How Clockwork Recruiting cut churn and grew MRR 425%.

Clockwork Recruiting had tried everything to fix a broken top-of-funnel and rising churn, but a Marketing Leader hired to fix it was optimizing workflows instead of pipeline. We ran the audit, rebuilt Customer Success from scratch, and redefined the sales process around the buyer journey.

Client: Clockwork Recruiting — HR Software, Series A. Engagement: Ongoing GTM partnership.

Results

• MRR growth: 425%
• Churn reduction: 368%
• Average ACV: +284%

The Gap: Workflows instead of pipeline

Clockwork Recruiting had tried everything to turn things around. The root problem: a Marketing Leader hired to fix growth was optimizing complex workflows instead of measurable pipeline, so nothing moved.

• Churn kept climbing — Without a real Customer Success motion, expansion and retention had no owner, and churn kept getting worse.
• Revenue stayed flat — Missed targets became the norm, with no clear diagnosis of why pipeline wasn't converting into revenue.
• Top-of-funnel was broken — The go-to-market motion at the top of the funnel wasn't producing, and effort kept going into workflows rather than the pipeline itself.

The Fix: Three moves: audit, customer success, sales process

We diagnosed the real problem first, then rebuilt Customer Success and the sales process around it, not the other way around.

• Run the complete GTM audit: Conducted a full Go-To-Market audit to determine Clockwork Recruiting's current state, what was working, and how to implement a repeatable revenue process. Why: A prior hire had already tried to fix this with workflows. The audit made sure the next fix targeted the actual pipeline problem, not another process layer.
• Build a real Customer Success motion: Rebuilt the Customer Success motion from the ground up. Defining roles, responsibilities, and clear KPIs tied to expansion and retention, aligning onboarding, support, and account management into one lifecycle. Why: Churn was climbing because retention had no owner and no metric; giving it both is what turned the number around.
• Redefine the sales process around the buyer: Redefined the sales process to reflect the actual buyer journey with clear stages, exit criteria, and aligned AE/CS responsibilities. Why: Forecasting accuracy and shorter cycles both follow from a process that mirrors how the buyer actually buys, not how the org chart is drawn.

Cost of inaction

Clockwork Recruiting was watching churn erode the revenue base faster than the broken top-of-funnel motion could replace it. Every quarter of flat revenue and rising churn compounded, since a shrinking base makes every future growth target harder to hit.

90-day outcome

MRR grew 425% and churn dropped 368%, with average ACV up 284%. We built a Customer Success motion with real ownership and a sales process the team could finally run without second-guessing every stage.