Retention Coach
27 years of retention work, taught directly.
I am Tom Burrell. I have spent 27 years working out why customers leave recurring revenue businesses and what actually fixes it, across 35+ global brands, as SVP at DAZN and in senior roles at Manchester United and Publicis.
Retention Coach is where I teach that work directly, rather than deliver it for you.
The rebrand
About Retention Coach
Retention Coach rebranded to Retention AI in August 2026, driven by an increasing volume of agentic execution projects.
The consulting practice runs as Retention AI. The teaching practice kept the name it earned. If you found me through Retention Coach, you are in the right place, and the work is the same work.
Three ways to work with me
01 — Advisory
One-to-one retention advisory
Ongoing advisory across the whole retention hierarchy, not just the CRM layer.
Most retention problems land on the CRM team because CRM is the visible part. The hierarchy says otherwise.
- 1
Product proposition comes first. Is the product worth it, priced right, and built for the customer you are trying to keep? Nothing above this compensates for a value or pricing problem.
- 2
Then acquisition quality. Are you bringing in customers who were ever going to stay? You cannot retain your way out of acquiring the wrong people.
- 3
Then the moments of truth. The handful of interactions that actually decide whether a customer stays: onboarding, first value, the failed payment, the post-win high. This is where CRM lives, and it is the last layer, not the first.
Advising as though CRM were the first layer is how a team spends a year optimising emails against a pricing problem. So the work goes wherever the number is actually stuck, which is often not where you were told it was.
Who this is for, and the work is different for each
CEOs and commercial leaders
You own a retention number and you need to know which layer is costing you, whether your team is capable of moving it, what to prioritise, and what it should cost.
Lifecycle and CRM directors
You know what good looks like and you are trying to get there inside an organisation that keeps getting in the way. Usually about sequencing, stakeholders, and proving value early enough to buy yourself room. Often about the layers above you that nobody has made your problem, but which are your problem.
Consultants and independents
You have the expertise, and you are building a practice around it. Usually about positioning, what to productise, and how to use AI to produce client-grade work without a team.
Martech vendors and their sales teams
You are selling into retention, CRM and lifecycle leaders and you need to get inside their heads. What they are actually measured on, what is broken in their week, why the thing you are pitching lands or bounces off. I have sat in that chair for 27 years. The work is about facing into their real problems so your pitch stops sounding like a product tour.
What people say about the advisory
“Tom knows retention at a depth that's rare, and he's applying AI to it in genuine practice, not just theory. He pushed me to rethink my approach to every client engagement, and I'm now rebuilding how I operate to achieve stronger results for both my business and my clients.”
Mike Swanson
Iydl Hands Consulting
“Tom has a rare ability to connect product strategy directly to retention and revenue outcomes, and that partnership made a lasting difference for our business.”
Ted Middleton
CEO, Aspen
“What stood out working with Tom was how approachable he made a complex space. Deep expertise, zero ego, and someone who actually wants to see you succeed. Grateful to have had him in my corner.”
Sean Granier
AI & Automation Lead
“I came back to the martech space after a 10-year hiatus and quickly realised how much the landscape had shifted: CDPs, AI-driven lifecycle marketing, the evolving role of the CRM manager. I engaged Tom as a mentor to help me bridge that gap, and it was one of the best decisions I've made. He was candid about the real-world challenges, generous with his frameworks, direct in his feedback, and has a rare ability to make complex retention and lifecycle concepts feel practical and actionable. If you're looking for someone who can elevate your thinking on CRM, retention, or AI-powered customer lifecycle strategy, Tom is the person to speak to.”
Richard Samuels
AI Marketing Automation, Bloomreach
02 — Bootcamps
The bootcamps
Live, online, two hours, ten people. I show you the whole thing step by step and you leave with my files. Every session is recorded and the replay is yours to keep.
Running now: the Retention AI Second Brain Bootcamp. Thursday 8 October, 16:30 UK. $197, ten seats.
Build an AI second brain that writes hundreds of CRM messages you would actually send. A second brain is a structured set of files holding what you know: your brand voice, your customer states, your lifecycle logic, your product, your data, your principles. The model reads that context before it writes anything, so what comes out is grounded rather than guessed.
The two hours cover structuring the brain, connecting it to Claude Cowork, building skills for the problems you hit repeatedly, producing copy at volume that holds to CRM design principles, filling the brain from what you already know, and getting the output into Braze, Optimove, MoEngage or wherever you actually send from.
You leave with my second brain markdown files: 32 behavioural principles, 15+ retention techniques, 62 case studies. Plus the recording, the platform ingestion routes and a certificate.
For in-house CRM, lifecycle and retention marketers running high-volume communications with gaps they cannot resource, and for anyone tired of AI copy that reads like AI copy.
The proof is that it already works. This is the second brain that has produced delivery work for a streaming platform, a B2B SaaS business and a consumer app: TOD, Aspen and Subconsciously. It is not a method I am trying out on you.
New bootcamps are announced to the Retention Blueprint list first.
03 — Courses
The CRM marketing courses
More than 2,000 people have taken versions 1 and 2 of my CRM marketing courses. They cover how lifecycle programmes are actually built and run: why customers leave, how to design a programme that holds up when the numbers get examined, and what separates CRM work that moves revenue from CRM work that fills a calendar.
That material is the foundation of the AI second brain. The bootcamp teaches you to build the machine. The courses are what you feed it.
The standalone courses are closed to new enrolment.
The material now runs inside the bootcamps, and a new CRM Marketing 3.0 course is in the works. It will be announced to the Retention Blueprint list first.
What people said about the courses
More than 2,000 people have taken versions 1 and 2 of my CRM marketing courses. Here’s what they said.
“With 9 years of CRM experience, I wasn’t sure how much I would gain from this course, however I have to really give Tom praise for what he has done here and would recommend to CRM professionals, whatever their level.”
Tobey Bonney
“I lead engagement strategy at a marketing agency and am often asked for case studies and best practices to win or grow client business. This content is rich with relatable examples and proven frameworks that can translate across functions and verticals. I consider it my cheat sheet for years to come. Can’t recommend enough.”
Melissa Malcolm
“I have worked in CRM for many years and this course has given me more information on the strategic framework in 1.5 hours than I’ve picked up in my previous roles.”
Anon.
“This course is well structured and does an amazing job of breaking down CRM Marketing in an understandable way. Tom explains concepts and procedures (e.g. how to do proper research, testing, and analytics) more comprehensively than any other marketing course I’ve taken.”
Patrick Zurcher
“Very relevant content presented in a clear and simple framework. The presenter’s knowledge and experience are evident, but more importantly the content is presented in a logical format making it easier to apply. A nice balance of strategic guidance and actionable recommendations.”
Michael Lavoie
“An excellent course. A go-to for anyone looking to set up an effective CRM programme from scratch, or optimise existing communications to maximise ROI. Very clear and easy follow.”
Lawrence H.
The Retention Blueprint
Goes out most weeks: one retention idea, written for people who own the number.
Actionable retention insights: proven frameworks, real-world case studies and Agentic techniques that stand up in the boardroom.
Looking for the agency rather than the teaching? Retention AI does the strategy and the agentic execution.