I don’t know a cloud technology Customer Success Manager (aka CSM) and/or Account Executive (aka AE) that hasn’t been part of at least one difficult discussion about the cost of their clients cloud software renewal, and what options exist to bring it down.  It's almost inevitable that these conversations will take place as customers question increasing yearly costs in relation to their achieved (or underachieved) return on investment (aka ROI). In some cases, this can result in a leadership level escalation in which the you (the customer) wants to speak to someone higher up about the product, the pricing, and your overall relationship with your technology partner.  While these requests for escalation in and of themselves are 100% fair, customers need to be mindful of how they talk about that relationship component in terms of their interactions with their assigned CSM. Why?  Well, if the goal is to simply reduce the cost of software which is providing positive value/ROI, and the CS