Renewal Risk Briefing Generator

Every weekday morning at 6 AM, AI-generated renewal risk briefings land in your CSMs' inboxes — one for each account renewing in the next 30, 60, or 90 days. By the time the CSM gets their coffee, they know exactly which renewals are at risk, why, and what to do about it.

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What this replaces

Most CS teams "review the renewal pipeline" once a quarter — too late. By the time a renewal is flagged manually, the customer has already mentally decided. This automation runs the analysis every day, so risk surfaces 30-60-90 days before the renewal date, not 7.

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Prerequisites

• n8n instance (self-hosted or n8n Cloud)
• Salesforce with API access (or HubSpot, Pipedrive)
• Gong account with API access (or Chorus/Fireflies)
• Zendesk account with API access
• Mixpanel project with Service Account credentials (or Amplitude)
• OpenAI API key with GPT-4 access
• Gmail OAuth2 for CSM email delivery

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Setup Steps

1. Import the workflow

Workflows → Import from File → select workflow.json.

2. Configure credentials

Service

Type

Notes

Salesforce	OAuth2	Read scope on Account, Opportunity, Contract
Gong	HTTP Header Auth	Basic
Zendesk	API token	Admin → API → token; needs read on tickets
Mixpanel	HTTP Header Auth	Service Account credentials
OpenAI	API key	GPT-4 access required
Gmail	OAuth2	Sender must be an authorized domain user

3. Set your renewal detection logic

• Open the "Find Upcoming Renewals" node (Salesforce)
• Default SOQL: queries Opportunity with Type = 'Renewal' and CloseDate between today and 90 days out
• If you track renewals on the Account object instead: change the query to use Contract or your custom field

4. Tune the risk signal weights

• Open the "Calculate Risk Score" Code node
• Default weights:

- Usage trend (declining >30% MoM): 35%

- Support tickets (escalations + sentiment): 25%

- Exec sponsor engagement (last call/email date): 20%

- Gong call sentiment (last 3 calls): 20%

• Adjust based on what predicts churn in your business

5. Configure email delivery

• Open the "Email Brief to CSM" node
• Default: sends to the Salesforce Opportunity Owner.Email
• Subject template: 🚨 Renewal Risk: [Account] — [Days] days out — [Risk Level]

6. Set the cron schedule

• Default: 6:00 AM weekdays (0 6 * * 1-5)
• Change in the Daily Trigger node if your CSMs start earlier or later

7. Activate the workflow

• Toggle to Active
• First run: it'll generate briefings for every in-flight renewal (could be many — consider running off-hours the first time)

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What each briefing contains

🚨 RENEWAL RISK BRIEFING
Account: Acme Corp
Renewal Date: 2026-07-15 (62 days out)
Risk Level: HIGH (78/100)
ARR at risk: $145,000

TOP 3 RISK SIGNALS
1. Usage down 42% MoM (Mixpanel — 'workflow_run' events)
2. 4 escalated tickets in last 30 days, sentiment trending negative
3. Champion (Sarah Chen) has not joined a call in 47 days

RECOMMENDED SAVE PLAY
Multi-thread: their VP Ops (Mark Johnson) was the original buyer.
Re-engage him with the Q3 product roadmap, frame as "ahead of renewal".

DRAFT EMAIL TO CHAMPION
Subject: Quick sync before your Q3 planning?
Hi Sarah, I noticed usage on [feature] has dipped recently...
[full draft, ready to copy-paste]

DATA SUMMARY
Last QBR: 2026-02-15 (87 days ago)
Open opps: $50k expansion (stalled in negotiation)
NPS last response: 6 (detractor)

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Risk score breakdown

Signal

Default Weight

What we measure

Usage trend (MoM)	35%	Decline >30% = high signal
Support sentiment	25%	Escalation count + GPT sentiment
Exec sponsor engagement	20%	Days since champion touched product/email
Call sentiment	20%	Avg sentiment last 3 Gong calls

Total = 100. Risk levels:

• 0-39: LOW (briefing skipped to keep noise down)
• 40-64: MEDIUM
• 65-100: HIGH (always briefed, also Slack-alerted)

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Alternate CRMs

• HubSpot: Use Deals with stage filter or closedate between now and 90 days.
• Pipedrive: Filter Deals by expected_close_date.

Cost estimate

Per briefing:

• GPT-4 tokens (~4k in + 1.5k out): $0.15-$0.25

For a team with 50 renewals in flight: ~$10-12/day of OpenAI cost. Vs. catching one $50k churn save = 5,000x ROI.

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Troubleshooting

"No renewals found" — your CRM probably doesn't tag renewals as Type = 'Renewal'. Check your Opportunity.Type picklist values and update the SOQL. "GPT generic output" — add product/industry context to the system prompt in the Generate Briefing node. "Email not sending" — Gmail rate limits at 500/day on consumer accounts, 2000/day on Workspace. For high-volume teams, switch to a transactional sender like Resend or SendGrid. "Same briefing every day" — by design, briefings re-generate daily because signals change. To dedupe, add an IF node checking the risk score delta vs. yesterday's run.

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Roadmap

• v1.1 — Slack alert in addition to email when risk score crosses 75
• v1.2 — Auto-create a "Save Play" task in Salesforce on HIGH risk
• v2.0 — Auto-multi-thread: when champion disengages, surface 2nd/3rd contacts

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Built by OnboardSuccess — AI for Customer Success, without the vendor spin.