A mid-market professional services firm with approximately 1,800 employees was approaching its three-year Salesforce renewal. The existing agreement covered Sales Cloud Enterprise, Service Cloud, Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement), and Einstein Analytics — licensed for 620 named users across the firm's sales, client services, and marketing functions.
Salesforce's renewal proposal arrived with a 22% price increase over the existing contract value — citing the firm's growth in headcount, Salesforce's own product investment justification, and a new minimum commitment for Einstein Analytics that the firm had not been consulted on during the contract year. The renewal team was given a 90-day window, which Salesforce began compressing with escalating urgency communications within the first month.
The CFO had seen Salesforce spend grow from $1.1M to $7.8M annually over five years — with user adoption and business value failing to keep pace with cost. A Salesforce renewal review commissioned internally had produced no actionable commercial recommendations. IT Negotiations was engaged six weeks before the renewal deadline with a specific mandate: eliminate unnecessary spend and secure a defensible commercial position.
"We had been auto-renewing Salesforce every three years and accepting their increases. Nobody had ever forensically examined what we actually used versus what we were paying for. The gap was alarming."
— CFO, Professional Services Firm (identity protected)Three interconnected problems made this engagement more complex than a standard renewal negotiation:
IT Negotiations deployed a Salesforce specialist and commercial negotiator within 48 hours of engagement. The six-week programme ran across three workstreams.
Workstream 1 — Usage Analysis and Shelfware Quantification. We performed a complete usage audit using Salesforce's own licence management tools and the firm's Salesforce admin reports. We identified 183 dormant seats across Sales and Service Cloud, confirmed that Einstein Analytics had 38 regular users against a 200-seat commitment, and documented Pardot's redundancy given the firm's migration to an alternative marketing platform. We built a commercial case for reducing the total seat count by 31% and eliminating Pardot from the renewal entirely.
Workstream 2 — Competitive Benchmarking and Alternative Leverage. We prepared a formal competitive analysis documenting Microsoft Dynamics 365 and HubSpot CRM pricing for the firm's profile — not because the firm had a genuine immediate intention to migrate, but because having a credible alternative enables a fundamentally different negotiation conversation with Salesforce. Salesforce's account team was made aware, through our advisors, that a competitive evaluation was underway. This broke the renewal urgency dynamic and reset the timeline on the firm's terms.
Workstream 3 — Commercial Negotiation. IT Negotiations led all commercial discussions directly with Salesforce's account executive and regional VP. Our position was clear: the firm would renew only the licences actively used, at pricing consistent with Salesforce's published benchmarks for firms of comparable size and contract value. We rejected Salesforce's bundle conditioning, negotiated Pardot completely out of the renewal, and secured a three-year price lock that eliminated the escalation provisions that had added cost in the prior term. See our full Salesforce advisory service and SaaS optimisation offering for more on how we approach these engagements.
The renewed Salesforce agreement was signed at $4.8M annually — against Salesforce's renewal demand of $7.8M (plus the proposed 22% increase). The engagement delivered a 38% reduction in annual Salesforce spend with no capability reduction for active users.
In addition to the direct cost reduction, the firm received improved contractual terms: no annual price escalation for the three-year term, a formal usage review mechanism at the 18-month mark allowing further seat adjustments without penalty, and removal of the auto-renewal clause that had prevented proactive renegotiation in previous cycles.
The gain-share fee structure meant IT Negotiations' compensation was directly aligned with savings delivered — the firm paid nothing for savings that weren't achieved. This is the engagement model we recommend for Salesforce renewals where shelfware is the primary commercial issue. Download our SaaS True Cost Guide and Negotiation Playbook to understand the full framework behind this type of engagement.
"IT Negotiations took three weeks of our timeline to do the analysis we should have done internally. That analysis gave us everything we needed. Salesforce's position changed completely when they realised we understood exactly what we were using."
— VP IT, Professional Services Firm (identity protected)Free guides to help you prepare for your next Salesforce renewal:
Salesforce renewals are where shelfware hides and escalations compound. Our advisors have benchmarked hundreds of Salesforce contracts and know exactly what is negotiable. Book a free consultation before your renewal window opens.
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