How to Run a Cross Functional Quarterly Business Review Presentation

Make Your Account Reviews Count: Your guide to leading account reviews that drive client satisfaction and open up the door to organic growth

in Account Management, Quarterly Business Reviews, Key Account Management /

Don't only bank check the box. Move the needle.

Account reviews are an incredible opportunity. They open the door to feedback, insights, and opportunities. They're a run a risk for face up-time between leadership and cross-functional teams from both organizations. They strengthen relationships, build customer appointment, and create opportunities for organic growth through customer improvement.

But account reviews only work if they're done right.

Below is our guide to leading engaging and productive account reviews. Nosotros've included big motion picture best practices too as several applied tips. To learn more than almost how Kapta tin back up you in making account reviews count, schedule your personal demo.

Schedule Regular Bank check-Ups

We say information technology all the time: Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) are a thing of the past. Non because business reviews aren't critical, but because quarterly isn't enough.

So how often should you lot schedule business relationship reviews? As always, it depends. If y'all're already in constant contact with your client, through regular status meetings or deliverables reviews, you tin can afford to schedule less frequent formal reviews. If you are non already talking to your client all the time, you need to schedule account reviews at least every 2-4 weeks.

However often you take them, make sure your account reviews are separate from day-to-day meetings, so you can focus on the large picture, invite big players, and check in on the human relationship as a whole, rather than getting lost in the weeds of any given deliverable.

Prepare to Add Value

We conducted a survey of over 100 CIOs and CMOs, and found that nearly business relationship reviews fell flat for one simple reason: The team wasn't prepared. Give yourself time leading up to the meeting to put together a deck. Assign an possessor, and then inquire:

• What did we cover in the final account review? Brand sure you lot're non repeating yourself, or asking questions you should already know the answer to.
• What did we commit to in the last account review? If you oasis't already, make sure you follow upward on the condition of any outstanding deliverables or action items.
• What exercise the numbers (actually) say? Account reviews are a smashing time to cover any relevant metrics or KPIs—especially if they've inverse since the terminal review. Just think: Your clients don't want to translate a dozen charts and graphs. They want you to do that for them. Brand certain you lot translate information into fundamental takeaways and actionable insights.
• Has the team weighed in? If you work on a cross-functional squad, make certain key people from each department review your presentation. They might take insight you don't have, or they may meet a red flag. Y'all tin can also consider inviting those squad members to the review, as advisable (encounter beneath for more tips on getting the correct people in the room).
• Are we adding value? Remember, yous're pulling your customers abroad from their twenty-four hours and piece of work to come to this meeting. Don't just tell them what they already know.
• Can nosotros exist more succinct? Equally the French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously said, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not take the time." Whittle down your slides to those that add together value, spark meaningful conversation, answer outstanding questions, or raise new, important questions. Avoid fluff. A too-long presentation is a hallmark of not having fully prepared.

What it all comes downward to is this: You can't put together your adjacent business relationship review the day before your adjacent account review. You need time to get input from the squad, turn data into meaningful insights, and build a review that adds value and sparks practiced conversation.

Stay Customer-Focused

Remember: It's not about you. Business relationship reviews are a dandy opportunity to demonstrate value and bear witness what you've accomplished, but you take to brand certain you chronicle back to your client'due south stated goals. Structure the meat of your presentation around agile client objectives, including:

• Recap: Hither'south what you (the customer) wanted to achieve, and here'due south what we (together) decided to do to become in that location
• Current status: Here'due south where we are (progress, timing, budget, metrics of success)
• Central takeaways: Hither's what we've learned to date (if applicable)
• Class correction: Here'due south how we're adjusting our approach (if applicable)
• Thoughts/comments? Pause periodically to get client input (more than on this below)
• Next steps: Hither's what we're doing next

We'll talk more near the client input slice below—for now, just make sure you're building in plenty of fourth dimension for a 2-mode conversation, rather than a 1-sided presentation. And ask yourself with every slide or bullet bespeak: Is this meaningful/interesting to my customer? Or just to me? If the answer is the latter, take it out.

Because you're structuring the majority of your account review around your client'south stated goals, any pipeline reviews need to happen separately. A good account review may reveal new customer goals (and new opportunities for business), just information technology's non an overt sales meeting. It's a reckoning against the goals your customer has already ready, and the commitments you've already fabricated. You lot can come back to new opportunities later.

Create a 2-Manner Conversation

Business relationship reviews are a great opportunity to hear from your clients starting time hand. They're a face up-to-face Vox of Customer practise—but only if you talk with your customers, not at them.

Ask most their satisfaction. Are they happy with the work? Are they happy with the team? Inquire if there's anything they'd like to change or improve. Ask about their goals. Have they changed or evolved since the last time you spoke? Are they facing new market trends or competitive threats? The sooner you lot know, the more than proactive you can exist about solving their bug—before they accomplish out to another vendor, or another vendor reaches out to them.

In club to go meaningful Voice of Customer insights, you lot need to make sure the right customers are in the room. Here are a few applied tips:

• Build a balanced room. Don't transport 10 people from your organization if in that location are only ii attendees from the customer side. A balanced room creates a counterbalanced dynamic—if customers experience outnumbered, they may be less likely to speak upward. Not to mention, sending too many people raises dollar-sign-question-marks in your client's mind, ie "Am I paying for all these people to attend?"
  Invite leadership from both sides: Sending leadership from your organization signals to your client that their business matters. It's too an splendid gamble for managers to notice their team in action, and to gauge the health of the relationship. Not only can leadership take action if there are red flags, but they can also use their observations to drive amend internal performance reviews for the team.
• Invite cross-functional teams: A common mistake account managers make is feeling likewise possessive of their client relationships. It's understandable—those relationships are a large part of the value yous add to an organization. But if you lot allow your full team direct access to your customers, they'll do a better job for your customers. Keeping other departments siloed from the client makes it impossible for people to act with the customer top of mind.
• Build in time for feedback: If your business relationship review is 1 hour long, set up 30 minutes of content to nowadays. In doing and then, yous build in plenty of time for clients to actively participate in the review, adding commentary, questions, and feedback along the fashion.

End with an Activity Plan

Information technology'southward been a great meeting. You presented insightful, relevant updates. Your clients were engaged participants. You revealed new opportunities and asked interesting questions. So now what?

Make sure to leave meetings with an action programme in place. Include deliverables, commitment, and timing. Schedule the next review, and place any particular attendees who should exist in that location.

Here's another practical tip: Block your calendar for an additional one-2 hours following the meeting to give yourself time for immediate action items, such every bit:

• Contact report
• Scheduling subsequent client meetings
• Scheduling internal regroups
• Alerting internal teams to whatever firsthand feedback or next steps
• And more

But as nosotros encourage you to build in time leading up to the review, nosotros encourage you to build in fourth dimension following the review. Setting bated time to prepare and follow up, respectively, means you take business relationship reviews seriously—and that's the commencement footstep towards making them work for you.

Bulldoze Client Comeback

Good account reviews should require internal follow up. Perchance you gained some valuable insight on current deliverables, and you want to share with the broader team to inform their ongoing piece of work. Or peradventure you heard some interesting nuggets that could plough into opportunities for organic growth. Pull some good minds together and start brainstorming how you might assist your customers reach goals.

Client improvement is the practice of knowing your customers—and their business—most meliorate than they know themselves, so you can offer ideas and insights they wouldn't have thought of on their own. That's the kind of value-added relationship that grows over fourth dimension, simply it takes time to get in happen. Don't just run your account review and forget everything you heard until the next one—use internal resources to translate customer comments into meaningful feedback for the team, and meaningful growth potential for your customers.

Conclusion

We've covered lots of best practices for conducting excellent account reviews, and nosotros've included practical tips throughout to aid you operationalize your approach. At present—what kinds of tools practice yous have to assistance along the style?

Kapta's real-time tracking and reporting tools make information technology easy to access on-the-spot data for any given business relationship. Pull metrics, bear witness progress, and visually demonstrate value with a few clicks.

Kapta'due south collaboration hub gives you a primal repository for the output of client reviews, whether it's a modify in approach, an update to timing, or an update to strategy.

And Kapta'due south VOC tools help capture client feedback and client goals in a manner that prompts follow upward and further discussion, reinforcing the behaviors that transform client relationships.

To learn more near how Kapta tin can help y'all prepare for and make the almost of account reviews, schedule a demo today.

CEO at Kapta
Alex Raymond is the CEO of Kapta.

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Source: https://kapta.com/resources/key-account-management-blog/account-management/make-your-account-reviews-count

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