How often is your agency meeting with clients for strategic planning? Our founder, Josh Nelson, has discovered that one of the biggest drivers behind his agency’s 97% client retention rate is the quarterly business review (QBR) meeting.
Meeting with clients every quarter for a strategic conversation gives you a chance to review their business goals and create a plan for the next 90 days. With this strategy, clients feel confident that your agency is always improving upon their services and continually delivering value to their business.
If you want to scale your marketing agency, retention is essential. Learn the importance of quarterly business reviews for retention and client loyalty and how to run them effectively.
How To Shape Your Quarterly Business Review Meetings
Too often, client meetings revolve around tactical updates instead of strategic planning. You may already hold monthly reviews during which you discuss progress on services like SEO and paid search. At the same time, you may be neglecting the client’s broader business objectives.
While you may know how these services move the client closer to their goals, clients often appreciate specific communication that shows the value your agency provides. They also want to see that you are taking a proactive, thoughtful approach to their marketing plan rather than simply running strategies on autopilot.
During a quarterly business review, you can focus on strategic planning and business objectives rather than month-to-month progress. Here is the quarterly business review framework Josh’s agency uses with clients:
- Review the previous quarter’s goals: Assess progress toward the goals set at the previous QBR.
- Discuss what performed well: Showcase how your deliverables have aided the client’s goals and discuss their highest-performing services for the quarter.
- Identify areas for improvement: Be transparent about what services or strategies you can improve upon to better align with the client’s goals.
- Create specific goals: Establish measurable goals for the next 90 days, such as certain revenue targets or new client acquisition objectives.
- Develop a plan: Discuss an action plan with the client for achieving those goals.
The Benefits of Quarterly Business Reviews for Your Agency
Quarterly business reviews offer several important benefits for your marketing agency.
Client Retention
When clients cannot easily see the value of your services, they will be tempted to end the relationship at any time. Marketing services are not always highly visible. For example, the monthly blog posts you write continue driving traffic in the background, but clients may not see how this strategy is benefiting them, or they may lose sight of their original goals for the service.
During your quarterly business review, you can clearly state how your agency is benefiting the client and how you plan to continue benefiting them. You can enumerate clear, tangible goals, such as achieving an X% revenue increase, that you plan to reach for the client moving forward. When the client can see the continued value you bring to their business, they’re much more likely to keep the relationship going.
Clear Communication
Quarterly business reviews also get everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction. Your client may have a different idea of “success” than you, and without explicitly communicating that to you, your agency will likely keep disappointing them.
With a QBR, you can point to the client’s stated goals from last quarter and clearly show how you met them. Then you can set more tangible objectives and focus your efforts for the next 90 days.
Logical Upsells
These strategic planning meetings also provide relevant opportunities to upsell clients. For example, the client may not have seen the desired results through your Basic tier of services. You can point them toward your Advanced tier and explain how the services in this package will better align with their goals.
Without the quarterly business review, you may not have a convenient opportunity to discuss higher-level services, making the client more likely to stay on your basic tier and ultimately leave if you aren’t meeting their goals.
Learn Strategies for Success From Seven Figure Agency
The quarterly business review meeting is one of the many strategies we teach Seven Figure Agency members to help them attract more clients, deliver the best results, retain, and scale. Our mentorship program helps marketing agencies grow their businesses and stay attuned to the latest strategies and tactics for both client deliverables and agency development.
If you’re interested in maximizing client retention through proven strategies, explore our programs today.
