What is a growth review conversation?
A growth review is a meeting that occurs on a set schedule. Often this is quarterly, in which it is referred to as a quarterly business review (QBR). That said, your client may require that this takes place more or less frequently (e.g., monthly or bi-monthly instead).
During this meeting, the company reviews the impact its product has had on the customer's business, discusses major goals or challenges, and plans for the future of collaboration. In the next lesson, you will learn how to best present your findings. First, let’s take a step back and discuss preparation.
How to prepare for your growth review?
Follow each of the steps below to get your growth review conversation in motion and prepare your presentation so that it is as impactful as possible and clearly showcases how important your agency is to this client’s current and future growth trajectory.
Schedule the call
Work with your client to schedule a call at a time and day that works best for you both. Upon scheduling this, set the invite to repeat on a consistent schedule (monthly, quarterly, etc.).
Stick to this schedule. Trust us, you’ll thank yourself later as you are able to monitor and prove consistent growth throughout your relationship with this customer.
Share an agenda
Ahead of the call, share a full agenda of what you intend to discuss. Why?
- How it helps your team:
Allows you to track the team owner, goal, and time spent on each topic to keep your call organized and effective. This structure better assists you in leaving ample time for the client to share their own feedback, questions, and ideas. - How it helps your client:
This agenda also gives the client the ability to recommend topic additions or changes to the agenda ahead of time. They will also be able to better prepare for each topic; thus making for a more productive two-way conversation.
Sample agenda:
Total time spent: 50 minutes.
Topic | Timeframe | Owner | Goal |
Welcome/introductions | 5 min. | Joan - ABC Agency | Allow time for stakeholders to enter and facilitate introductions for new team members. |
Context | 5 min. | Joan - ABC Agency | Remind the team of where Beantown was the last time they met: what metrics were lower than desired and where they had gaps in their strategy. |
Data deep dive | 15 min. | Tom - ABC Agency | Dive into the analysis of the quarter, highlighting growth and net new content implemented. |
Wins and misses | 10 min. | Tom - ABC Agency | Highlight top wins tracked to their agency’s efforts; discuss misses, framed as areas of opportunity to tackle next. |
Group discussion / Q+A | 10 min. | Facilitated by Joan, questions from Beantown team. | Facilitate discussion, asking Beantown to share any questions they have and thoughts on this data. |
Next steps | 15 min. | Joan - ABC Agency | Determine next steps, building SMART goals together. |
Assign pre-work for the client
Assign pre-work, in other words, specific tasks for the client to prepare ahead of this call. That way, you can make sure they are bought in on what you are going to discuss before the call begins, and are not taken by surprise by any specific goals or asks.
Sample pre-work:
Hi there [client’s name],
Our team is looking forward to our quarterly business review next Friday. In preparation for this discussion, our team would love to hear from you to make sure this call is as effective as possible.
In particular, please complete the following steps ahead of time:
- Write down about 5 key goals you'd like to accomplish this year.
- Label each goal as low, medium, or high priority based on business impact.
- Write down any questions you have about your current strategy and recent changes.
- Send us an email! Let us know at least 48 hours prior to our call if there are any specific data points you are hoping to see in particular or adjustments you’d like to make to the agenda we’ve shared.
At the end of the day, our goal is to make this conversation as productive as possible for both of our teams. If you have any ideas or feedback for us in advance, we are always open to that. Looking forward to meeting soon!
Best,
[Your name]
[Your title, company]
Build your presentation
As we covered earlier, come prepared with a presentation to walk the client through, using Klaviyo’s Growth Review Tool.
Because Klaviyo builds this slide deck for you, this should be a quick and painless process for your agency! Klaviyo will populate your client’s account data automatically, so from there, any edits you’d like to make are entirely up to you and will serve to further enhance the content.
That said, we recommend that you do the following:
- Add in your agency’s own branding to the slide deck.
- Incorporate your clients pre-work into the deck, accounting for any suggestions or asks.
- Add in slides for any results from channels you manage for them outside of Klaviyo.
- Add relevant talking points to the end for next steps, building SMART goals, and how to refocus your strategy.
It’s go-time.
Now that your meeting is set, agenda laid out, pre-work assigned, and presentation built, you are ready to lead an effective growth review.
In the next lesson, we will dive into exactly how to present your findings and spur conversation so that this becomes a strong conversation for both you and your client.