SaaS Retention Strategist

Your customers aren't leaving because of your CS team.
They're leaving despite them.

I help scale-up SaaS companies find where revenue actually leaks — in the handoffs, commitments, and cross-functional breakdowns that no dashboard captures — and build the systems that stop it.

Book a Conversation How I Work

The churn problem isn't where you think it is.

Most SaaS companies diagnose churn by looking at health scores, NPS trends, and usage metrics. These are lagging indicators — by the time they move, the customer has already made their decision.

The real signals are earlier, messier, and almost always cross-functional. A commitment made in the sales cycle that CS never heard about. A product roadmap shift that nobody flagged to the accounts it affected. A key stakeholder change that sat unnoticed for months.

Your CS team isn't failing. They're absorbing the dysfunction of systems that were never designed for retention.

I work with the leaders who are ready to stop explaining churn after the fact and start building the systems that prevent it.

How I Help

Every engagement starts with diagnosis. I don't prescribe frameworks before I understand where the breakdowns actually are.

Fractional & Embedded

Retention Operations

I embed in your CS operation to diagnose and rebuild the systems that drive retention — from signal capture to cross-functional accountability. Typically 2–4 days per week over 3–6 months.

Ideal for: Series B+ companies with a CS team but persistent, unexplained churn.
Advisory

Strategic CS Coaching

Ongoing advisory for CS leaders navigating the shift from reactive firefighting to proactive retention. Structured sessions, async support, and someone who's seen the patterns before.

Ideal for: VPs/Directors who need a strategic sparring partner, not another consultant deck.
Done For You

Consultancy & Implementation

Targeted projects with clear deliverables — early warning system design, churn root-cause analysis, onboarding-to-renewal process mapping, or cross-functional accountability frameworks.

Ideal for: Teams who know what's broken but need expert hands to fix it properly.
Workshops & Speaking

Masterclasses & Training

Interactive working sessions for CS teams and leadership. Not lectures — diagnostic exercises that surface your organisation's actual retention blind spots and give your team a framework to act on them.

Ideal for: Offsites, QBRs, team development, or conference keynotes.

Who I Work With

Heads of Customer Success

You're accountable for retention but the levers that drive it sit in other teams. You need someone who understands the politics and the plumbing — and can help you build systems that work across both.

SaaS Founders & CEOs

You know churn is dragging growth, but your CS function feels reactive and you're not sure what "good" looks like. You need someone who can diagnose the root causes and build the operational fix.

Revenue Leaders

You're responsible for the full customer lifecycle — from acquisition through expansion — and need retention to stop undermining growth. You want a partner who connects the dots across functions.

Sarah Machon

Sarah Machon

SaaS Retention Strategist

18 years building, fixing, and leading customer success and retention operations at companies where churn felt unpredictable — until we made the invisible breakdowns visible.

I've worked across enterprise and high-growth SaaS, from global organisations to Series B scale-ups. The patterns that cause churn are remarkably consistent regardless of company size, which is why a diagnostic approach works where prescriptive frameworks fail.

I specialise in the messy middle — the space between Sales, Product, and CS where accountability breaks down and customers fall through the cracks.

How Every Engagement Starts

No two retention problems are the same. The approach always follows the same diagnostic logic, but the work is shaped by what we find.

Diagnose the real origin points We trace recent churn and at-risk accounts back to the commitments, handoffs, and signals that broke down — usually well before CS got involved.
Map the ownership gaps We identify where accountability is assumed but never made explicit — the specific points where information drops between teams.
Design the early warning signals We build decision triggers — not dashboard metrics — that tell you what to watch, where it surfaces, and who acts by when.
Build the systems that sustain it We embed the signals, ownership, and accountability into your existing workflows so they don't depend on heroics to work.
Free Live Masterclass

Why Your Early Warning System Isn't Working

Thursday 19 March 2026 17:00 GMT · 75 minutes · Free
Register — Save Your Spot

Resources

Articles & Thinking

Regular writing on retention strategy, cross-functional operations, and the patterns I see working with SaaS teams.

Read on LinkedIn →

Free Masterclass

A 75-minute working session where you'll diagnose where churn actually starts in your organisation using three diagnostic exercises.

Register Now →

The Signal-to-Action Programme

A 12-week guided implementation for CS leaders who want to transform retention from reactive firefighting to strategic early warning systems.

Learn More →

Let's Talk

If you're dealing with churn that dashboards can't explain, I'd welcome a conversation about what's actually going on. No pitch — just a diagnostic lens on your situation.

Book a Call

30 minutes to discuss your retention challenges and whether working together makes sense.

Schedule a Time

Send a Message

Prefer to start with an email? Tell me what you're working on and I'll come back with some initial thoughts.

Email Me