Of the many key contributors in a customer success team, one that strikes a balance is the renewal manager. It might look on the exterior that the work constitutes driving renewal and retention rates, but that is not what the whole story is about. Renewal Managers are basically the key point of reference for customers and cultivate the best of processes around renewals.
The spirit of this particular role is to actively communicate and let the customers partake in planning their growth. Further, this role focuses on understanding the trends in and around renewal activity and how to grab success. This individual is supposed to aid the Finance and Sales unit, in addition to revising and reporting renewal opportunities. Here we look into the topic with a magnifying lens. But, before that, let’s brush up on some basics.
- Skills required for a Renewal Manager
- Responsibilities of a Renewal Manager
- Qualifications needed for a Renewal Manager
- How to Become a Renewal Manager?
- Renewal Manager Resume Examples
- Renewal Manager Salary
- Interview Questions for a Renewal Manager
Skills required for a Renewal Manager
Hard Skills
The must-have’s of a renewal manager is to be aware of all the know-how of a renewal scheme. A customer will reach out to you in case of any issues. Therefore, you should preferably ace in the technical aspect of subjects like renewals and subscriptions. Further, having an aptitude and flair for automation and workflow procedures is a plus. This will give you the leverage to understand things from a better perceptive. Additionally, if you are having some previous experience either in the departments of sales administration and customer service, that assures you to walk through the long run.
Soft Skills
As a renewal manager, acquiring only the hard skills might not be enough. Therefore, you must imbue some of the soft skills too. The nature of your job is to interact with people. In such a case, empathy is a must, and the ability to understand the other person is all that the job is about. On top of that, having exceptional communication skills will work in your favor as well. A strong communicator knows how to cut down the silos and foster communication in a rather healthy manner.
Aside from this, you should be flexible and approachable as a human. A client might reach out to you, in case of any queries. And nothing hurts more to see a client leave due to the absence of the approachability factor. You need to know how to learn the subtle art of building relationships. The best ingredients in building a great relationship are assertiveness and the ability to understand. When you create good relationships with a customer, there is every chance that they will revert to do business with you, and not churn away. This is where having stellar people skills will help you in attending well to the customers and wreathing yourselves as a team.
Responsibilities of a Renewal Manager
- Managing the different facets of subscription and support renewals
- Preparing the renewal letters, quotations, invoices, and notifications
- Contacting clients directly to negotiate terms and conditions and render renewal contracts
- Positioning services and escalating pain points to the Sales and Customer Success team
- Forecasting trends and suggestions on how those trends can enhance retention rates
- Bridging between Sales, Finance and Customer Success
- Refining renewal strategies that proactively engage a client in chopping the churn rates
- Augmenting the upsell and cross-sell opportunities
- Working with the product team to receive feedback on the growing requirements of a customer
- Meeting the desired goals and establishing metrics
Qualifications needed for a Renewal Manager
To be a qualified renewal manager, you need to have some basics experience and qualifications. To begin with, you must have the desired proficiency to work with Microsoft Office applications. A strong executive stand and the quality to partner closely within the multiple layers of the organization is even better. Having 5+ years of experience in the fields of sales, customer success, or renewals – or in the B2B SaaS industry is a huge advantage. Aside from all these, you must be qualified enough to operate under strict deadlines and know how to prioritize the tasks assigned to you.
How to Become a Renewal Manager?
If you have decided that you are going to become a renewal manager, one of the first ticks on the list is that of education. The quality and kind of education with which you have graduated and how that is of pertinence to the industry is all that counts. Having a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree is even beneficial but one can become a renewal manager with a GED too.
Choosing the right major is a must, to begin with. This tends to be an important step when researching on how to become a manager. Or, if all of that does not work out that well for you, acquiring enough experience in the customer success industry will work out well too.
Renewal Manager Resume Examples
Well, to stand out from a sea of applicants, you will need a stellar resume that does all the talking on your behalf. Here are some examples of shining renewal manager resumes that you should have a look out before you are all set to draft one:
Resume Example 1:
Resume Example 2:
Resume Example 3:
Resume Example 4:
Renewal Manager Salary
Now salary and compensations vary widely across several geographies and depend on a multitude of factors. Some of these factors include the amount of experience and expertise the candidate carries. Needless to say, a fresher salary would largely differ from an experienced one. Here are some collected insights on a Renewal Manager Salary from some countries around the globe.
India:
The average salary of a Renewal Manager is India hovers around ₹ 2.6 Lakhs to ₹ 6.6 Lakhs. The median salary is about ₹ 3.6 lakhs.
UAE:
The average Renewal Manager salary in the United Arab Emirates is AED 174K. This salary for an entry-level associate starts from 124K and for an experienced professional, it is 196K.
USA:
The average salary for a Renewal Manager in the United States of America is about $65,000 annually. The entry-level positions have a starting salary of $30K and the super experienced professionals make up to $136K per year.
The average salary for a Renewal Manager in the United Kingdom stands at £34,000 /yr. For the ones at the entry-level, this salary begins at £25,000 per year and for the highly experienced ones, it is at £54,500 per year.
Interview Questions for a Renewal Manager
Sometimes, having a stellar resume might not suffice. To ace the interview process, you will need to be prepared with whatever the recruiter shoots during the interview. That is when, you should be aware about some of the most sought-after questions that are asked while choosing an able Renewal Manager. To save you some substantial time and research, here are some of the interview questions for a Renewal Manager for you:
- What according to you makes a healthy relationship with a customer? How do you build it?
- Do you have any experience with the CRM Software? If so, what are they?
- How would you respond to a potential client who says that they are too busy to renew and would like you to call again in three months?
- What is your first and foremost objective in a company that you wish to work for?
- What steps will you take to reach your renewal targets if you see you are behind?
- Can you name a time where you contributed to a product upgrade or change based on the customer feedback?
- Can you give an example where you converted a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ during a contract renewal communication?
- What is your procedure for closing a new renewal?
That’s a Wrap
For letting your business run smoothly, getting a great renewal manager is really needed. It all comes down to carrying out your tasks just the way it demands it. What would really set you apart is how you build a rapport with a customer. Know and understand their point of view and place yourself in their shoes. Once you do that, you will get a clear view of your clients’ needs and wants. The more a renewal manager digs into the technical facets of a SaaS industry, the easier it turns out for him to consolidate and train his customers.
Anshi has over 12 years of experience in demand generation, digital marketing, and managing global teams. In her prior role as head of marketing operations for a high growth US healthcare tech organization she transformed marketing from cost to revenue center.
Published November 23, 2020, Updated November 18, 2022
