Your customer is leaving, and you don't have a clue why.

“We walked away from a $60,000 annual commitment, and the vendor still has no idea. Zero visibility into our declining satisfaction. No early warning system. No relationship deep enough for us to even bother complaining.” — Jason Lemkin, SaaStr

Jason Lemkin's SaaStr article scenario is playing out across companies right now. And it reveals a deeper issue. No one owned the account. No one was close enough to the business to see declining usage, identify competitive threats, or catch decision-level changes.

By the time renewal conversations start at 90 days out, it is too late.

Silent churn follows a predictable pattern. No one has spoken to an executive since the deal was signed. No one remembers what problem you solved. No one knows why they are still paying you.

It can be avoided, but only with consistent, senior engagement. Someone needs to be accountable for tracking progress, understanding how priorities are shifting, and working actively to deliver continuing impact.

NPS and VoC Will Not Save You

Most companies collect feedback religiously. But NPS scores and VoC programs produce the wrong signals.

They measure sentiment, not risk. They capture compliments, not consequences.

A customer rating you 8 out of 10 while actively reviewing alternative approaches illustrates the problem. If all you have is a dashboard that says your customer is happy, but no visibility into what they need next, you are not managing the account. You are watching from a distance and hoping for the best.

The First Line of Defence Is Account Ownership

As Winning by Design notes, recurring revenue is about delivering recurring impact throughout the relationship’s lifetime. In a market where as much as 70% of SaaS revenue comes from existing customers, any gap in customer engagement is critical.

We covered this in The Return of the Account Manager. Account Management is re-emerging as a core growth function in major accounts. Not to duplicate CS, but to fill the structural role Customer Success was never designed to fulfil.

Account Managers bring commercial fluency, executive access, and the ability to tie product outcomes to business priorities. They see shifting expectations early. They escalate risk. They drive conversations that keep the relationship relevant and the account progressing.

Most Products Can Be Rebuilt. Trust, Not Features, Retains Revenue

In the past, vendors like IBM or Oracle truly owned the account. They had senior relationships, embedded teams, and deep context on the customer’s business.

Today, that level of ownership is rare — but more important than ever.

Missing capability is no longer a blocker. With Agent frameworks and in-house builds, most features can be replicated in a sprint.

What cannot be replicated is trust. If no one is actively maintaining the relationship, the customer will move on — quietly and quickly.

For GTM Leaders: A Simple Diagnostic

Look at your top accounts. Who owns them?

Is there a co-owned Account Plan with metrics, milestones and outcome ownership identified?

Who can speak directly to executive goals, commercial risk, and the outcomes that matter?

Ask yourself:

• When was the last time someone discussed strategic priorities with this customer’s C-suite?
• Who would they call if they were planning a significant shift?
• What would happen to the relationship if your champion left tomorrow?

If no one comes to mind, the risk is not churn. It is irrelevance!