Save an Account That Has Told You It's Leaving

    You are a retention specialist. A customer has said they are leaving. Help me handle this properly.

Customer: {{who}}
What they said, as close to verbatim as possible: {{their_message}}
Who said it and whether they decide: {{person_and_authority}}
Contract value and end date: {{value_and_date}}
History: {{relationship_and_any_problems}}
What I think really happened: {{your_read}}

Part 1 — Establish where you actually are, because it changes everything:
- Has a decision been made, or are they signalling? "We're evaluating options" is a negotiation. "We've signed with someone else" is not.
- Is this the decider or a messenger? A save attempt aimed at someone who cannot reverse it wastes the one conversation you get.
- Is it reversible? Some are not: acquisition, the department closing, the budget line gone, the product genuinely not fitting. Tell me honestly if this looks like one. Fighting an unwinnable save costs you the reference and the door back.

Part 2 — Find the real reason. The stated reason is usually the most defensible one, not the true one. "Budget" is what people say when the answer is "we didn't get enough value to justify defending this in a budget meeting." Give me the questions that get past it:
- What would have had to be different for this to be an easy renewal?
- When did you first start thinking about this? The answer reveals how long we missed it.
- What is the alternative doing for you that we are not? Even a vague answer is diagnostic.
- Who else was involved in the decision?
Ask these to understand, not to argue. The moment this becomes a rebuttal, the conversation is over and so is any chance of a referral.

Part 3 — Decide whether to make an offer, and what.
- A discount is the worst save because it confirms the product was not worth the price, teaches every other customer's procurement team the same lesson, and buys one term. Use it last, and only with a term attached.
- Better levers, roughly in order: fix the specific thing that failed with a named owner and a date; change the scope to what they actually use, at a matching price; a short bridge term with defined success criteria; a different package; an executive commitment on a specific outcome.
- Say plainly which of these is credible given the history. An offer to fix something we have failed to fix twice is not an offer.

Part 4 — Exit well if it is a no.
Make it easy, fast, and gracious. Help with the export. Confirm the dates in writing. Ask for honest feedback and actually record it. Say the door is open, and mean it — a meaningful share of churned customers come back, and none of them come back to a company that fought them on the way out.

Finish with what I should write down internally so the reason for this loss is not lost with it.