When a major enterprise client threatened to leave over a product gap, I coached my AM through the retention play while discovering a major expansion opportunity. We built the case internally and closed the deal in January 2026.
I had recently moved into the Manager of Enterprise Account Management role when this account came into my portfolio. A well-established operator, they were one of our largest clients. I worked closely with the Enterprise AM responsible for the day-to-day relationship, coaching her through the account strategy and sitting in on key conversations.
The client had a product ask that had been floating around for a while: dynamic pricing via a third-party integration. It would let them flex rates based on demand, something their competitors were starting to do. FareHarbor's Product and Engineering teams had consistently declined. It was not on the roadmap.
That answer was not going to hold. The client was seriously evaluating alternatives, and the relationship was at a point where trust in our product direction was wearing thin. My job was to help the AM understand where the real leverage was and how to escalate in a way that actually moved things internally.
In my first meeting with this client, I was listening for what mattered to them beyond the product gap. I brought up FareHarbor Websites, our in-house team that handles ads, SEO, and web presence for operators. They had heard of it before but never engaged.
This time, something clicked. Their existing website provider was causing them real problems, and the timing was right. They became genuinely interested. But they were clear: none of it was on the table unless FareHarbor committed to building the feature they needed first.
That reframed everything. This was no longer just a retention conversation. The retention and the expansion were now tied together, and the internal case I needed to make was much stronger for it.
I built the business case and worked it through the organization, starting with Product. To make the argument, I estimated how many clients we believed would benefit from and adopt the new feature — roughly 30% of our client base — and multiplied that represented ARR by a conservative estimate of the revenue lift the product would drive (4%). We shared those calculations with Product, determined what would need to be deprioritized from the roadmap, and weighed the tradeoffs. We ultimately got Product's buy-in and were able to commit to building the feature for the client.
After the CEO committed to the feature build, the FareHarbor Websites conversations got serious quickly. Months of negotiations followed, with multiple rounds of contract revisions covering the full scope: the feature commitment, the renewal terms, and the websites engagement across their portfolio of businesses and domains.
The deal closed in January 2026. $1.2M retained and $350K expanded.
A few things had to come together here. I coached my AM through high-stakes negotiations while staying close enough to spot and pitch the expansion opportunity. The credibility to make an internal case that ran counter to existing product direction. And the patience to hold a complex, multi-party negotiation together over months without losing momentum on either side. This is one of my most complex renewals and largest expansions and am very proud of the work our team put in to make it happen.