High six-figure save · At-risk renewal case study

Saved a two-year cloud ERP renewal after full leadership turnover and a steep discount demand.

I inherited an account the customer had tried to walk away from twelve months earlier. By the time I had it, every champion I'd built was gone, the incoming CIO was pushing for a steep discount, and the business was shrinking under PE cost pressure. The renewal closed in Q1 2026 — two years, discount held flat, with the ERP platform locked in as the backbone of the business. Here's how.

Every reason to churn, lined up at once.

The account was PE-backed, under cost pressure, and had just downsized headcount. Twelve months before renewal, the company had tried to terminate the contract mid-term and been refused. The CFO had never forgiven the vendor for that. The CEO deferred everything on the platform to the admin, who was then let go.

By the time the renewal window opened, all three champions I'd built the relationship with over the prior year were gone. New CIO, new direction, new mandate. The incoming CIO had ex-ERP-vendor experience from a competitor, and his idea of "partnership" was fewer licenses, fewer modules, and a steep discount increase.

Twelve months earlier the customer had tried to leave. Now I had five months, a new CIO I'd never met, and a steep discount ask on the table. The account was at every kind of risk at the same time.

Rebuild the champion from zero. Multi-thread the team under him.

Started with the CIO. Got him into the vendor's executive sponsorship program with our senior leadership, which gave the relationship a reset. Set up a recurring cadence of business reviews so he could see what the platform was actually doing for the business — not as a sales pitch, but as context he could use to manage up.

Then multi-threaded. Built working relationships with the incoming VP of Technology, Director of IT, and the system engineer he'd brought in. These were the people doing the day-to-day work on the platform, and they had an informed opinion about what was actually essential versus what could be dropped. That mattered — because the CIO's cost-cutting instinct wasn't wrong, it just needed to land on the right line items.

The CFO and CEO stayed out of the room. That was the right outcome. They'd been burned by the mid-term termination fight. Single-threading through the CIO let the new leadership own the decision cleanly, without re-litigating old grudges.

The save inside the save

The premium support product was going to get cut. I turned it into the save vehicle.

The customer wanted to drop the premium cloud support product. They were unhappy with it — ticket volume high, past promises missed, no clear value for the spend. On paper it was a defensible cut.

I pushed back. Not on the complaint — the complaints were real — but on the move. I got the CIO into a room with the support team directly, with the full history on the table. We owned the past misses, built a joint plan of action, and connected him to the specialized contacts he needed for the cloud transformation he was planning.

The CIO was coming in with an AI mandate. I used the cloud support team to show the AI roadmap on the platform — reframing the product he was about to cut as the delivery channel for the AI future he was planning.

They kept it.

They came in wanting to cut the support product. They left with it as the delivery channel for their AI roadmap.

Flat pricing against a steep ask.

The CIO came in with a steep discount demand. The reasoning was fair on its face — business was smaller, the footprint was coming down, the account had cost pressure from the PE sponsor. He also referenced a competitive quote from an adjacent vendor, which I quietly validated and found wouldn't actually come in lower.

I pushed internally to hold the discount flat. The case was straightforward: the account had demonstrated willingness to leave twelve months earlier, we were already right-sizing by dropping unused modules, and a two-year commitment at flat pricing was worth more than the uplift we'd walk away from. Internal leadership backed me. Discount held.

The CIO stopped pushing on the number. Right-sized footprint and flat discount became the terms.

Two years. Platform locked in as the backbone.

The CIO ran the decision internally, confirmed with the CEO and CFO that the platform was the backbone of the business going forward, and signed. The CFO came back in only to sign — he never re-engaged in the negotiation itself.

Final terms: two-year renewal, discount held flat, footprint right-sized, premium support product retained with a joint remediation plan and the AI roadmap attached. The account was worth more as a two-year renewal at flat pricing than it would've been as a lost logo.

Four things this proves about how I sell.

Rebuilt champions from zero through full leadership turnover.

Every stakeholder I'd worked with was gone before the renewal cycle started. Built a new champion with the incoming CIO and multi-threaded his technical layer. Five months, zero inherited trust, two-year commitment.

Turned the product they wanted to cut into the save vehicle.

The premium support product was on the chopping block. I owned the past misses, built the remediation plan, and reframed it as the delivery channel for the AI roadmap the CIO actually wanted. Same product, different problem.

Held pricing flat against a steep ask.

Made the internal case to hold the discount flat and got leadership to back it. A right-sized footprint at the current discount beat a bigger footprint under renewal pressure.

Protected the ACV at an account that tried to leave 12 months earlier.

The customer had attempted a mid-term termination the prior year. Two years later, they re-signed for two more at flat pricing with the platform named as the backbone of the business. The save held and the account is now a reference-grade customer going into its next cycle.