Most renewals fail in month eleven because nobody owns month nine. The vendor sends a quote. Finance asks if you still need it. You say yes because last quarter’s outage is still in memory. That is how overlapping CRMs survive.
Use this as a 90-day pass. Print it. Put a name next to each line.
90 days out
- Export active seats and last-login dates. A seat that has not signed in for 90 days is not a user. It is a tax.
- List every other tool that does 30% of the same job. If two products share a workflow, one of them is on trial at renewal, whether the vendor knows it or not.
- Find the termination and data-export clauses. If export needs a services ticket, price that ticket now.
60 days out
Write one paragraph: what work dies if this tool is down for a day, who can add a seat, and what you would switch to. If you cannot write it, you do not have an owner.
Ask the vendor for the renewal in writing with unit price, volume, and any auto-increase. Verbal “we will take care of you” is not a term.
A renewal without a kill list is a subscription you already lost.
30 days out
| Check | Pass | Fail |
|---|---|---|
| Unused seats | True-down before the quote locks | Paying for last-login ghosts |
| “Standard” increase | The clause is in the paper | The increase is a habit |
| Stay / shrink / leave | Finance and the operator in one meeting | A Slack poll after the invoice |
The only metric
Did this tool retire hours, tickets, or another license? If the answer is a vibe, you are buying a logo. Keep the tool that has a before-and-after number. Cut the one that only has a champion.
FAQ
When should we start?
Ninety days before the date on the order form, not ninety days before the vendor’s “we need a signature this week” email.
What if we missed the true-down window?
Ask anyway. Many vendors will cut unused seats once rather than lose the account. Do not treat a missed window as a law of physics.
Who has to be in the stay / shrink / leave meeting?
The person who signs, the person who uses it, and the person who would run the export. If one of those chairs is empty, you will renew by default.
Is an auto-increase always in the contract?
No. “Standard uplift” is often a sales sentence. If it is not in the paper, it is a request.