Software Sales Manager

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Renewal & Recurring Revenue Leadership

• Own the overall maintenance & renewal revenue for the assigned region/business unit.
• Define renewal strategies to increase renewal rates, minimize churn, and grow ARR/maintenance revenue.
• Develop long-term plans to strengthen customer retention and expand recurring business streams.
• Drive pricing strategy, discount guidelines, and negotiation frameworks for renewal business.

2. Executive Customer Engagement

• Build strong senior-level relationships with key enterprise customers to influence renewal decisions.
• Lead executive business reviews and renewal negotiations for high-value strategic accounts.
• Serve as the executive escalation point for critical renewal challenges, commercial discussions, or service issues.

3. Leadership & People Management

• Lead, mentor, and scale a team of renewal managers, account executives, and inside sales specialists.
• Set quarterly and annual performance goals aligned with business objectives.
• Implement training, coaching, and development programs to uplift team capability and renewal excellence.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and customer-centricity.

4. Forecasting, Governance & Business Insights

• Deliver accurate and data-driven renewal forecasts and churn predictions.
• Monitor KPIs such as retention rate, upsell %, discount patterns, renewal velocity, and renewal booking accuracy.
• Provide insights and recommendations to senior leadership on renewal trends, customer behavior, and revenue risk.
• Own operational governance for the renewal function, including process enforcement and compliance.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Customer Success, Product Management, Professional Services, Legal, and Finance to ensure seamless renewal execution.
• Work closely with Sales Leadership to develop expansion pathways within existing accounts.
• Provide customer insights to Product and Engineering teams to guide roadmap and support enhancements.

6. Upsell, Cross-Sell & Value Realization

• Introduce renewal-centric upsell motions (extended support tiers, product upgrades, additional licenses/modules, cloud migration).
• Ensure teams articulate the ROI, value realization, and business benefits of continuous software maintenance and support.
• Support the design and implementation of customer lifecycle programs that increase stickiness and wallet share.

7. Process Excellence & Automation

• Optimize renewal workflows, quoting mechanisms, and contract management processes.
• Drive adoption of renewal automation tools, CRM analytics, and predictive churn models.
• Establish standardized renewal playbooks, customer communication templates, and best practices.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 1015 years of experience in enterprise software sales, renewals, subscription operations, or customer success.
• Minimum 5 years of experience leading renewal or account management teams.
• Strong understanding of enterprise software licensing, annual maintenance models, cloud subscriptions, and support structures.
• Proven track record of delivering high retention rates (85–95%+) and driving recurring revenue growth.
• Exceptional negotiation, executive communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Proficiency in CRM platforms (Salesforce/HubSpot) and analytics tools.