Account Manager, Renewal Sales

Overview

You own renewals for a book of existing Skyhigh Security enterprise customers using their SSE platform (CASB, Secure Web Gateway, DLP, etc.). You work 6-12 months ahead of renewal dates, partnering with account executives and channel partners to keep customers on board and ideally expand their licenses. Most of your time is spent forecasting renewals, managing contract negotiations, and dealing with procurement processes.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Mature/Established (714 employees, part of Symphony Technology Group portfolio)

Size: 714 employees

Growth: Hiring renewal-focused roles suggests they have a significant installed base to protect

Market Position: Established player in the crowded SSE/SASE market competing with Netskope, Zscaler, Palo Alto Prisma, and others

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 100% existing customer base renewals - no prospecting
• Expansion opportunities come from usage growth, new use cases, or acquisitions
• Channel partners involved in ~60-70% of deals (based on enterprise cybersecurity norms)

SDR/AE Structure: You partner with field AEs who own the relationship but you drive the renewal motion. Channel Account Managers are involved when deals came through partners.

SE Support: SEs support technical conversations for expansions or competitive displacements, but you handle most renewal discussions.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Netskope, Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Access), Cisco Umbrella, Forcepoint

How They Differentiate: "Only true hybrid SSE platform" - they emphasize unified control across SaaS, IaaS, AI, private apps, and email in one platform vs. point solutions

Common Objections:

• "We're consolidating vendors and your competitor already does 80% of this"
• "Budget's tight, we're cutting security spending"
• "Performance issues or integration complexity complaints"

Win Themes: Data-first approach, hybrid architecture flexibility, breadth of coverage (email + cloud + web + private apps)

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Renewal Management (40%) | Customer Calls (25%) | Internal Coordination (20%) | Forecasting/Admin (15%)

Key Activities

• Renewal Pipeline Management: Track 50-100+ accounts at various stages of renewal (6-12 months out). Update your forecast weekly. Flag at-risk deals early. Most of your day is in Salesforce and spreadsheets.

• Customer Check-ins: Call or meet with customer champions and procurement contacts quarterly or when renewals approach. You're checking on satisfaction, usage, and getting ahead of budget/political issues. Many of these calls are "just checking in" status updates.

• Negotiation & Contracting: Once renewal discussions start (usually 3-6 months before expiration), you're going back and forth on pricing, terms, license counts. Enterprise procurement will want discounts. You're coordinating with legal, deal desk, and finance on non-standard terms.

• Internal Coordination: Weekly syncs with your AE partners, channel managers, and CSMs (if separate). Lots of Slack messages about "who's talking to this customer about what." Leadership wants accurate forecasting, so you're constantly updating commit vs. risk categories.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• At-risk renewals are stressful: When a $300K customer goes dark or says they're evaluating competitors, you're scrambling. Sometimes you inherit relationships that were poorly managed, and now you're firefighting.

• You're in the middle: AEs want credit for expansions. CSMs want you to handle issues that aren't your job. Channel partners want their cut protected. You're constantly mediating who owns what and making sure nothing falls through cracks.

• Procurement grinds: Enterprise customers will drag out renewals until the last minute to extract discounts. You'll have deals that "should" close in Q1 slip to Q2 because someone's on PTO or budgets got frozen. Your forecast accuracy matters for company planning, so slipped deals create pressure.

• Price compression: Customers expect flat or decreased pricing at renewal, even if they're using more. You're often defending price increases (for inflation, new features) against procurement pushing for 10-20% cuts.

What Success Looks Like

• Renewal rate above 95%: You keep nearly everyone on board. Losing 1-2 customers per year is expected (budget cuts, M&A, going a different direction), but you're not bleeding accounts.

• Net retention of 105-110%: Your book grows slightly year-over-year through expansions—customers adding users, new modules, or upgrading tiers—even with some contraction.

• Clean forecasting: You call your commits accurately. Leadership trusts your pipeline categorization (commit/best case/risk) because you're honest about what's real.

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• IT Security Directors/VPs who own the renewal decision
• Procurement/Finance teams who control budget and contract terms
• CISOs (occasionally, for large strategic renewals)

What They Care About:

• Cost optimization: Proving ROI, comparing your pricing to alternatives, justifying budget to CFO
• Avoiding disruption: Renewals are easier than rip-and-replace, but they need confidence you'll support them
• Consolidation: Many are trying to reduce vendor count—can you do more with your platform or are you at risk of being displaced?

Requirements

• 3-5+ years in renewal sales, account management, or similar retention-focused role (SaaS experience required, cybersecurity a plus)
• Track record of managing renewals at scale (50+ accounts) with high retention rates
• Comfortable with enterprise contract negotiations and multi-threaded deal coordination
• Experience working with channel partners (VARs, MSPs) common in enterprise security deals
• Strong Salesforce hygiene and forecasting discipline—this role lives in the CRM
• Based in or willing to commute to Plano, TX office (hybrid role, not fully remote)
• Ability to handle pressure during quarter-end crunches when multiple renewals close at once