Agency Retainer Review
Monthly reports show what happened. Quarterly reviews show what it means — and they're the document that renews retainers or quietly loses them. The Agency Retainer Review builds a QBR that demonstrates cumulative value, names what underperformed, and lands an upsell as strategic advice rather than a pitch.
What this skill does
A QBR is a strategic conversation in document form. Most agencies skip it and run a third monthly report at the end of the quarter, which is why clients quietly start looking around at month nine. The skill structures the document so the client zooms out from tactics to strategy, sees the cumulative impact, and lands on "where do we go from here" with you in the room rather than a competitor.
The RENEW framework runs the structure. Results summary — trend lines and cumulative impact mapped to the original objectives, not just the latest data point. Execution highlights — volume of work and specific wins with before-and-after data. Notable insights — strategic observations that only come from three months of close work, the thing that proves you're thinking rather than just doing. Evaluating the approach — honest assessment of what's working and what needs to change, including the bits that underperformed. What's next — next-quarter focus and any natural expansion, framed as client growth rather than agency revenue.
The upsell bridge uses an evidence-implication-recommendation-proof structure so the recommendation feels like strategic advice instead of a pitch. It works because it earned the right to exist — the data point came from the quarter's work, the implication is the client's problem, and the recommendation is the obvious next move. If you can't draw a clean line from the evidence to the recommendation, the upsell isn't ready and the skill will say so.
Honesty is the renewal strategy. If something missed, the document names it specifically and proposes the corrective plan — burying bad news is how clients learn to suspect you're spinning them, and that suspicion is what eventually moves the account. First QBR with a new client gets framed as establishing baselines rather than measuring against targets that don't exist yet. All-metrics-missed quarters lead with the analysis of why and the corrective plan, not the numbers. The document the client should walk away from feels like they got strategic advice they couldn't have produced internally — that feeling is the retention mechanism.
When this triggers
- ·A retainer renewal is 4-6 weeks away and you haven't started preparing the QBR
- ·You've been sending monthly reports and the client still asks 'what are we actually getting?'
- ·There's an upsell opportunity you can see but every framing you've tried sounds salesy
- ·Q1 had some genuine misses and you're tempted to bury them — don't
- ·You need a document that makes the client feel smart for hiring you, not just informed
Example
Trigger
User: 'Q1 review for a £4K/mo content client. Traffic up, conversions flat. Want to position adding CRO services without it feeling like a pitch.'
Output
Quarter at a Glance: | Metric | Start | End | Change | Target | |-----------------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Organic traffic | 8,400 | 12,200 | +45% | +30% | | Trial signups | 142 | 138 | -3% | +20% | | Trial-to-paid | 14% | 14% | flat | 18% | Honest assessment: Working well: traffic and SEO targets cleared. Content depth is now ahead of [competitor]. Needs attention: conversion is the bottleneck. We over-delivered on the metric we control and under-delivered on the metric you care about. That's our problem to solve, not yours. Strategic insight: Your blog grew 45%, but conversion stayed flat. The pages ranking are bringing a broader audience that doesn't convert at the same rate as your existing readers. Tightening targeting matters more than chasing more volume next quarter. Growth opportunity (evidence → implication → recommendation): Evidence: 3 of 5 highest-traffic posts have <2% trial conversion. Implication: content-to-trial path is the leak, not the funnel above it. Recommendation: a 6-week CRO sprint focused on the five highest-traffic posts. We'd estimate +30-40% lift on those pages, modelled on [comparable client] outcome.
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- 140-line SKILL.md, ready to drop into ~/.claude/skills/
- Tested through 3 Karpathy-loop iterations (versions v1.0.0 → v1.3.0)
- Triggers automatically when relevant — no command to remember
- Lifetime updates as the skill is refined further
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