ART OF THE QBR

Every QBR should

do four things
 Reinforce the value the customer
gets from your product.

Review whether you met your

goals for the previous quarter.

Establish new goals.

Establish exactly where you stand

in your customer’s mind.

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Let’s start by questioning
the foundation of the
QBR concept
Why quarterly?
Three months is enough time to show
progress – you can implement plans
and show real results in this time
period.
 It’s short enough that neither you nor your
customer are likely to miss big changes such a
executive leadership swaps or business pivots
(six months, for example, would allow more
room for major changes).

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 It allows you to show progress without
demanding a constant time commitment
from your customer (companies have a
hard enough time getting the right people
in the room for internal monthly meetings).
 ?

Who should be
in the room?
 Primary Contact

CEO or CTO VP, Director or Leader

At a minimum: the primary day-to-day

contact for the account.

Ideally: the VP, director, or leader of the

business unit associated with your
product.

Bonus points: C-level executive such as

the CEO or CTO.
 Prep work

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 Give the customer a primer ahead of time:
one way to do this is to review your deck with
your day-to-day contact (assuming there will
be other people in room) to make sure you’re
on the same page.
 The art

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Start by reinforcing your value

Talk about the good side of how your

customer used your product in the past
quarter and the ROI they got out of it.
This is a great time to give qualitative
anecdotes about value added and
quantitative metrics.
 Then review your progress
against the goals you agreed
upon.

The idea is that you’ve set clear goals in your

last QBR for both you and your customer. If
one goal isn’t met, it isn’t reactive or
defensive because you’re working to reach
these benchmarks jointly.
Be down to earth and transparent about
what you did well and what you didn’t,
and invite feedback from the customer on
those points as well.

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 1 2 3

Next, set goals for the

following three months

Establish what you’re both going to work

on over the next three months, and what
the intended results of that work are. This
will mean you know exactly when you
need to follow up with the customer or
deliver on a certain request.
You should never have to go to your clients
and say “Hey, how are you doing? How can I
help you?” From the QBR, you’ll know
exactly what they want, and you’ll have set
a timeline and a plan follow ups over the
next quarter to confer on progress.
 Last, ask your customer where
you stand

By this point, you’ve talked candidly and

planned for about an hour, and you’ve
earned the right to ask something like “Hey,
you’re up for renewal in six months. Is there
anything you know today that would
prevent you from doing that?” Don’t ask this
with a quivering voice, or in any suggestive,
seedy way. Just ask it – simply and clearly,
and take the feedback you get to heart.

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The extra perks
These meetings show the customer you
care about them and that you’re willing
to invest time in making their product
experience better.
 If the meeting goes well, it can be one of
the few times it’s not awkward or pushy to
ask the customer to be a promoter on your
website, or to give a recommendation to a
prospective customer.

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 NEW

It’s a great excuse to set aside a half an

hour to have a working session on a new
feature or a part of the product the
customer isn’t using optimally.
It’s one of the few times you get to talk
about strategy rather than answer
day-to-day tactical questions or field
complaints. Use that to your advantage.
Show the customer all the cool things
you have in store in your product
roadmap and learn as much as you can
about their wants and needs long term.
 So go forth and be an artist.

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