Engaging clients via review meetings is one of the best work-generating activities you can do. Yet many organisations undertake the exercise all too infrequently and perhaps miss opportunities by not doing them as well as they could.
Top clients should be given this facility at least once a year. End of Financial Year is a perfect time to do it.
Whilst it represents a great opportunity to discuss your performance relative to the clients goals and assess how well or otherwise you are doing, it should also be recognised as the finest time to source referrals for the business as well as case studies and testimonials to use in your marketing.
Before the meeting
Who is going – stakeholders both internal and external? Send an agenda in advance and ask for input from the client so it is a genuine two-way conversation and not a one-way diatribe. Have a checklist of subjects to cover. Motivate both sides to collate accurate and up to date information for discussion.
Objectives – How well are you doing? Probe all areas of concern. What are the pain points? Poor communication and responsiveness are often an issue.
Important: Remember to focus on strategic and not just operational concerns.
Ask; Why did you start doing business with us? Why have you continued to do business with us? What can we do to be even more valuable to you? What is your criteria for success? What KPI’s do you have to reach in the next 12 months?
How well do you really know your clients both personally and professionally? Learn more by benchmarking yourself here.
Performance – Historical business performance in recent years. How is it trending? What percentage of the clients spend in your area do you receive? What budgets do they have for other areas of service you can offer? In getting ‘better’, both in quality and quantitative terms, what does better look like?
Rapport – How will you build it with non-business conversation? How will you demonstrate your relevance and insightful knowledge? Try using phrases like WWF. What we found….
Consider their actions, values and beliefs. Like an iceberg, maybe only 10% will be initially on display. Follow up and sub questions will be necessary to glean the necessary information such as tell me more, what do you like most about, on a scale of 1 to 10…
Have an upbeat and confident demeanour and don’t spoon feed the answers or try to put words in their mouth. Open by stating that you are there to understand exactly what the client wants and needs to ensure they get maximum benefit from the relationship. Ask how you can best spend the time together.
During the meeting
Demonstrate active listening by writing down the answers to your questions. Let the client dominate the conversation. Find out their top 3 priorities for the year. How can you help them achieve their goal? What are the industry issues and opportunities to discuss?
Highlight positives, how you help to reduce cost, save time, increase Net Promoter Score etc
Make it easy for them to voice a complaint. Learn from it, don’t relive it. Ensure you’re easy to do business with. Where do we bring value? What are the ‘afters’?
Summarise key themes and agree next steps/meetings.
Some Sample Questions to Consider.
1. How well do we understand your market /organisation? What work do we need to do for this? Google, annual report etc
2. Do we consistently provide the right advice/recommendations tailored to your situation? What improvements can we make?
3. Have we formed productive relationships with your key players? How can we improve our relationships with your people?
4. Are we easy to do business with and always ready and willing to help? How could we improve?
5. How would you rate our tangibles? Availability, Affability, Ability. Advice, correspondence, contracts, reports, technology & systems etc. What aspects of our people, facilities, premises do you suggest we work on?
6. Turning to some recent matters and projects. What if anything, did we do particularly well? Start on a positive. What aspects fell short of your expectations?
7. What comments do you have about the way we charge for our work? Does it represent good value? How could it be changed for the better? Alternative Fee Arrangements?
8. How do you recommend we promote our services to other people in your organisation? What value adds could we offer? Introductions we could receive?
9. Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put us? What would we need to do to become your ideal or preferred supplier? Could we use you for a testimonial and case study?
10. Do you know of any other businesses/individuals who would benefit from our service?
Post meeting action
Thank clients for their attendance. No follow up, no point in the meeting? Send action points in writing within 24 hours. Who is doing what by when?
Reflect and review with your team in a debrief meeting. Focus on the gaps. Define measurement, brainstorm solutions and develop a plan. Ensure when going back to the client and presenting your recommendations, trends, data and observations that they pass the ‘So what?’ test.
If you want to discuss this opportunity further contact us via the usual channels.