Executive business review (EBR)

What is an executive business review (EBR)?

An executive business review (EBR) is a meeting with a customer's senior leaders to review results and agree on priorities for the next period. It usually happens less often than a quarterly business review and sits at a higher level: outcomes, risks and direction for the relationship, with day-to-day service detail left to the working team. Sometimes its purpose is tied directly to a renewal decision.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

In services, the person who approves the renewal is often several levels above the facility manager who sees the work every week. An EBR puts results in front of that person before budgets are set, which is when a renewal or an expansion is easiest to secure. Salesforce notes that some executives attend only an annual EBR and rely on summaries of the quarterly reviews, so the material travels well beyond the room. A revenue leader who never meets a top customer's executives is betting the renewal on one relationship at the site level.

A security services company's largest customer is a hospital system with nine campuses. The account manager meets the facilities team monthly. Once a year, the company's CRO and the hospital's vice president of operations review response times, audit results and next year's capital projects, timed before the hospital sets its budget. The renewal discussion that follows starts from results both sides have already seen.