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The renewal play, end to end

Run a renewal or expansion as a planned play, not a scramble: research the account, map the risks, line up the value story, pre-handle objections, draft the outreach, and build a step-by-step runbook for the call.

advanced ~half a day

when to reach for this

A renewal is where everything you know about an account gets tested at once — the history, the risks, the value story, the objections you'll face. Done ad hoc, it's a panicked prep the morning of, a call you improvise, and an expansion you forget to even raise. This system runs the whole arc as a play: research the account, map what could sink it, build the value story, pre-handle the likely objections, draft the outreach and recap, and assemble a runbook — so the renewal call is execution, not improvisation. It pulls every other Sales playbook into one workflow.

gather this first

  • Everything on the account: notes folder, the email thread, the CRM export, and usage/value data if you have it — the same inputs as *The pre-call account brief*, plus the original deal terms.
  • Your value-prop.md, proof points, and the team battlecards.md from *The objection battle-cards* — the value story and objection answers you'll lean on.
  • The renewal specifics: renewal date, current contract value, the expansion you'd propose, and any known risk (champion change, budget freeze, a competitor sniffing around).

the workflow

  1. Research and risk-map the account

    Start with the full brief — you can't plan a renewal you don't understand. This is *The pre-call account brief* run deep, with the renewal stakes in view.

    you ask 
    Read the account notes folder, the email thread, and the CRM export, plus the original deal terms. Give me a renewal brief: where the relationship stands, the value they've actually gotten, every open promise we still owe, and the 3 biggest risks to this renewal ranked. Don't draft any outreach yet.

    what you get back A renewal brief — usage and value to date, the promises still outstanding, and a ranked risk list ("1. Champion moved teams; 2. They've only adopted 2 of 5 features; 3. Budget review this quarter") — the foundation the rest of the play inherits.

    If the risk map is wrong here, every downstream step is planning for the wrong fight. Spend your time getting this honest before moving on.

  2. Build the value story and the expansion case

    A renewal isn't "please re-sign" — it's "here's what you got and here's what's next." Turn usage data and proof points into a story that makes renewing (and expanding) the obvious move.

    you ask 
    Using value-prop.md and the usage data, build the value story for this renewal: the concrete results they've gotten (with real numbers), what they'd lose by leaving, and a specific expansion case framed around their goals — not our quota. Give me a punchy version and a plain version.

    what you get back A grounded value story ("cut onboarding from 3 weeks to 4 days; the expansion would extend that to their new region") in two registers — the spine of every email and the call itself, framed around their outcomes.

  3. Pre-handle the objections you already know are coming

    You can predict the pushback — so prepare it before the call. This is *The objection battle-cards* applied to this specific renewal's risks.

    you ask 
    Given the 3 risks from the brief and our battlecards.md, write the specific objection-handling for THIS renewal: the exact pushback I'll likely hear (price increase, partial adoption, "let's just do a short extension"), the real concern under each, and an honest, non-defensive response that reframes to the value story. Keep each under 60 words.

    what you get back A renewal-specific set of cards — for "the price went up": acknowledge it, tie it to the value delivered and the expansion upside, and propose a concrete path — so no objection on the call is a surprise.

  4. Draft the outreach and the recap in advance

    Write the pre-call email and the post-call recap now. This is *The personalized outreach engine* and *The post-call follow-up system* run ahead of time, so the call is bracketed by ready assets.

    you ask 
    Draft two emails in our voice: (1) a pre-call note to lock the renewal conversation, grounded in the value story, with a clear agenda; and (2) a post-call recap template with [commitment] and [next-step date] placeholders, restating the renewal terms and the expansion. Keep both under 120 words.

    what you get back A send-now pre-call email that frames the conversation around value, plus a recap template that's two blanks away from done the moment the call ends — momentum on both sides of the call.

  5. Assemble the call runbook and red-team it

    Turn all of it into a step-by-step play for the call itself, then have Claude attack it. A skeptical pass now is far cheaper than discovering the gap live on the renewal.

    you ask 
    Build a one-page renewal-call runbook: opening question, the value story beats in order, where to introduce the expansion, which objection cards to have ready, and the close (the specific commitment to ask for). Then red-team it as a skeptical prospect: where's the value story thin, what's the highest-risk moment, and what's my fallback if they push for a short extension instead?

    what you get back A step-by-step runbook — opener, value beats, expansion timing, objection cards, the ask — plus a red-team pass that names the weak moment ("your expansion case assumes adoption they haven't hit") and a fallback, so you walk in with a plan and a plan B.

make it your own

  • **Spotted by the review:** *The weekly pipeline review* is how you find which renewals are at risk early — run this full play on the ones it flags, and a quick brief on the ones it doesn't.
  • **Expansion-only, healthy account:** for a happy customer, collapse to research → value/expansion story → outreach; you don't need the full objection pre-handle when there's no renewal risk.
  • **Make it a repeatable play:** once the arc is stable, save it as a /renewal custom command and let a scheduled agent prep the brief for every renewal coming up in 60 days (see the *Features* tab) — so no renewal ever sneaks up cold.

watch out for

  • Every number in the value story and every renewal term gets scrutiny — fact-check the usage figures, the results, and the contract details harder than for routine outreach. A confident wrong number on a renewal call costs you credibility at the exact moment you need it most.
  • A renewal play concentrates the most sensitive data you hold — contract terms, usage, internal risk notes. Keep all of it in your approved workspace, never paste a customer's private details or pricing into a tool you don't control, and scrub to [account] if you share a prompt.
  • Claude researches, drafts, and red-teams; you own the renewal. The runbook is a plan to adapt live, not a script — read the room, and a human makes the call on terms, on the expansion ask, and on what to actually say.

you'll end up with A complete renewal play in one workflow: a researched risk map, a grounded value-and-expansion story, pre-handled objections, ready outreach and recap, and a red-teamed call runbook — so the renewal is execution, not improvisation.