Handling Client Review Meetings - a practical guide

rs1499
Sep 2
6 min read

Updated: Sep 3

Background

In a previous post, we covered a bit of an overview on what an Executive Business Review is, and how to think about it.

Now, assuming you’ve decided it’s a good fit for your business, how do you go about preparing a high-impact EBR?

Set up and communicate ahead of the meeting

How you communicate ahead of an EBR sets the tone for the whole meeting.

Here’s sample cadences.

4-6 weeks ahead – schedule

Establish attendees - who should attend and why? Does everyone attend all parts, or will there be an executive portion and a deeper dive?
Set an estimated length, and suggest some scheduling windows, or ask the client for windows (sometimes easier if you’re coordinating multiple executives). Note that you’ll likely be working with your sponsor and/or executive assistants on this part.
Clarify if remote or in-person. If in-person, consider adding on a lunch, apero, or dinner.

Once scheduled

Send a meeting invitation. Include the agenda in the meeting invitation.

1-2 days before the meeting

Send out an email reminder including the agenda.

Pre-work

The work of setting up a successful business review starts before you sit down with slides. First, you need a complete view of the customer, their value, and your partnership to date. Then, it helps to think about your goals for the meeting, and what will drive the partnership forward. How do you deepen the value?

Here are some places to start:

a. Review all information you have on the client

First, dig into everything you have on the client so far. Think about –

Pertinent client health metrics - depending on product / company, this could include:

Usage
Outcome metrics
“Scores”
Completion checklists

Support tickets

Issues, resolution times, etc.
Is anything still outstanding?
Any SLAs you need to report on?

Communication - emails, past meeting notes and open action items

Any successes or quotes you can pull out to craft a story?
What goals have been mentioned, and how are you tracking to them?
Any outstanding followups?

Value generation – This is the key piece. Pulling together all the above, how do you speak to the value you’ve generated for the client? Think about:

Key stories that speak to success
The client’s business metrics, and how your product has impacted them
Any value calculations you’ve agreed on (and if you don’t have an agreed-upon way to calculate value, an EBR can be a great excuse to start creating one with your sponsor – but do that ahead of time as you don’t want to be debating value in front of a senior exec sponsor).

Tips for Successful prep

Include your champion!

If you’re meeting with multiple users in the business review, consider prepping with one of your key champions - ask them for input into the agenda, wins they think you should highlight, concerns that might come up. See if they’re willing to speak to the wins and value. Usually this is a way for them to celebrate wins, and helps you build credibility.

Set goals for the meeting - Before you prep the slides, think about what success looks like from the meeting. It’s usually some mix of –

Leave client feeling proud of their work with you, and able to articulate the value
Understand their key goals and drivers in order to best align
Set yourselves up for success in your next 1-2 quarters of collaboration (often this will be setting the stage for collaborations or actions you need to take to increase the value they’re getting)
Other goals based on company needs - secure a reference or case study, get product feedback, invite them to a CAB

Craft a Narrative + Agenda

Now that you know what you want out of the meeting, decide what you need to present, how, and what narrative you’ll craft.

Key Tip – Always OWN the take-away. Rarely will you want to present a slew of numbers or metrics without a framing.

Decide before prepping the presentation - what story and narrative is authentic to the data and experience of the customer in the past quarter, while also presenting a positive and exciting path forward?

Prepare an agenda.

Once you’re clear on the goals and narrative, start pulling together an agenda and flow.

Here’s an example, but yours vary based on your goals and story -

Intros (if anyone new in the meeting / call)
- Some folks in the US like ice breaker questions. This is highly cultural. Feel it out)
Review agenda and ask for additional input (“Here’s what we had planned. Is there anything you want to make sure we address today?”)
Current status + progress - this is where you ideally get them feeling great about the value they’re getting. Paint a success-oriented picture based on your data. Relate all metrics back to what drives value to the client.
- Ways to frame data in a positive way
  - Show improvements from past periods
  - Present compared to other industry standards
  - Present compared to other clients
  - Share the “why” if possible - what led to improvements
- If you’ve pre-prepped with one of the attendees, this is a good time for them to add their perspective
- If their experience has been negative, own that too - acknowledge what didn’t work, the impact to them, why it happened, and what changes are being made to improve going forward
Ask for feedback and their perspective - what do they feel has worked and hasn’t?
Open agenda items (e.g. if an integration is underway, or you’re in the middle of activities) - depending on how top of mind these are, you might want to open with these and get them out of the way, or close with them with a smaller group of people)
Looking forward with your own company – share any exciting updates you think they need - here’s where you get them excited about what’s ahead. It can include things like
- Product roadmap - what new features are coming and why they should care (critically, relate the feature to the things they care about)
  - Ask for feedback if you’re open to it
  - Bring in the VP Product if it’s a big client or you want them to feel special
- Key strategic initiatives that will directly relate to their value (e.g. expert panels coming up)
Their own strategic initiatives and goals - how are they thinking about the next quarter/ half year / year?
- A great way to bring this up is “Lots of our clients are talking about X,Y,Z right now. Does that map to what you’re thinking about? What else is top of mind going into this year?”
Next steps to increase their value with you -
- (some of this might naturally in the first section too - after you’ve established where they are, you hopefully have some tips to get even more value. If that’s the case, just reiterate here)
- Bring up other ideas for ways to increase usage, value, etc. Some of this you’ll hopefully have thought of ahead of time, but be ready to think on your feet as they bring up issues, successes, and goals

During the Business Review

Stay clear on your own goals, while also listening to hear and understand, and being astute and alert to the client’s needs.

Some things to be aware of:

What’s the sentiment at the start of the meeting? Are folks relaxed, stressed, disconnected? Is there anything else going on you should be aware of? E.g. super busy time of year, organisational fire, etc?

As you start, what’s the tone? Is the client collaborative, positive, combative? What do they want to get out of the meeting?

What are the power dynamics? Who’s talking more? Who’s deferring to whom?

Tips for success:

Drive the agenda - you should be bringing up what’s next and moving things ahead, while keeping the tone friendly but professional throughout.
If you hear the client bring up something that’s not on your agenda, address it. How deeply you lean in depends on who brings it up, how important it is to them, and how well it aligns to your agenda.
Repeating back what you hear can be a powerful tool. It helps the client feel heard, ensures you understood things correctly, and buys you and the team time to think of a response.
Take note of followups. You might not be able to answer everything in the session itself, which is ok, but own getting an answer ASAP.
The wrap-up is important. Leave time for questions. Check in on the value of the meeting. Ask folks what some of their key takeaways are. Circle back on key points and followups.

Communicate after the meeting

What happens after the meeting is as critical as what happens in the meeting.

If there was a larger group in attendance, sync with your champion to get their perspective on how it went and anything you should be aware of in the followup

Send out an email afterwards to all attendees with: