The document discusses testing messages to reinforce staying with the status quo versus changing to a new provider for a company's 401k retirement plan. It provides examples of a provocative "why change" message and a reinforcing status quo message. The provocative message highlights continued progress needed, introduces an unconsidered need around a new enrollment approach, and reduces perceived costs of changing. The status quo message reinforces progress made, preference stability, perceived costs of changing, and selection difficulty. Both messages were tested on a small business owner with the contract up for renewal.

1. #B2BMX
Why Change? Why Stay?
Customer Renewal Messaging.
Missing in Action – But, Mission Critical

2. #B2BMX
Co-Author:
Customer Message Management
Conversations That Win the Complex Sale
The Three Value Conversations
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TIM RIESTERER
Chief Strategy and Research Officer
Corporate Visions
@TRiesterer

3. Why Change?
Customer Acquisition Customer Renewal
Why Stay?
Customer lifecycle

4. You
Them
Why Change?
74 26% %
Buying Vision Bake-Off
Why Us?
StatusQuo
60%
Prospect
Engages

5. Your
Solution
Defeating the Status Quo Bias

6. Preference
Stability
De-stabilize
their preferences
Your
Solution
Defeating the Status Quo Bias

7. Preference
Stability
De-stabilize
their preferences
Cost of
Staying same
Cost of
Action/
Change
Your
Solution
Defeating the Status Quo Bias

8. Cost of
Action/
Change
Preference
Stability
Selection
Difficulty
De-stabilize
their preferences
Cost of
Staying same
Create enough
Contrast
Defeating the Status Quo Bias
Your
Solution

9. Preference
Stability
Anticipated
Regret
/Blame
Cost of
Action/
Change
Selection
Difficulty
Cost of
Staying same
De-stabilize
their preferences
Create enough
Contrast
Before and after
hero Story
Defeating the Status Quo Bias
Your
Solution

10. Why Change Story Model
Unconsidered
Need
Flawed
Current
Approach
Improved
New Way
Story with
Contrast

11. Why Change Story
Unconsidered Needs Test

12. Uniqueness
2
3
4
5
6
Standard
Solution
Value Added
Solution
Unconsidered
Needs Last
Unconsidered
Needs First
Statistically Significant
Uniqueness Improvement 50%

13. Quality
5
6
7
8
9
Standard
Solution
Value Added
Solution
Unconsidered
Needs Last
Unconsidered
Needs First
Statistically Significant
Quality Improvement 10+%

14. Persuasiveness
4
5
6
7
8
Standard
Solution
Value Added
Solution
Unconsidered
Needs Last
Unconsidered
Needs First
Statistically Significant
Persuasion Improvement (10+%)

15. Why Change Story Model
Unconsidered
Need
Flawed
Current
Approach
Improved
New Way
Story with
Contrast

16. You
Them
Why Change?
74 26% %
Buying Vision Bake-Off
Why Us?
StatusQuo
60%
Prospect
Engages

17. You
Them
Why Change?
Acquisition Renewal?
Why Stay?
$$$$$

18. Preference
Stability
Anticipated
Regret
/Blame
Cost of
Action/
Change
Selection
Difficulty
Cost of
Staying same
De-stabilize
their preferences
Create enough
Contrast
Before and after
hero Story
Defeating the Status Quo Bias
Your
Solution

19. Preference
Stability
Anticipated
Regret
/Blame
Cost of
Action/
Change
Selection
Difficulty
Cost of
Staying same
De-stabilize
their preferences
Create enough
Contrast
Before and after
hero Story
Defeating the Status Quo Bias
Reinforce
Reinforce Reinforce
Reinforce
REINFORCING
Your
Solution

20. Why Stay Story
Messaging Test

21. Situation Background
Small business owner, hired firm to promote retirement plan
After two years the contract is up for renewal
Started at 20% participation, goal was 80%, achieved 50%
Turnover down, but not sure if attributable to program
Reminded that they did a thorough investigation originally
reviewing multiple competitors for the program
Tested messages to Provocative Why Change vs.
Reinforcing Status Quo

22. Provocative Message

23. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen
401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee satisfaction scores are up,
and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the
changes you’ve made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to
improve, which you stated was the ultimate goal of making these changes.
This is great progress, but we’ve seen that for many companies it can be harder
going from 50% to 80% than it was going from 20% to 50%. The latest research
shows that it’s no longer just about improving communications of the benefits of
contributing to the 401k. In fact, companies that achieve world class participation
rates are actually “flipping” their approach to enrollment. Instead of the traditional
“opt-in” approach to enrollment where people sign up for the plan, these companies
are automatically enrolling their employees in the 401k plan, and requiring them to
fill out a form to “opt-out” of participating.
We can switch your program over to this “opt-out” approach and waive any
additional set-up and administrative costs in exchange for renewing our partnership
for the next two years. We’re looking forward to working with you over the next two
years to adopt this approach and reach the world-class goals you’ve set.
ProvocativeMessage

24. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen
401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee satisfaction scores are up,
and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the
changes you’ve made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to
improve, which you stated was the ultimate goal of making these changes.
This is great progress, but we’ve seen that for many companies it can be harder
going from 50% to 80% than it was going from 20% to 50%. The latest research
shows that it’s no longer just about improving communications of the benefits of
contributing to the 401k. In fact, companies that achieve world class participation
rates are actually “flipping” their approach to enrollment. Instead of the traditional
“opt-in” approach to enrollment where people sign up for the plan, these companies
are automatically enrolling their employees in the 401k plan, and requiring them to
fill out a form to “opt-out” of participating.
We can switch your program over to this “opt-out” approach and waive any
additional set-up and administrative costs in exchange for renewing our partnership
for the next two years. We’re looking forward to working with you over the next two
years to adopt this approach and reach the world-class goals you’ve set.
Open with reporting on progress
toward goals
ProvocativeMessage

25. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen
401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee satisfaction scores are up,
and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the
changes you’ve made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to
improve, which you stated was the ultimate goal of making these changes.
This is great progress, but we’ve seen that for many companies it can be harder
going from 50% to 80% than it was going from 20% to 50%. The latest research
shows that it’s no longer just about improving communications of the benefits of
contributing to the 401k. In fact, companies that achieve world class participation
rates are actually “flipping” their approach to enrollment. Instead of the traditional
“opt-in” approach to enrollment where people sign up for the plan, these companies
are automatically enrolling their employees in the 401k plan, and requiring them to
fill out a form to “opt-out” of participating.
We can switch your program over to this “opt-out” approach and waive any
additional set-up and administrative costs in exchange for renewing our partnership
for the next two years. We’re looking forward to working with you over the next two
years to adopt this approach and reach the world-class goals you’ve set.
Introduce Unconsidered Need to
Destabilize Preferences
ProvocativeMessage

26. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen
401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee satisfaction scores are up,
and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the
changes you’ve made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to
improve, which you stated was the ultimate goal of making these changes.
This is great progress, but we’ve seen that for many companies it can be harder
going from 50% to 80% than it was going from 20% to 50%. The latest research
shows that it’s no longer just about improving communications of the benefits of
contributing to the 401k. In fact, companies that achieve world class participation
rates are actually “flipping” their approach to enrollment. Instead of the traditional
“opt-in” approach to enrollment where people sign up for the plan, these companies
are automatically enrolling their employees in the 401k plan, and requiring them to
fill out a form to “opt-out” of participating.
We can switch your program over to this “opt-out” approach and waive any
additional set-up and administrative costs in exchange for renewing our partnership
for the next two years. We’re looking forward to working with you over the next two
years to adopt this approach and reach the world-class goals you’ve set.
Reduce Perceived Cost of Change
ProvocativeMessage

27. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen
401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee satisfaction scores are up,
and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the
changes you’ve made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to
improve, which you stated was the ultimate goal of making these changes.
This is great progress, but we’ve seen that for many companies it can be harder
going from 50% to 80% than it was going from 20% to 50%. The latest research
shows that it’s no longer just about improving communications of the benefits of
contributing to the 401k. In fact, companies that achieve world class participation
rates are actually “flipping” their approach to enrollment. Instead of the traditional
“opt-in” approach to enrollment where people sign up for the plan, these companies
are automatically enrolling their employees in the 401k plan, and requiring them to
fill out a form to “opt-out” of participating.
We can switch your program over to this “opt-out” approach and waive any
additional set-up and administrative costs in exchange for renewing our partnership
for the next two years. We’re looking forward to working with you over the next two
years to adopt this approach and reach the world-class goals you’ve set.
Reduce Anticipated Regret/Blame
ProvocativeMessage

28. Reinforce the Status Quo

29. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years.
You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee
satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken
the time to thank you for the changes you’ve made. In addition, your
employee retention rates have started to improve, which you stated was the
ultimate goal of making these changes.
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked
at a lot of options before getting your entire team to come to a consensus and
choose us. As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize
that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important to maintain
momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals.
Any change to the program at this point would create an unnecessary risk of
losing the positive gains you’ve made. Not to mention that bringing in another
company that does something similar to us would require you to invest time
in their learning curve and money on implementation costs that you won’t
have to spend if you continue working with us. You’re making great progress.
Stick with it another two years, and I know you’ll get there.
ReinforcetheStatusQuo

30. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years.
You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee
satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken
the time to thank you for the changes you’ve made. In addition, your
employee retention rates have started to improve, which you stated was the
ultimate goal of making these changes.
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked
at a lot of options before getting your entire team to come to a consensus and
choose us. As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize
that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important to maintain
momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals.
Any change to the program at this point would create an unnecessary risk of
losing the positive gains you’ve made. Not to mention that bringing in another
company that does something similar to us would require you to invest time
in their learning curve and money on implementation costs that you won’t
have to spend if you continue working with us. You’re making great progress.
Stick with it another two years, and I know you’ll get there.
Open with reporting on progress
toward goals
ReinforcetheStatusQuo

31. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years.
You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee
satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken
the time to thank you for the changes you’ve made. In addition, your
employee retention rates have started to improve, which you stated was the
ultimate goal of making these changes.
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked
at a lot of options before getting your entire team to come to a consensus and
choose us. As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize
that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important to maintain
momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals.
Any change to the program at this point would create an unnecessary risk of
losing the positive gains you’ve made. Not to mention that bringing in another
company that does something similar to us would require you to invest time
in their learning curve and money on implementation costs that you won’t
have to spend if you continue working with us. You’re making great progress.
Stick with it another two years, and I know you’ll get there.
Reinforce Preference Stability
ReinforcetheStatusQuo

32. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years.
You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee
satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken
the time to thank you for the changes you’ve made. In addition, your
employee retention rates have started to improve, which you stated was the
ultimate goal of making these changes.
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked
at a lot of options before getting your entire team to come to a consensus and
choose us. As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize
that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important to maintain
momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals.
Any change to the program at this point would create an unnecessary risk of
losing the positive gains you’ve made. Not to mention that bringing in another
company that does something similar to us would require you to invest time
in their learning curve and money on implementation costs that you won’t
have to spend if you continue working with us. You’re making great progress.
Stick with it another two years, and I know you’ll get there.
Reinforce Perceived Cost of Change
ReinforcetheStatusQuo

33. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years.
You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee
satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken
the time to thank you for the changes you’ve made. In addition, your
employee retention rates have started to improve, which you stated was the
ultimate goal of making these changes.
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked
at a lot of options before getting your entire team to come to a consensus and
choose us. As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize
that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important to maintain
momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals.
Any change to the program at this point would create an unnecessary risk of
losing the positive gains you’ve made. Not to mention that bringing in another
company that does something similar to us would require you to invest time
in their learning curve and money on implementation costs that you won’t
have to spend if you continue working with us. You’re making great progress.
Stick with it another two years, and I know you’ll get there.
Reinforce Selection Difficulty
ReinforcetheStatusQuo

34. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years.
You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your employee
satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken
the time to thank you for the changes you’ve made. In addition, your
employee retention rates have started to improve, which you stated was the
ultimate goal of making these changes.
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked
at a lot of options before getting your entire team to come to a consensus and
choose us. As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize
that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important to maintain
momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals.
Any change to the program at this point would create an unnecessary risk of
losing the positive gains you’ve made. Not to mention that bringing in another
company that does something similar to us would require you to invest time
in their learning curve and money on implementation costs that you won’t
have to spend if you continue working with us. You’re making great progress.
Stick with it another two years, and I know you’ll get there.
Reinforce Anticipated Regret/Blame
ReinforcetheStatusQuo

35. Attitudes
4
5
6
7
Status Quo Point of View Point of View + UpsellReinforce
Status Quo
Provocative
Message
Provocative
Message w/Upsell
Statistically Significant Improvement 9.63%

36. 4
5
6
7
8
Status Quo Point of View Point of View + Upsell
Intention to Renew
Reinforce
Status Quo
Provocative
Message
Provocative
Message w/Upsell
Statistically Significant Improvement 13.27%

37. Switching Likelihood
4
5
6
7
Status Quo Point of View Point of View + UpsellReinforce
Status Quo
Provocative
Message
Provocative
Message w/Upsell
Statistically Significant
Decrease 10.61%

38. Across multiple dimensions, the
status quo reinforcement messages
were more persuasive and effective
than the provocative messages in
the ‘why stay’ context.
Dr. Zakary Tormala
Stanford

39. Preference
Stability
Anticipated
Regret
/Blame
Cost of
Action/
Change
Selection
Difficulty
Cost of
Staying same
De-stabilize
their preferences
Create enough
Contrast
Before and after
hero Story
Defeating the Status Quo Bias
Reinforce
Reinforce Reinforce
Reinforce
REINFORCING
Your
Solution

40. Why Stay
Messaging Framework Test

41. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your
employee satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the changes you’ve
made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to improve, which you said was the ultimate goal of making these
changes. (Documented Results)
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked at a lot of options before getting your entire team to
come to a consensus and choose our company. It was a long process that involved a lot of people, but you ultimately arrived at a big
decision to bring this program on board. (Preference Stability)
As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important
to maintain momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals. Any change to the program at this point could
create an unnecessary risk of losing the positive gains you’ve made. (Anticipated Regret/Blame)
Not to mention that bringing in another vendor would require you to invest time in getting them up to speed and money on
implementation costs and other changes that you won’t have to spend if you continue working with us. (Perceived Cost of Change)
We’ve continued to update and tweak your program over the last two years to make sure you are keeping pace with anything else
available in the market today. Specifically, you will get two new features designed to help improve your goals of employee
participation and satisfaction. The first is a monthly report that shows how many tax dollars your 401k participants saved versus
those who aren’t in the 401k. You can share this with your employees monthly to provide a gentle nudge to get into the program for
the tax benefits. Second, we’ve also added a new smartphone app with retirement planning calculators and budgeting tools to help
your employees make more informed decisions, and feel like they’re making progress on their goals. (Selection Difficulty).
You’re making great progress. Stick with our program for another two years, and I know you’ll get to your 80% participation goal and
further increase your employee retention rates.

42. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

43. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

44. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your
employee satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the changes you’ve
made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to improve, which you said was the ultimate goal of making these
changes. (Documented Results)
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked at a lot of options before getting your entire team to
come to a consensus and choose our company. It was a long process that involved a lot of people, but you ultimately arrived at a big
decision to bring this program on board. (Preference Stability)
As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important
to maintain momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals. Any change to the program at this point could
create an unnecessary risk of losing the positive gains you’ve made. (Anticipated Regret/Blame)
Not to mention that bringing in another vendor would require you to invest time in getting them up to speed and money on
implementation costs and other changes that you won’t have to spend if you continue working with us. (Perceived Cost of Change)
We’ve continued to update and tweak your program over the last two years to make sure you are keeping pace with anything else
available in the market today. Specifically, you will get two new features designed to help improve your goals of employee
participation and satisfaction. The first is a monthly report that shows how many tax dollars your 401k participants saved versus
those who aren’t in the 401k. You can share this with your employees monthly to provide a gentle nudge to get into the program for
the tax benefits. Second, we’ve also added a new smartphone app with retirement planning calculators and budgeting tools to help
your employees make more informed decisions, and feel like they’re making progress on their goals. (Selection Difficulty).
You’re making great progress. Stick with our program for another two years, and I know you’ll get to your 80% participation goal and
further increase your employee retention rates.

45. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

46. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

47. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your
employee satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the changes you’ve
made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to improve, which you said was the ultimate goal of making these
changes. (Documented Results)
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked at a lot of options before getting your entire team to
come to a consensus and choose our company. It was a long process that involved a lot of people, but you ultimately arrived at a big
decision to bring this program on board. (Preference Stability)
As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important
to maintain momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals. Any change to the program at this point could
create an unnecessary risk of losing the positive gains you’ve made. (Anticipated Regret/Blame)
Not to mention that bringing in another vendor would require you to invest time in getting them up to speed and money on
implementation costs and other changes that you won’t have to spend if you continue working with us. (Perceived Cost of Change)
We’ve continued to update and tweak your program over the last two years to make sure you are keeping pace with anything else
available in the market today. Specifically, you will get two new features designed to help improve your goals of employee
participation and satisfaction. The first is a monthly report that shows how many tax dollars your 401k participants saved versus
those who aren’t in the 401k. You can share this with your employees monthly to provide a gentle nudge to get into the program for
the tax benefits. Second, we’ve also added a new smartphone app with retirement planning calculators and budgeting tools to help
your employees make more informed decisions, and feel like they’re making progress on their goals. (Selection Difficulty).
You’re making great progress. Stick with our program for another two years, and I know you’ll get to your 80% participation goal and
further increase your employee retention rates.

48. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

49. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

50. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your
employee satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the changes you’ve
made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to improve, which you said was the ultimate goal of making these
changes. (Documented Results)
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked at a lot of options before getting your entire team to
come to a consensus and choose our company. It was a long process that involved a lot of people, but you ultimately arrived at a big
decision to bring this program on board. (Preference Stability)
As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important
to maintain momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals. Any change to the program at this point could
create an unnecessary risk of losing the positive gains you’ve made. (Anticipated Regret/Blame)
Not to mention that bringing in another vendor would require you to invest time in getting them up to speed and money on
implementation costs and other changes that you won’t have to spend if you continue working with us. (Perceived Cost of Change)
We’ve continued to update and tweak your program over the last two years to make sure you are keeping pace with anything else
available in the market today. Specifically, you will get two new features designed to help improve your goals of employee
participation and satisfaction. The first is a monthly report that shows how many tax dollars your 401k participants saved versus
those who aren’t in the 401k. You can share this with your employees monthly to provide a gentle nudge to get into the program for
the tax benefits. Second, we’ve also added a new smartphone app with retirement planning calculators and budgeting tools to help
your employees make more informed decisions, and feel like they’re making progress on their goals. (Selection Difficulty).
You’re making great progress. Stick with our program for another two years, and I know you’ll get to your 80% participation goal and
further increase your employee retention rates.

51. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

52. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

53. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your
employee satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the changes you’ve
made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to improve, which you said was the ultimate goal of making these
changes. (Documented Results)
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked at a lot of options before getting your entire team to
come to a consensus and choose our company. It was a long process that involved a lot of people, but you ultimately arrived at a big
decision to bring this program on board. (Preference Stability)
As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important
to maintain momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals. Any change to the program at this point could
create an unnecessary risk of losing the positive gains you’ve made. (Anticipated Regret/Blame)
Not to mention that bringing in another vendor would require you to invest time in getting them up to speed and money on
implementation costs and other changes that you won’t have to spend if you continue working with us. (Perceived Cost of Change)
We’ve continued to update and tweak your program over the last two years to make sure you are keeping pace with anything else
available in the market today. Specifically, you will get two new features designed to help improve your goals of employee
participation and satisfaction. The first is a monthly report that shows how many tax dollars your 401k participants saved versus
those who aren’t in the 401k. You can share this with your employees monthly to provide a gentle nudge to get into the program for
the tax benefits. Second, we’ve also added a new smartphone app with retirement planning calculators and budgeting tools to help
your employees make more informed decisions, and feel like they’re making progress on their goals. (Selection Difficulty).
You’re making great progress. Stick with our program for another two years, and I know you’ll get to your 80% participation goal and
further increase your employee retention rates.

54. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

55. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

56. You have made great progress on your goals over these last two years. You’ve seen 401k participation grow from 20% to 50%. Your
employee satisfaction scores are up, and you’ve said some employees have even taken the time to thank you for the changes you’ve
made. In addition, your employee retention rates have started to improve, which you said was the ultimate goal of making these
changes. (Documented Results)
When you signed up two years ago, you really did your homework and looked at a lot of options before getting your entire team to
come to a consensus and choose our company. It was a long process that involved a lot of people, but you ultimately arrived at a big
decision to bring this program on board. (Preference Stability)
As you look at making a renewal decision, it’s important to realize that you are at a critical point in this journey and that it’s important
to maintain momentum to achieve your ultimate participation and retention goals. Any change to the program at this point could
create an unnecessary risk of losing the positive gains you’ve made. (Anticipated Regret/Blame)
Not to mention that bringing in another vendor would require you to invest time in getting them up to speed and money on
implementation costs and other changes that you won’t have to spend if you continue working with us. (Perceived Cost of Change)
We’ve continued to update and tweak your program over the last two years to make sure you are keeping pace with anything else
available in the market today. Specifically, you have two new features designed to help improve your goals of employee participation
and satisfaction. The first is a monthly report that shows how many tax dollars your 401k participants saved versus those who aren’t
in the 401k. You can share this with your employees monthly to provide a gentle nudge to get into the program for the tax benefits.
Second, we’ve also added a new smartphone app with retirement planning calculators and budgeting tools to help your employees
make more informed decisions, and feel like they’re making progress on their goals. (Selection Difficulty).
You’re making great progress. Stick with our program for another two years, and I know you’ll get to your 80% participation goal and
further increase your employee retention rates.

57. Why Stay Story Model
Document
Results
Review Prior
Decision
Process
Mention Risk
of Change
Highlight
Cost of
Change
Detail
Competitive
Advances

58. Customer Renewal Messaging
Missing in Action?

59. 42%
24%
13%
21%
How much of your budget is attributed to customer
retention and related content activities?
0%-9% 10%-20% 20%-30% 30% or more
Only 1/5
of companies spend
30% or more of their
budget on retention
related content
Nearly half
of companies spend less
than 10% of their budget
on retention related
content

60. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Marketing
Marketing shares with other departments
Sales / Business Development or Enablement
Account Management / Customer Service
Who Owns Message & Content Development?
Renewal / Retention Demand Gen / Acquisition
Roughly half
of all companies don’t
involve marketing in
creating renewal messaging
But marketing plays a
role in creating
75%
of demand generation
messaging
Only 19%
Where marketing is
primary owner of
renewal messaging

61. 42%
58%
Do you think your messaging and content for demand
generation / customer acquisition strategies should differ
from your messaging for retention / renewal business?
Yes
These messages should
differ significantly
No / Only
Somewhat
A provocative demand
generation message
should still be applicable
in a renewal scenario

62. 36%
31%
33%
How would you describe the focus of your messaging and
content to existing customers, whom you'd like to convince
to renew with you?
We regularly challenge our
customers with provocative
industry insights and show them
how their world is changing
We lean heavily on product-
oriented cross-sell / upsell-focused
messaging to expand our existing
relationship
We reinforce our value and
emphasize the time, costs, risks
and difficulties of changing to a
different solution
Only 1/3
Of companies are
using the messaging
approach validated
by the study

63. Defeat the
Status Quo
Why Change?
Acquisition Renewal
Why Stay?
Reinforce the
Status Quo
Lifecycle messaging framework

64. #B2BMX
Free Report
http://cvi.to/B2BMX2017