Hey {{first_name | CS Pro}},

When was the last time you started a quarter knowing exactly how you were going to protect and grow revenue? If your honest answer is some version of we need to reduce churn, you are not alone, and it is not really your fault. Most of us were taught how to react to customers, not how to plan a quarter, forecast a number, or build a revenue target. This week on the podcast I walked through the exact revenue operating system I use to plan a quarter like a revenue leader, the same system I ran to hit 122% NRR. Here is the short version.

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Here is what most CS quarters look like. Leadership sends down a target, something like 95% GRR and 110% NRR. The team says great, opens up their books, schedules a bunch of check-in calls and QBRs, and that is the plan. No segmentation by risk. No idea which accounts have real expansion potential. No forecast that shows where revenue is exposed. It is reactive from day one, and then we spend the whole quarter firefighting red accounts that should have been flagged weeks earlier.

And the timing could not be tougher. The 2026 SaaS benchmarks put median NRR around 103 to 106%, but the top companies, the ones getting acquired at 24x revenue multiples, are running north of 120%. GRR sits at a median of 91 to 92% for scale stage companies, while the best hit 98%. That gap between average and exceptional is enormous, and it is not luck. It is planning.

I am a bit of a Formula One fangirl, so stay with me. In 2026 the sport had a full reset, new cars, new rules, two-stop strategies. And the teams winning are not the ones with the fastest car on paper. They are the ones with the best race strategy, the ones who plan every tire change before the lights go out and adapt in real time. Your quarter is the race. Your customers are the laps. Your NRR and GRR are the finish line. Without a strategy before you start, you are just driving and hoping.

So here is the operating system, six steps:

Early in my career I managed a book worth about $5,000,000 in ARR. One quarter I had 12 renewals, a few known risks, and my leadership team was pushing for expansion everywhere. So I opened my calendar, scheduled a pile of check-in calls, and figured I would handle things as they came up. By week six, two accounts were in crisis I had not seen coming. One had a stakeholder change nobody flagged. The other had silently cut their usage in half.

The hardest part was knowing I could have seen all of it coming if I had done the work at the front end. That was the quarter that changed how I operate. I never started another one without the audit, the segmentation, the forecast, and the plays. My numbers improved, but honestly so did my confidence. A pilot does not take off without a flight plan, and neither should you.

Do not wait for next quarter. This week, take your book of business and put every single account into one of three buckets, protect, grow, or watch. That is it, just segmentation. Look at each account and ask, is this at risk, is this ready for expansion, or is this stable and just needs steady engagement. Write it down somewhere, a spreadsheet, a whiteboard, anywhere outside your head. The moment you do this, you will spot risk you were ignoring and opportunities you were not chasing, and that is the starting point for everything else.

Want the full framework, including how to build the forecast your CRO will actually respect? Have a listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube, and let me know what you think.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us.

Cheers to your CS success,
Anika