Illustrative examples are fictional.
The calendar is not the risk model
A renewal date tells you when a contract decision is due. It does not tell you whether the customer is achieving its intended outcome, whether users have adopted the workflow, or whether the current sponsor still supports it. A friendly check-in can coexist with serious unresolved risk.
Examine three evidence areas
Adoption: Which roles use the relevant workflow, how consistently, and where do they need workarounds? Usage alone is not proof of value. Stakeholders: Who owns the outcome now? Did a sponsor change, and has the new decision-maker seen the original purpose? Value: What did the customer hope to change, what evidence exists, and what remains unproven? Ask the customer rather than inventing a savings claim.
Fictional account: Product usage is steady, but the sponsor has left. The new finance lead asks why the contract exists. A generic “engagement is healthy” dashboard will not answer. The account team needs a conversation about the original goal, a current use case, the decision criteria and the people who can validate the result.
Act while there is room to learn
Write down known evidence and open questions. Meet the operational owner and decision-maker early enough to test the value story, acknowledge unresolved issues and agree one customer-owned next action. Escalate product or support problems to the right team; do not frame every problem as a training gap. Explore customer success capability or discuss a live account challenge.