You're at your weekly leadership meeting. Numbers are up, but there’s tension in the air.
Theres a churn report on the table, and it does not look good.
The name of a recently canceled customer screams up from the page. The same “record-breaking” deal that had the sales team popping champagne just a few months ago.
Finger-pointing has already begun.
The sales team says Customer Success (CS) didn’t “manage the relationship well enough.” CS counters that the deal was doomed from the start.
Eventually, the truth surfaces.
The signed contract never addressed the core challenges the customer was facing. It was driven by heavy price negotiation to meet the quarterly sales target, not by true ROI or a shared vision of success.
Too many organizations first realize there’s a problem when the cancellation letter arrives.
Churn is often portrayed as an unpredictable storm that appears “out of nowhere.” But it’s frequently set in motion the moment a misaligned deal is signed.
Companies tend to blame churn on the Customer Success (CS) team or external market factors, yet the root cause often lies in a contract that was never truly aligned with the customer’s needs.
When the primary motivator...
