KEY PREDICTORS OF CHURN
ACCORDING TO BUYERS
As 2022 comes to an end, one question that is top of mind for many sales organizations is one of customer retention. Facing an uncertain macroeconomic outlook and the reality that customer acquisition is significantly more expensive than customer retention, many sales leaders are looking for ways to secure the renewals of their existing customers and shore up a precarious pipeline.
Our team has analyzed the responses of over 2000 respondents and investigated the most important metrics that separate the secured clients who identify themselves as “certain to renew” from churn risks who are “doubtful to renew”. Based on this feedback, we’ve identified three critical warning signs of potential churn:
Predictor # 1:
Strained or ineffective implementation creating
hazards early in the relationship
Secured clients tended to undergo effective implementations that quickly got them up and running and left no room for doubt about their vendor’s ability to deliver results. But churn risks were often less satisfied with their implementation experiences, undergoing painful onboardings that required high effort to complete yet failed to deliver the training and coaching they needed to be successful.
The change management ability of onboarding teams was a key factor here, with vendors performing 40% worse among churn risks compared to secured clients. Buyers not only needed help learning how to use the product, but they also needed a trusted adviser to help them sell it internally and create alignment to achieve results.
PREDICTOR # 2:
Limited ease of use raising barriers to product adoption
and evangelism
Change management and internal evangelism remain important far beyond the implementation stage as well. While secured clients often felt that vendor solutions were so easy to use that they made it a breeze to train and drive adoption, churn risks faced more of an uphill battle to increase usage and see clear returns on their investments.
Vendors performed 37% worse in ease of use among churn risks, who sought a more intuitive user interface to streamline training and make it easier to onboard end-users and managers. Absent these improvements, customers rapidly became frustrated with vendors as their experience degraded, and defection became likely.
PREDICTOR # 3:
Lack of compelling technological breadth to secure
long-term value
Uncertain perceived long-term solution value due to limited breadth or technological capability is another critical warning sign in many opportunities. While secured clients expressed high satisfaction in their solution’s technological capabilities and breadth, churn risks were barely satisfied and saw significant room for improvement.
What’s more, churn risks were also likely to become detractors, limiting vendor growth and putting future deals at risk as well.
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Ask these three questions
to assess a client's churn risk and secure their business
1
Did I know if this client underwent a difficult implementation, and if so is there any lingering strain on the relationship?
2
Has this client expressed any concern around the product's ease of use, or have they struggled to drive adoption/train end-users?
3