Before you take a churn response to the board, war-game it. Cut the lost revenue by segment, signing cohort, and cause, trace each cause to the team that can fix it, pick two or three interventions with owners and dates, and say plainly what you will not do. Paste the retention data by account, exit reasons and support history, the draft board response, and the proposed budget into one request. Instruct Pingpong to test whether each intervention matches a cause the data supports, flag responses that spend money on customers who were never at risk, and list the questions directors will ask. Review your written answers in a second round.
This page is for chief executives, revenue and customer leaders, and directors responding to a retention miss. Executive starting points live under Pingpong for executives.
Cut the churn three ways
- By segment: size, plan, industry, and region.
- By signing cohort: when and how the customer was acquired.
- By cause: what the account data shows, next to what the customer said on the way out.
A single retention number hides groups that left for different reasons. Each group usually points to a different team.
Trace each cause to an owner
Product causes include missing features, reliability, and changes that broke how customers worked. Sales causes include customers who were a poor fit from the start or were sold something the product does not do. Success causes include weak onboarding, turnover in account managers, and slow support. Name the executive who owns each.
Choose two or three moves, and name what you won't do
A long list of initiatives tells the board the cause is unknown. Pick the interventions that address the largest share of lost revenue, each with an owner, a date, and a leading indicator. Then rule out the responses that feel active but miss the cause. Blanket discounts are the usual example: they reduce revenue from customers who were going to stay and teach the rest to ask at renewal.
A worked example
This example is illustrative and does not describe a customer. At a 220-person marketing analytics software company, gross revenue retention has fallen from 91% to 84% over three quarters. The chief revenue officer's draft board response proposes a save desk offering 20% discounts to at-risk accounts and four new account managers.
The chief executive pastes retention by account with segment and signing date, exit reasons, support ticket history, account manager assignments, and the draft response.
A useful pass finds three distinct groups. About 60% of lost revenue came from small accounts signed in the past 18 months through a self-serve promotion, many of them outside the company's target customer profile. About 25% came from mid-market customers after a reporting migration broke their dashboards. The remaining 15% came from larger accounts whose account manager changed twice within a year. The discount would apply to many accounts showing no risk signals, at an estimated cost of $1.2 million in recurring revenue. New account managers would not reach the small self-serve accounts, which have no assigned manager.
The revised response names three moves. The head of product fixes the migration gaps by the end of next quarter, and the team contacts the 140 affected mid-market accounts this month. The chief revenue officer ends the promotion for accounts outside the target profile and tightens qualification starting now. The head of customer success limits account manager changes to one a year for accounts above $50,000. The save desk stays, but discounts need approval, are tied to longer commitments, and have a quarterly cap. The head of customer success runs a weekly review of every renewal in the next 90 days.
The board receives a monthly update for two quarters, showing retention by segment and the leading indicators: dashboard errors, qualification rates, and account manager changes. The response states a goal of retention back above 88% within three quarters, with the assumptions behind it.
If the analysis shows the company is selling to the wrong customers, see test the evidence and write the definition before you change your ICP.
A request you can copy
Below are our retention data by account with segment and signing date, exit reasons, support history, the draft board response, and the proposed budget. Break lost revenue down by segment, cohort, and cause. Trace each cause to product, sales, or customer success. Check that each proposed intervention addresses a cause the data supports, and flag spending on accounts with no risk signals. List the questions directors will ask about owners, dates, and measures. Stop there so we can answer in writing, then review our answers.
How Pingpong runs the review
The web review app sends your request through several models in order. Each later model receives the original request and every earlier answer, with instructions to assess the work so far. For the steps inside the app, see running your first review.
What a model can't review
A model sees the data you paste. It does not hear what customers said on calls or know what competitors are offering them. You and the board own the response.
When the response goes to the board, see war-game a decision before the board meeting. More guides live under work decisions before you commit.