5 Early Warning Signs Your Customer May Not Renew (And What You Can Do About It)

Let’s be real.

Renewals aren’t lost in the final 30 days—they’re lost 3 months before that.

And most renewal managers? They don’t even see it coming.

Why? Because customers rarely wave a red flag. They just… drift.

I’ll be sharing a few signals I’ve learned to spot—and a simple fix that can save you from renewal regret.

You know those reminder emails you sent? The ones that felt super clear and timely?

Well… no one opened them.

If a customer or channel partner was once responsive and now ghosts your inbox, it’s a red flag. Not always because they’re mad—sometimes they’ve just stopped seeing value. And that’s scarier.

This one’s sneaky. Your dashboards look okay, but zoom in and… fewer logins. Less feature usage. Silence where there used to be activity.

That’s like owning a gym and noticing someone stopped showing up—but they’re still paying. You know the cancellation’s coming.

You had a person. The person.

They loved your solution, pushed things forward, and made things happen.

But now? Crickets. Or worse—they “loop in someone new.”

That’s either an internal reshuffle or a passing of the torch to someone less invested. Both are signs of distance creeping in.

When customers delay decisions without solid reasons, it’s usually not about time—it’s about uncertainty. They’re stalling because something’s not sitting right. And you might not even be part of the conversation anymore.

It feels peaceful, right? No follow-ups. No feature requests. No renewal chatter.

But silence doesn’t mean satisfaction.

It often means: “We’ve mentally checked out.”

Here’s a little trick. One that doesn’t require fancy dashboards or deep analytics.

Send a single question 90 days before renewal:

“On a scale of 1–5, how likely are you to renew with us?”

Boom. That one question does three powerful things:

1. Re-engages the customer
2. Gives you a temperature check
3. Opens a conversation you didn’t know needed to happen

Low score? Great—you’ve still got time to fix it.

High score? Even better—dig deeper and lock that deal down.

If you’re managing renewals based only on expiry dates, you’re playing defense.

And in today’s channel game, defense isn’t enough.

Start tracking sentiment, not just contracts. Look for the whispers before they turn into silence.

And hey—if you’re curious how we help our partners catch these signs before it’s too late?

Let’s chat – We’ll even bring the coffee.