MailchimpStart before the date
- Open the conversation several weeks before the contract ends. Sixty days is a workable start. Put the date in the calendar when the contract starts.
- Ask for a short meeting with the person who signs, not only the day-to-day contact, and say what the meeting is for.
Review against the goals
- Open with the goals agreed at the start, and show each one with its number, its period and its source.
- Show what did not work as clearly as what did. A renewal built on a partial picture is hard to defend later.
- Name what the agency would change next period and what it would keep.
Price the next period
- Show the price in the same terms as the current one, with each change in scope written as its own line.
- Offer one recommended option and, where it helps, one smaller option. State what each option leaves out.
Made-up scenario: the client wants to cut the retainer by a third. The agency shows which tests and reports would stop, and what that would do to the weekly review. The client keeps the retainer and drops one channel instead.
Agree the decision date
- Before the meeting ends, agree who decides, by when, and what information they need to decide.
- Send a written summary within two working days, with the decision date and any change to scope.
Checklist
- The meeting covered goals, results, next period's scope and price, and the notes are in writing.
- The decision date and the decision maker are on record, and the summary went out on time.
