Scaling your Sales Efforts with Renewals Automation 

Unless you’re Michael Scott from the hit TV series “The Office,” you know it’s cheaper to keep an existing customer rather than signing up a new one. But cost isn’t the only factor, as customer expectations in the digital age are rapidly changing. Add in the COVID-19 crisis, and the pace of this change has only accelerated—forcing companies to rethink their go-to-market strategies for sales.

As industry competition heats up and it becomes increasingly difficult to find customers willing to make large purchases, renewing your existing customer base has never been more important. What does this mean, exactly? Sales teams are shifting their focus towards the Expand and Renew motions of the LAER (Land, Adopt, Expand, Renew) lifecycle to meet the revenue goals of their respective organizations. And with this increased focus, organizations are looking for new ways to increase productivity, conversion, and upsell rates. 

As sales teams’ responsibilities grow, automation can be a powerful tool used to enable your Expand and Renew motions. However, a shift in your people, process, and technology is the key to unlocking the value that automation promises. Turning to this approach for high volume, low value opportunities unlocks: 

1. Higher Renewal Rates 
2. Higher Upsell Rates 
3. Increase Productivity 

Focusing your automation efforts on high volume, low value renewals gives time back to your sales team—allowing them to focus on the low volume, high value renewals that require higher attention and a more customized engagement plan. Renewal rates are increased in terms of both total amount and higher conversion rates, as coverage across your total opportunity increases. It’s not reasonable to expect your salespeople to cover all the renewals possible, as they have to make strategic decisions about their time and what customers offer the most revenue opportunity for that time. With automation, this problem is taken out of the equation as scale is introduced in a way that your sales teams can handle. 

In these digitally native experiences, customers are offered the ability to renew at higher service levels and for longer durations. Since this is done in a self-serve, digital-first model, customers feel empowered that the decision rests in their hands—making the buyer process as frictionless as possible while introducing humans (read, sales and customer success teams) into the process on the buyers’ terms. This approach has proven to increase renewals and upsell opportunities, which matures and strengthens customers’ relationship with your organization. 

The scale and speed at which these automation opportunities present themselves are not actualized without the expertise, tools and teams to make them a reality. Typically, a DIY approach doesn’t enable automation to ‘happen’.

If you are looking for better ways to engage with your customers and increase revenue, implementing automation into your renewal sales motion is the perfect place to start. If you want to learn more about how to accomplish this and learn about uses cases—including renewals automation and notifications—you know where to find us.