Most MSPs enjoy great personal relationships with office managers and technical contact people because of their regular work together. As executives are not part of the operation it is very important to know them better, understand them better and build strong relationships with them through the only touchpoint you have: Quarterly Business Reviews.
In this article, we check the 8 most important areas you can cover with your executives to get more engagement.
1. Personal related questions
Why ask:
Essentially every business decision executives make root back to personal priorities. If you understand them better as a person, you understand their business better. That gives you the opportunity to offer better guidance and become a trusted advisor for them personally.
- What they are worried about
- What are their personal challenges
- What personal goals they have
2. Competitive landscape related
Why ask:
Their competitive landscape is their playing field. Their competitors, their differentiation, their value proposition and how they compare to others are very important to know. This helps you to find solutions for them to become more competitive.
What to look for:
- What is their competitive advantage
- Why are they winning clients over the competition
- Why are they losing deals to the competition
- How their market is changing
- Any opportunity they see in the market right now
3. Clients related
Why ask:
Their clients are their source of revenue, so client requirements are very important. Understanding their challenges with their clients can help you come up with valuable ideas. How for example technology can enable them to communicate faster, better and easier with them.
What to look for:
- Who are their best clients and why
- What makes their clients happy
- How do they communicate and collaborate with them
4. Growth related
Why ask:
Knowing their past growth and future forecast is critical to see where their business is going. If they have healthy growth, expansion is on the horizon and they need to scale and have resources for developments. If they have growth issues then they might be cautious with budgets but investments in technology might unlock their growth potential.
What to look for:
- Past growth targets and actuals
- Future predictions, goals and forecasts
- Internal and external bottlenecks of growth
5. Marketing related
Why ask:
Their marketing channels have dramatically changed over recent years by the introduction of social media, eCommerce platforms and the changes in consumer behaviours. Understanding the adoption of these new marketing trends is important to see where technology can help them to build their brand, generate leads and promote their products better.
What to look for:
- How they are leveraging social media and eCommerce platforms
- How they are getting leads and how the channels have been changed over the years
- What are their online marketing strategies
6. Sales related
Why ask:
The ability to constantly sell services and products determine the top line of the organization. If the top line is healthy the bottom line can be healthy, as well. If sales are growing that encourages executives and they become more optimistic and open to IT-related developments. However, with a lack of sales, they are more conservative on general IT spending but always interested in how technology can boost their sales.
What to look for:
- Effectiveness of their sales process
- Visibility, transparency of sales with information, report and accountability
- Bottlenecks of sales
7. Operation Efficiency related
Why ask:
Every organization is full of internal challenges. Broken processes, client experience issues, productivity challenges or growth pains. The quest for operation excellence never stops. This is the easiest topic to engage executives: what is broken and how do we help fix it? It can be a report, an integration, a new application or just better communication.
What to look for:
What processes are broken and why
What is the single most painful bottleneck of the company
What part of the business process generates the most noise in the organization
8. Management related
Why ask:
Every executive leads other people. Managing expectations, meeting with others, communicating, leading projects, accessing information and making decisions are their everyday life. Most of their personal frustrations and excitements are about their management role. Anything that can help them be more productive and become better leaders are a priority.
What to look for:
- Management challenges
- Personal productivity issues
- Communication, collaboration and project management issues
Covering these topics regularly with your executives puts you in a position where you are able to solve their Business Problems. That leads you to become a trusted advisor for them.
Are you truly engaging your client executives and owners?
Download our Executive QBR Power QuestionS