Customer Success Platforms (CSPs) can be great for tracking customer health and engagement. When setup correctly, they provide valuable insights into customer sentiment and risk, helping your team stay ahead.

But when it comes to managing renewals, CSPs often fall short. A strong backend system is essential for renewals to run smoothly—handling tasks like creating records, managing contract terms, and automating workflows. That’s exactly where your CRM excels.

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I learned this the hard way. When we first bought a CSP at my last org, I was so excited to streamline our renewals. But renewal records just wouldn’t sync properly with Salesforce, and it went on like this for the longest time.

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The problem was that the CSP relied completely on Salesforce to create and manage renewal records - especially the ones created by the sales team. The CSP displayed the data nicely, but without Salesforce configured correctly, nothing worked. I banged my head against the wall trying to figure it out.

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Finally, once we got the Salesforce automation set up, the CSP started functioning as promised. But even then, bi-directional sync issues created more headaches. In the end, we realized the best solution was to handle all renewals directly in Salesforce. Once we did that, everything ran smoothly, and the CSP became more of a supporting tool for customer insights—not the core driver of our renewal process.

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Our Perspective

We’re biased towards keeping everything in your CRM, and here’s why: The CRM is built to manage data, automate workflows, and provide the flexibility you need for renewals. CSPs are great at presenting insights, but they depend on your CRM being properly set up first. In our experience, handling renewals directly in Salesforce simplifies everything and avoids the sync issues that can arise from splitting responsibilities.

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The Bottom Line

Think of a CSP as a polished tool for customer insights, but it’s not a complete solution. With the right setup, your CRM, like Salesforce, has the flexibility to handle it all.

Want to learn how to build a renewal process that actually works? Check out our Renewal Architecture Guide for Salesforce—a living Notion resource packed with actionable tips and insights. No forms, no downloads—just practical advice you can start using today.