good practice is to periodically analyze your discounting trends and ensure your renewals align with your pricing strategy. That way, you can avoid unknowingly using outdated or overly generous pricing.

3. Overconsumption

Many subscription-based companies operate on a per-user or per-month model. Often, customers end up using more licenses or resources than they’re paying for, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Allowing overconsumption can make your product stickier, encouraging adoption and reducing friction.

But if you don’t reconcile that overconsumption during the renewal process, you’re missing revenue. For example, if a customer consistently uses 50 licenses but only pays for 40, you’re effectively providing a free service.

To fix this, you need a clear view of two things:

• What your customer is entitled to under their subscription.
• What they’re actually consuming.

With this information, you can have an informed conversation about adjusting their contract to reflect their actual usage.

4. Lack of visibility into customer data

Revenue leakage often comes down to one thing: poor visibility. If you don’t have accurate, centralized data about your customers’ usage, billing, and contracts, it’s nearly impossible to spot where revenue might be slipping away.

Stopping the Leak

Preventing revenue leakage requires a proactive approach to renewals. Every aspect of the renewal should reflect the value you’re providing and the resources they’re consuming. When you address pricing, discounts, and usage head-on, you turn renewals into an opportunity to strengthen your bottom line.

How To Stop Revenue Leakage

If renewals are an opportunity to prevent revenue leakage and drive growth, then having a robust process is your safety net. A well-structured renewals strategy ensures you’re capturing the full value of your customer relationships while reducing the risk of missed revenue. Here’s how to set up a process that works, and how Plan2Renew can help.

Step 1: Centralize your data in Salesforce

To make informed decisions, you need a single source of truth that consolidates all relevant information like consumption, licensing, discounts, and billing.

Start by gathering this data from across your systems and integrating it into Salesforce. 

Not sure how to get started? Think creatively about the tools at your disposal, whether it’s APIs, RPA tools, or other integrations. Just make sure there’s a reliable way to match account data across systems, such as unique identifiers for each customer. The cleaner and more complete your data, the easier it will be to spot potential issues or opportunities during renewals.

Step 2: Create reports and dashboards

With your data in one place, the next step is to make it actionable. Build reports and dashboards in Salesforce that help you monitor key metrics at every stage of the renewals process.

These dashboards should give you clear visibility into:

• Upcoming renewals and their timelines.
• Customer usage vs. entitlements (to identify overconsumption or underuse).
• Pricing benchmarks and discount trends across accounts.

By setting up these tools, you can proactively address potential revenue leakage, whether that’s ensuring renewals happen on time, identifying opportunities for upselling, or catching discrepancies in usage. 

Plus, having a visual overview of your renewals pipeline helps maintain steady cash flow.

Step 3: Track historical KPIs

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Tracking historical KPIs gives you a benchmark to evaluate how well your renewals process is working over time.

Metrics like renewal rates, average revenue per account, and discount recovery are all indicators of your process’s health. When you compare these metrics quarter over quarter, you’ll start to see patterns, what’s working, what’s not, and where there’s room for improvement.

Plan2Renew

The renewals process often feels chaotic. Fragmented data, and a lack of direction can make it hard to ensure every opportunity is fully maximized. That’s why we built Plan2Renew (P2R), to bring structure and clarity to a traditionally messy process.

P2R integrates directly into your Salesforce renewal opportunity and guides you through a straightforward, question-based framework. This framework is designed to quickly and accurately assess the status of your renewal opportunity, focusing on four critical areas:

• Service & Performance: Are your customers satisfied with the service and results you’ve delivered?
• Relationships: Do you have strong connections with decision-makers and stakeholders?
• Decision (Making): Are you clear on who’s involved in the renewal decision and their priorities?
• Value & Risk: Does your customer see the value in renewing, and what risks could jeopardize the process?

By assessing these factors, P2R highlights the strengths of your renewal opportunity and pinpoints risks that could derail it. With this insight, you can create a focused, effective closing plan to improve your chances of success.

Summary

Renewals don’t have to be complicated. With the right structure in place, you can take control of your renewals process. 

That’s exactly what Plan2Renew is built to do. Sitting right inside Salesforce, it guides you step-by-step, helping you assess risks, spot opportunities, and stay organized, all so you can focus on getting the most out of every renewal.

Why not see it for yourself? 

Take a product tour of Plan2Renew!