Our customer churn is creeping up, but neither Sales nor Operations wants accountability for Client Renewals and Account Management on our Accountability Chart. Sales claims their job ends at contract signing, and Operations claims their job is delivery, not commercial retention. How do we place and staff this seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When customer retention drops and both Sales and Operations point fingers at each other, you have a classic structural flaw. Sales views their responsibility as closing new business, while Operations views their responsibility as delivering the signed scope. Account renewals, contract expansion, and churn prevention end up stranded in no-man-land because the seat does not exist on your Accountability Chart.

To fix this, you must build the seat around the function, not around department preferences. On your Accountability Chart, create a distinct Client Success or Account Management seat beneath the Integrator, or clearly house it within Sales or Operations based on your business model. If retention relies on technical delivery and scope execution, it belongs under Operations. If retention relies on commercial negotiation, cross-selling, and relationship farming, it belongs under Sales.

Define the five core roles of the seat with absolute clarity:
- Proactive client relationship management
- Contract renewal and expansion revenue
- Customer health monitoring and churn mitigation
- Client onboarding handoff coordination
- Voice of the customer feedback loop

Once the seat is defined and placed, do not allow shared accountability. One name must sit in the box. If you cannot immediately hire an outside leader, one existing leader must officially step into the seat, get measured on retention metrics on the weekly Scorecard, and own the accountability until the revenue supports a dedicated full-time hire.