What Do I Do when My Champion Is Laid Off before Renewal?
When your champion left the company before renewal, the account lost the person who remembered why it bought you. The product is still installed. The renewal now depends on how quickly you can explain what it does to whoever inherited the budget, in their terms, using usage data the company owns.
The renewal was on track until the layoff list came out with your champion's name on it. Now the account is ninety days from a decision, and the notes in the CRM describe people who have left.
Who Decides the Renewal after the Champion Leaves?
Whoever now owns the budget line inherits it, and they inherit it as a cost. They had no part in the original decision. After a layoff, they may be under pressure to find savings in a budget that has already lost people. If you don't know who that is yet, ask the finance contact on the original contract, or the champion's former manager.
Research on executive turnover points to one reason the new budget owner may not protect the purchase. Barry Staw, Sigal Barsade, and Kenneth Koput, in a 1997 study of bank executives in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that turnover among senior managers predicted the write-off of problem loans.
The authors linked this to responsibility for the original decision. Managers who had not made the loans were more willing to write them off. Dmitriy Chulkov's 2024 study of executive turnover found the same pattern for executives below the CEO.
Brent Furneaux and Michael Wade surveyed senior information systems decision makers at U.S. and Canadian organizations about replacing systems already in place, for a 2011 study in MIS Quarterly. What an organization had already invested in a system did not significantly reduce its intention to replace it. Don't build the new budget owner's case on the setup work and money the account has already spent.
The pressure shows up in software budgets generally. Zylo's 2026 SaaS Management Index found unused licenses common and unplanned software costs forcing cuts elsewhere.
What Do I Do Today and This Week?
- Today, write a one-page case for the new budget owner. Start with the metric their role owns. Then what the product has done for that metric, in numbers the company tracks. Then what you need from them, which for now is a second meeting and the name of whoever uses the product most.
- This week, get the introduction. Ask whoever inside the account can make it. Another contact, the champion's former manager, or the champion before their last day.
- This week, tell your own leadership. Flag the renewal as at risk and name what you'll need from them, such as room on price or an executive for the second meeting.
ChurnZero's playbook for a lost champion, by Emily Nesterick, recommends reaching the new contact within days. It suggests running the first meeting in the order of their goals, then how the product serves them, then what you need.
How Do I Show the Product's Value without the Champion?
Rebuild it from the product data and from the people who use the product every day. The data shows who logs in, what they do, and which work the product now handles from start to finish.
In the Furneaux and Wade study, the intention to replace a system rose with shortcomings in what it could do, with limited support available for it, and with low technical integration with the company's other systems. Cover all three in the case. Show what the product does that the team needs, name the support the account gets from your team, and list the systems it connects to.
The daily users know what the tool replaced and what it would cost to lose it, and can say so to the new budget owner if someone asks them. Find two of them. Bring them into the second conversation, or put their words into the one-page case. That way the new budget owner hears the value from their own team.
What if the Product Isn't Used Much?
Then the usage data is thin, and the new budget owner will see that in the first meeting. Show the usage as it is.
Find the team that does use the product and what it does for them, even if it is one team. Propose a renewal sized to what is in use, with a written plan and a date for the next team to start. A renewal sized to the data can keep the account, and the written plan gives you a way to grow it.
What if the New Budget Owner Asks for a Discount?
A discount request in the first conversation can mean the new budget owner hasn't seen the usage data yet. Hold the price conversation until they have.
If they still want a discount after they have seen it, tie any change to something the account gives in return. A longer term, a named internal owner for the rollout, or adding a team that isn't using the product yet. A price cut with nothing attached also sets the starting price for the next renewal.
What Should Be in Place by Day Sixty?
Three things. The new budget owner has seen the one-page case and discussed it with you, and has met at least one daily user. There is a named person inside the account who will speak for the renewal. If the new budget owner still hasn't engaged by day sixty, change the plan.
Changing the plan can mean your executive escalating to theirs, offering a shorter term or a smaller renewal while the new team settles in, or preparing your forecast for a loss. Choose which one before day sixty arrives.
Jason Lemkin's note on champion change, from SaaStr in 2023, describes accounts lost despite high satisfaction because nobody made the case again to the person who now owned the budget.
Send the introduction request today, and have the one-page case written before the first meeting is booked.
References & Related Reading
- Escalation at the Credit Window: A Longitudinal Study of Bank Executives' Recognition and Write-off of Problem Loans, Barry M. Staw, Sigal G. Barsade, and Kenneth W. Koput, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1997.
- Turnover by Non-CEO Executives in Top Management Teams and Escalation of Commitment, Dmitriy Chulkov, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 2024.
- An Exploration of Organizational Level Information Systems Discontinuance Intentions, Brent Furneaux and Michael Wade, MIS Quarterly, 2011.
- Zylo's 2026 SaaS Management Index, Zylo, 2026.
- Did your customer champion leave? Use this five-step playbook to reduce churn risk, Emily Nesterick, ChurnZero, 2023.
- Champion Change: You Gotta Jump On It. Especially Now., Jason Lemkin, SaaStr, 2023.
- Build new relationships when key contacts leave customer accounts, Champify, current page.
- Challenger Report: August Job Cuts Up 58%, Challenger, Gray and Christmas, 2026.
- Tech layoffs: A 2026 timeline, Dan Muse, Peter Sayer, and Valerie Potter, Computerworld, 2026.
