If you want to conduct the type of quarterly business review that your customer will love, the key thing to understand is that you need to emphasize the most important factor: the customer!
The entire purpose of a quarterly business review agenda is to leverage your expertise to help someone else accomplish their goals. You’ll discuss strategic initiatives, trends, and more – all to help them grow into the business they want to be running while maximizing their investment return. You can’t do that unless you put the customer at the center of focus.
Sample Quarterly Business Review
The following is an example of a free quarterly business review agenda template you can use with your clients and customers.
Introductions (5 min)
After any introductions, you should dive into understanding or reviewing the client’s goals or business objectives in as much detail as possible.
Summary of Customer Goals (10 min)
What do you hope to accomplish this quarter? This year?
Have there been any recent changes to your business?
Has this strategy changed since last we spoke?
From there, move onto a brief account overview or recap some of the work you’ve already been doing. Throughout this process, you need to make a proactive effort to invite questions and feedback.
Account Review (10 min)
Customer Feedback (20 min)
Has our product/service helped you achieve your goals?
What would you like to see more of?
What can we improve?
Would you prefer we went with a different approach next quarter?
At the end of the meeting, share your documented summary of notes and spell out any specific action items or takeaways for your team before thanking the client for their time.
Action Items and Summary (10 min)
Wrap up (5 min)
Again – the client is the “star of the show” during this process. If you frame your quarterly business review in the right way, you’ll show them that you’re the perfect type of partner, which is every bit as vested in their success as they are themselves.
Quarterly Business Review Questions
To gain that better understanding of what your client is trying to do and why these objectives are so important, there are several questions you may need to ask. Be sure to focus on the positive side of things – but don’t necessarily shy away from challenges. Just a few common quarterly business review template questions include but are not limited to ones like:
- What do you hope to accomplish this quarter? Looking forward, what do you hope to achieve by the end of the year?
- Have you made any changes to your strategy since the last time we spoke?
- Has our product or service helped you achieve your goals?
- What would you like to see even more of?
- What can we improve upon in the future to get even better results?
- Would you find any benefit if we went with a different approach next quarter? Why or why not?
Those last few questions are crucial. It’s just as important to find out what isn’t working as it is to learn what has been successful. You’ll have all the actionable information you need to double down on the latter and get rid of the former whenever possible.
Quarterly Business Review Best Practices
As you prepare for your quarterly business review presentation, keep in mind that your quarterly business review agenda should always be shared ahead of time. This gives the customer ample time to process any resources or reports you may need when the big day arrives. Likewise, it allows them to come with well-informed feedback or questions for you and your team – all making the most of the experience.
Overall, you’ll want to make an effort to keep the meeting short. If you’re running out of time and feel like you still have some ground left to cover with your quarterly business review agenda, don’t be afraid to ask for a follow-up call. You don’t want to overload someone with too much information. This can make any necessary changes seem overwhelming and frustrating.
Finally, be sure to save all of your meeting notes in your system of record and review them regularly. This will help you refresh yourself with the progress made before your next quarterly business review, allowing you to spend less time focusing on the past and more time focusing on creating the most actionable, successful future possible.
