Your Champion Just Resigned
Two weeks' notice. They want a clean handoff. You need to make replacing your agency impossible.
"Heads up - I've resigned. My last day is in two weeks. I want to set you up cleanly with my replacement, but I can't guarantee anything once I'm gone."The line that opens this conversation
Applies when · a renewal, QBR, or budget conversation puts the same line — or a near cousin — in front of you. Substitute your client name, ARR, and tenure mentally; the move stays the same.
Patterns drawn from real conversations. Names, numbers, and details are stripped. These are situations to work from.
Your VP-level champion calls: "Heads up - I've resigned. My last day is in two weeks. I want to set you up cleanly with my replacement, but I can't guarantee anything once I'm gone."
Champion drove all prior scope expansions on the retainer
Replacement is internal, comes from a finance background - not marketing
Champion is willing to do warm intros and write a wrap-up doc
How you pitch
3 minutes to lock in everything you can while the champion still has political capital. Don't be greedy. Be strategic about exactly what proof you need on paper before they leave.
What makes it exciting
Short window, high leverage. The champion wants to leave a clean legacy - your job is to make protecting your retainer part of that legacy.