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EXECUTING A STRATEGIC RENEWAL PROCESS

VIDEO 1: WHY IS A STRATEGIC RENEWAL

PROCESS IMPORTANT?
Hi there, it's Evan from HubSpot Academy. A strategic renewal process is a vital part of your client
engagement, but many account managers only do this when it's too late. The reality is that this process
isn't something that happens only towards the end of the engagement, but something that is always
ongoing.

The conversations supporting a strategic renewal process should roll continuously. If you think about
it, they're tied to each report and every interaction between you and your client. The strategy behind
the renewal process, simply put, is the plan put in place to ensure that you meet a client's needs and
expectations. This should have flexibility built into it so that the process can adapt to and meet their
specific needs. If processes like data tracking and relationship building aren't done with the intention
of reconfirming the agency's value, the time put into them will be wasted. When an agency builds a
strategy to house all that work, growth and progress can be more tangible for both sides.

Ultimately, a strategic renewal process is critical because you need to ensure that your clients are happy
with your agency and services. If they are happy, they're more likely to renew, which means a strategic
renewal process is, ultimately, a fundamental aspect of client retention.

This ongoing security of your processes should be in place to help you determine whether your
processes are working as well as they should be. It also allows you to build in triggers and helps you
identify where and how you can add value before the renewal date. Lastly, it allows you to pick up on
any issues during the engagement that you can iron out early on.

Along with ensuring that your clients are satisfied, this process will help you identify potential
issues long before an account is up for renewal. This can empower you to make decisions that lead
to continuous improvements, innovation, and client retention. It also helps you predict what might
happen in the future with each account, and determine whether they're likely to stay with you. But
more than that, it allows you to understand why and how you might be able to change the outcome.

VIDEO 2: HOW DO YOU EXECUTE A STRATEGIC

RENEWAL PROCESS?
Hey, it's Evan from HubSpot Academy. Let's chat about how you can execute a strategic renewal
process. There are essentially four holistic steps you can take. They are: (1) conduct health

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checks, (2) document your key lifecycle points, (3) make the renewal call, or (4) make the
cancellation call, and (5) run a post-call debrief.

Let's take a look at step number one: conduct health checks.

Doing health checks with your client is a fundamental part of executing the strategic renewal
process. Health checks are basically ongoing reviews where you look at important indicators of your
client's “health” with your agency. Look at the client's goals, the progress made in achieving them, their
KPIs, and anything else you've put in place to help gauge client happiness. Another great health check
is a Net Promoter Score, or NPS, survey that's sent to clients quarterly. This will give you numerical
feedback on specific questions directly related to your agency and how your client feels about it.

As the account manager, you should be reviewing your client's account and doing these health
checks throughout the ongoing client management process. That way, by the time you get to renewal,
you have a good idea of how the engagement is going with your clients. If you don't already have
health checks set up, then you need to do so. That way, you can track your client's goals and
objectives, send out NPS surveys, and collate the findings. This will empower you to make any
necessary changes as you progress in your engagement with your client.

A client's health can be graded according to a color code of red, orange, or green. Red signifies a
client who's definitely at risk of cancelling, orange is a client you're unsure of—they could go either
way at this point—and green is a client who'll definitely upgrade or renew. It's a good idea to determine
this grade before you go into the renewal call to know how to best approach the client and what to
expect.

The next step is to document your key lifecycle points.

As is the case with health checks that need to be conducted throughout your engagement, key
lifecycle points should be set up for the entire engagement from the get-go. You can set documented
triggers for things like start and end dates, which will prompt you to take action. You can manage this
through workflows from deal stages and contact properties in the HubSpot CRM.
As an example, you can base your internal automated email to be triggered by the renewal date on
the contact property called “end date.”.

Let's take a look at step three: make the renewal call.

When the engagement with your client is a few months from the end date, it's time to set the date for
the renewal call. During the call, you'll highlight positive outcomes from the engagement, the progress
that has been made, and discuss whether the client would like to continue their engagement or cancel.
If they decide to continue, it's also an opportunity to discuss what needs to change moving forward
either in the terms of the contract or the deliverables.
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Now let's move on to the optional step, if the client decides to cancel: make the cancellation call.

This step only needs to happen if the client decides to cancel and therefore takes the place of the previous
step if you know a cancellation is definite. The great thing about this step is that even if the agency can no
longer help the client's business, or the client no longer feels the engagement is necessary, you can still focus
on the last pillar of the inbound methodology: delight. You can help in whatever way possible as you part ways,
ensuring the transition happens as seamlessly as possible. Examples of client delight during this phase include
helping the client transfer data or helping them determine their next steps, and you could even recommend
alternatives to the agency's services.

At this point, you also need to find out if the client wants to keep HubSpot. Once you have that information, you
need to share it with the HubSpot point of contact for that client.

Don't beat yourself up about a cancellation call. It's purely a realization that the companies are misaligned in
performance capabilities or delivery expectations.

Let's take a look at the fourth and final step: run a post-call debrief.

Whether your call was a renewal or cancellation call, it's a good idea to run an internal post-call debrief. This
retrospective is there so everyone is on the same page with either the steps to move forward with the client or
what went wrong if the client cancelled. It'll almost be like an exit interview. That way, the account manager can
assess what hurt the engagement and what worked in order to innovate.

Once you've run the post-cancellation call debrief, take stock of what this churn means. It's crucial that the
internal team involved with this client understands the impact the churn has on the company. For example, how
does it affect the company's revenue stream? Does it affect your HubSpot partner status? Does any internal HR
action need to take place? It's important the whole team knows the impact of a churn on the company.

For each of these steps to be conducted properly, it's a good idea to become familiar with some of the best
practices of the strategic renewal process. Let's take a look at six of the best practices that are worth knowing.
They are: (1) look at the terms of the contract, (2) confirm who at the agency is in charge of the renewal process,
(3) confirm progress towards objective goals, (4) be mindful of positive and negative signals from the client, (5)
gather health check notes prior to renewal-focused calls, and (6) set up alerts to prepare for a cancellation call.

The first best practice is to look at the terms of the contract. Contracts aren't the same from one agency to
the next. All agencies have retainers that are as unique as their clients. That's why one of the most important best
practices for preparing a strategic renewal process is to check and
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understand the specifics of each contract. Because the probability of a client renewing is based on
the execution of the contract, it's crucial to make sure you understand the expectations set out in the
contract when creating the renewal strategy. This, of course, doesn't happen once-off. The renewal
'prep' is an ongoing process that continues as the engagement progresses.

Take a look at the contract's terms, specifically the billing cycle, the contract length—is it a month, a
year, two years?—and the goals and expectations set around traffic, leads, customers, and support.
Then, based on the contract specifics, prepare health checks to address those exact terms and rate the
customer's status based on progress. This can be done partially without the client's input, but health
check calls will be necessary later on.

When you're looking at the contract, make a note of the recurring terms. Are they unique to the
contract? Are they customized each time the agency signs a new client?

Ask yourself these questions: What happens if the contract isn't addressed outright? Will it auto
renew? Will it auto-expire?

Make a note of these in the health check.

Let's move on to the next best practice: confirm who at the agency is in charge of the renewal
process. Determine who the internal stakeholders are on renewals at the agency. Is it the account
manager, the CEO, or is there a specialized renewal manager? This person is then also the person
who has the responsibility to report on the health check findings. If you, as the account manager, aren't
going to be doing this, notify the client who'll be sharing this information, and make the appropriate
introductions where necessary.

The third best practice is to confirm progress towards objective goals. Once the contract terms
have been confirmed and understood, and once the right stakeholders are involved, it's time to gather
the appropriate data. This data should stem from trackable activities that were set up earlier in the
client management process. The data may be in the retainer, proposal, or SLA, but whatever you do,
make sure you're tracking against deliverables such as traffic, leads, and customers.

Now it's time to look at our fourth best practice: be mindful of positive and negative signals
from the client. Any time you have a call with the client, be aware of any signals they might be giving
you, both negative and positive. Think about the objective and subjective information they've been
giving you. This could mean things like a drop in tool usage from either the client or the agency, or if
the client has been skipping meetings, speaks in negative undertones, or has a bad attitude. If this is
the case, it's clear that something is off with the engagement. It also means you need to address these
issues.

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The first thing you can do is review the value proposition. If your agency is providing the agreed upon
deliverables and the engagement appears successful, but the conversations with your client still seem off,
then you need to find out why. Perhaps it's not a perfect personality fit, or it comes down to a misunderstanding.
Remember that with enough time and realistic expectations, almost anything can be adjusted.

If the client only ever seems satisfied, make sure both sides—both client and agency—are on the same page
and happy about the same things. Just make sure your client isn't missing any important points. As with most
things in life, it's best not to assume they understand.

It's also a good idea for account managers to build relationships in their client's business outside of the primary
point of contact. This way, you can leverage that relationship to cut through any confusion, and so you can
determine what the client truly feels about the agency. The truth is always easier to work with, be it positive or
negative.

The fifth best practice is to gather health check notes prior to renewal-focused calls. If the health
check is aligned with the client's contract, data should be gathered and the agency should be ready to decide
the client's renewal color code (red, orange, or green). Start with the results gathered. Take a look at the work
your agency provided the client compared to their goals. Has the agency delivered the expected results? Is the
agency making the client's life better? Is the agency delivering on the value proposition? You need to make sure
you have answers to these questions before the renewal call kicks off.

The sixth best practice is to set up alerts to prepare for a cancellation call. Throughout the ongoing
client management process, it's imperative to gauge the potential severity of the call; This will give you an idea
of what type of preparation is required. As is the case with renewal calls, agencies don't have traditional
cancellation calls. In fact, as mentioned, it's often more of a 'negotiation call' than anything else. These calls can
go one of three ways.

The first is obviously the best: things are going great and the service might actually be upgraded.
The second is that things are going okay; the client is relatively happy and everyone will be fine with auto-
renewing the current conditions. The third, and last, is that things are going badly. This could mean a potential
downgrade or restructuring of the retainer. If you're on a call with a client who's in scenario three, you need to
figure out exactly why they aren't satisfied—it may just be that what they expect and the results they're seeing
are misaligned. The agency needs to think carefully about how to renew the client based on their needs.

It's only technically a cancellation call when the client has reached a point of no return and actually
cancels. Remember, it's much more cost-effective to renew a client on different terms than to churn the
client and replace them.

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To review, the first step to executing a strategic renewal process is to conduct health checks.
Once you have a process of conducting health checks, you need to document your key lifecycle points.
When the time is right, you'll have the appropriate call—either a renewal or cancellation call. And
finally, you need to run an internal post-call debrief. Throughout this process, you should implement the
best practices that are most relevant to your client and situation.

Remember that your strategic renewal process needs to be client- and scenario-specific. Not all steps,
nor best practices, will apply to every client and every process. There it is! Now you know how to
execute a strategic renewal process.

VIDEO 3: WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL RENEWAL

PROCESS LOOK LIKE?
Hello, it's Evan from HubSpot Academy. Let's look at what a successful strategic renewal process might
look like for an agency. We're going to look at one of our top HubSpot agency partners, MPULL, located
in Cape Town, South Africa. MPULL is a strategic inbound marketing agency that mixes creativity and
data to help agencies grow their businesses.

When they started with their client, TechSpace, they set up goals and ensured the objectives of the
engagement were clearly outlined and documented. During the ongoing client management of
TechSpace, they constantly referred back to these goals and measured them against the work that had
been provided. As part of their health checks, they also sent out an NPS survey to TechSpace every
quarter in order to track their satisfaction.

They then moved onto the next step in the renewal process and started setting up triggers. The first
move they made in the CRM was to mark the client as “deal won,” before updating the close and
renewal dates. They then set up the workflow triggered from the renewal date to remind them of what
needs to be done and what stage of the workflow they're in. For example, they set it up in a way that
they're reminded about the renewal a month and a half before the date, so the process could begin.

When the renewal date was approved, they hosted their call with TechSpace. A lot of preparation was
put into the call. They looked at all of the data they had on TechSpace: their goals, the deliverables
compared to the goals, and the health check data. As a part of this, they looked at their NPS survey
data to determine how the client may be feeling before the call, and they held conversations with the
internal team working with the client to understand this further. Based on their information, they identified
that TechSpace is an 'orange client' — a client with a medium risk of cancellation. They realized that
while the team is tracking towards the goals, they're not quite reaching them. The data from the NPS
surveys show that TechSpace's survey results went from

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an average of a nine to an eight and, based on the conversation with their internal team, they found
that the client isn't 100% happy with the services rendered.

Before the call, MPULL's account manager sent an agenda to their point of contact at TechSpace.
During the call, they reviewed the client's goals and the delivery of the services and discussed why the
NPS score might have decreased. The client let them know that they haven't been satisfied with the
reporting they had been receiving. MPULL took accountability for their reporting and discussed potential
solutions, ways to move forward, and changes that would be made internally to ease frustrations. They
were also attentive to any other concerns the client had, which was well-received. The orange call turned
into a green one, and TechSpace felt better about the engagement moving forward and so renewed for
another year.

Because they decided to renew HubSpot as well, MPULL let their HubSpot point of contact know.
Once they had done this, they held a post-call retrospective. The internal team working on the account
had a meeting where they went through all the feedback from the call. They also ensured that everyone
was on the same page with the improvements that needed to be made and the new expectations set.

These are some of the steps MPULL took to execute their renewal process successfully with
TechSpace.