Identify customer goals, action plans, and review meetings to discuss progress and attainment.
Summary
Once the program is set up, this is the high-level workflow for your teams:
✨Track upcoming and past EBR dates
There are several ways to classify at-risk accounts; this program considers any of the following:-
Next EBR Date: Date of next EBR (can be target until schedule is confirmed)-
Last EBR Date: Date of last EBR conducted-
Top Business Priorities: Picklist to identify top business priorities or outcomes for customer, to be reviewed during the EBR.✨Send proactive outreach to schedule the EBR
Send an email from the CSM to the customer (program owner) to schedule the meeting in advance of the Next EBR Date.✨Provide visibility for success planning
Create an account layout to capture your success planning and EBR preparation details.Consider adding a customer hub layout to share with the customer, leading up to the EBR.
✨Prepare for a successful EBR
Help your team prepare for the EBR:- Assign a task with guidelines for preparation
- Customize and build a shareable EBR deck template
- Create a note template to help capture notes and next steps during the meeting
Setup Summary
Ready to get started? You can customize this program as you see fit. Here is the setup process for an "EBR" program:
-
Discovery
Successful programs have buy-in from key stakeholders. Spend time with each key group to validate program requirements. -
Define fields
Identify the success plan/review details you want to track. -
Create note and task templates
Facilitate your team's input of success plan/review details. -
Create an account-level layout
Create an account layout to capture your success planning and EBR preparation details. -
Build playbooks
Build a playbook to help schedule EBRs and ensure CSMs are prepared for the meeting. -
Roll out your new program!
Schedule supporting meetings and train your team on expectations.
1. Discovery
Successful programs have buy-in from key stakeholders. Spend time with each key group to validate program requirements. Here are some example stakeholder groups and questions that will inform your program setup.
| Question | Application |
|---|---|
| What are the common goals that your customers typically aim to achieve with our product? Would you say that there are standard goals across our customer base? | -Top Business Priorities picklist -Success plan task templates |
| What are the most influential stories that your customers have been inspired by? Are there commonalities that might help us develop reusable examples? | -EBR prep task templates |
| Question | Application |
|---|---|
| Based on your team's experience with your customer base, what are the expected cadences for holding EBRs or engaging with our customer executive sponsors? Does it differ by customer segment? | -Success plan / EBR playbooks (scheduling outreach) |
| How would you want the CSMs to prepare for the EBR, including when internal stakeholders like yourselves are brought in for preparation and how much they should lean on their customer counterparts? | -EBR prep task templates |
| Question | Application |
|---|---|
| When do you need to be brought into EBRs to ensure you have the right level of context going into your renewal conversations? | -EBR prep task templates |
2. Define fields
Fields within Catalyst allow you to define the EBR details you want to track.
Add the following fields on the Accounts object.
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
|
Top Business Priorities Non-synced |
Aligned with your joint success plan, define the 2-3 priorities for the customer here. Expectation: CSMs revisit these priorities with the customer during every EBR or at least once every 6 months. Include a date for visibility. | Rich text area |
|
Next EBR Date Non-synced |
Include the approximate date for the next EBR with this customer. Expectation: CSMs are conducting EBRs based on customer segment guidelines. | Date and Time |
|
Last EBR Date Non-synced |
CSMs should update this date once they hold an EBR to measure days since the last value discussion engagement with an executive. Expectation: This date shows the last engagement with an executive sponsor or buyer. | Date and Time |
Add a Contact Role field, if not already added from the Contact Management workflow.
Keep the default "QBR" category, or add a new picklist value to the Notes "Categories" field. Example:
| Label / Unique ID | Description |
|---|---|
|
EBR EBR |
A note category for success planning with the customer. |
3. Create note and task templates
Note and task templates help facilitate your team's input during planning / review phases.
Catalyst includes a default QBR note template. Adjust the default or create and save a new note template. This template helps your team capture notes and follow-up during the review with the customer.
| Note Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | EBR |
| Category | EBR |
| Body |
Account Details CSM Sentiment |
Create and save the following task template. When Next EBR Date is within the 30 days for a customer, this task will get assigned to help guide next steps.
| Note Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Prepare for your EBR |
| Category | EBR |
| Body |
Prior to your next EBR, follow the below steps so that you can have the most valuable discussion with your customer during the scheduled 90 minutes. At least 20 days prior: Start building your deck by using this template [link] |
| Assignee | Current User |
| Due Date Offset | 20 |
4. Create an account layout
Create an account layout to capture your success planning and EBR preparation details.
Create this layout to help your team focus success planning and EBR preparation activities. Additionally, consider adding a customer hub layout to share with the customer, leading up to the EBR.
5. Build playbooks
Create the following playbook to send an email to the account stakeholders to schedule the EBR.
| Item | Details | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Playbook Properties | Name: Schedule EBR Type: Accounts |
- |
|
Entry Conditions Customers enter playbook for any of these reasons. |
OR: -Type: Customer AND Next EBR Date is blank -Type: Customer AND Next EBR -Date is before today AND Next EBR -Date is not within the past 30 days AND LAST EBR Date is not within the past 120 days |
Allow Manual Entry: Yes |
|
1. Email Ask Executive Sponsor to send calendar availability. |
Email design and send strategy: See example |
Add a playbook to add a task for the CSM to help prepare for the meeting.
| Item | Details | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Playbook Properties | Name: Prepare for EBR Type: Accounts |
- |
|
Entry Conditions Customers enter playbook. |
-Next EBR Date: Within next 30 days | Allow Manual Entry: Yes |
|
1. Task Schedule task with preparation guidelines |
Add the task template (Prepare for your EBR). | Update assignee to Customer Success Manager (Account) |
6. Roll out your new program!
When you're ready, you can enable your playbook and roll out the program to the team. Here are some recommendations for initial training to ensure the program is successful.
Set aside training time for CSMs to learn the new process. If you are refreshing your EBR process, consider doing a SPIFF to incentivize the team. Be sure to include:
- Goal of the new program and expected benefits
- What actions are required and expectation for completion
- Support resources for the new program
Try this starter template to build your training deck.
- Customer kickoff meeting: Include success plan discussions early in your customer's journey.
- CSM/Customer meetings: Revisit goals and planning on a regular basis.
-
EBR meeting: Preparation should involve CSMs partnering with their main contact to ensure success plan is up to date. Recommended agenda (90 minutes):
- Goal alignment
- Review of value to-date
- Join roadmap
- Customer inspiration
- Key takeaways and next steps
Try this starter template to build your EBR deck.