https://substack.com/@saascontentwriter/p-170970665
80% of SaaS churn comes from poor onboarding & champion loss. Here’s why it happens and how to fix it before it’s too late.
In a 2024 SaaS Capital study, 80% of preventable churn traced back to just two causes: poor onboarding and loss of the customer champion.
They know it in theory — but most teams still overinvest in last-minute renewal saves and underinvest in proactive onboarding.
Here’s why this matters, and what recent real-world examples show.
When new customers sign up, excitement is at its peak. That’s when they’re most willing to put in the time to learn your product. Miss that window, and you’ll rarely get their full attention again.
In 2024, Asana overhauled its onboarding to focus on outcome-driven templates, in-app guidance, and clear “first success” milestones. This reduced the time for new teams to start collaborating and led to a significant increase in free-to-paid conversion rates. The improvement came from focusing less on showing features and more on getting customers to business value quickly.
What works:
Your champion — the person who fought to get your product adopted — is your strongest internal ally. If they leave or change roles, your renewal odds drop sharply.
Dropbox studied enterprise accounts and found churn risk spiked when the original buying champion left. In accounts where the Dropbox team proactively built relationships with multiple stakeholders early, retention rates were meaningfully higher. The takeaway: relying on a single point of contact leaves you exposed.
What works: