Bringing in new business is a huge part of sales — but retaining customers is essential, too. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Next time your internal champion pushes to renew your product or service, will they be able to make a convincing business case for keeping you? Make sure the answer is “yes” by perfecting your quarterly business review (QBR) chops.

What is a QBR? It’s a chance to build that business case throughout the year — and presenting a memorable QBR is an indispensable skill.

My team’s QBRs have improved our customer relationships, putting the end goal of the partnership center stage rather than letting it get lost in the day-to-day minutia. Here’s the best of what we’ve learned.

What you’ll learn:

• What is a QBR?
• Why is a QBR important?
• The benefits of QBRs
• How to prepare for a QBR
• How to structure a QBR and what to include
• How to follow up after a QBR

What is a QBR?

A quarterly business review is just what the name implies: a meeting with customers every three months to review the partnership. You schedule this one-hour meeting to remind your customer why they went with you to begin with and what you planned to achieve together. You highlight your progress by sharing key metrics, playing up big wins, and talking about any challenges. You can also ask for feedback, plan how to improve your process, align on goals, and look at the coming quarter. Done right, QBRs deliver a critical message: You care about your customer’s success, and you deliver value throughout the entire year.

Wondering who you invite to a QBR? It’s a given that there will be representatives from both your company and your customer’s. Typically, we include the account manager, executive sponsor, and project manager. Because a QBR is a space for feedback, consider limiting the number of attendees from your team. That way, your customer will feel comfortable being transparent. 

Executive business review (EBR) vs. QBR

One more thing to clear up: You may have heard the term executive business review (EBR) and wonder how it relates to QBRs. EBRs are similar, but they’re typically higher level than QBRs and don’t always happen as often. Sometimes, the goal of an EBR is to inform and align while other times their purpose relates to a renewal decision. The relationship between QBRs and EBRs is not one-size-fits-all. Some executives only attend an annual EBR and ask for summarized versions of each QBR. So when you’re planning your QBRs, keep in mind that the information is likely to get passed up several levels beyond your immediate stakeholders. This is another reason to make sure the meeting content supports your customer’s business strategy and goals.

Either way, there’s still a chance executives you don’t normally see may join your QBR. If that happens, take advantage of the moment. Ask for their views of the partnership so you can better understand how to make the relationship a slam dunk from their perspective.

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Why is a QBR important?

QBRs yield business value on both sides. You get the chance to share your customer’s recent successes with their team while reaffirming their overarching business goals. When you do this several times throughout the year, you’ll be more aligned with your customer and identify opportunities to improve, creating a bigger impact. Bonus: QBRs also help you build the case for either a renewal or increasing their spend as you go, rather than at the end of a contract. When you wait to meet in person and only for renewal summaries, building a business case as partners over time just isn’t possible.

If you don’t hold QBRs, you’ll either have to scramble when asked for a surprise business review or prepare for an annual “year in review” meeting. In that case, you’ll need to comb through 12 months of data instead of three, and you’ll have more (and older) stories to tell in the same amount of time. I’ve been there, and it’s a challenge.  The fact is, most clients will have forgotten many of your successes by then, and it’s even possible that your stakeholders will have changed.

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The benefits of QBRs

By holding regular QBRs, you create the following benefits for both sides:

Opportunities to collaborate with your primary customer contacts

This builds your relationship with them and helps you better understand their organization. As you involve them in the process of preparing for the QBR, you can get a better sense of their goals and what they think will matter most to their leaders.

Regular feedback keeps an open flow of communication

Holding several QBRs throughout the year encourages more thoughtful feedback than you’d get without these more formal check-ins.

Face time with customer executives

Use it to strengthen the ties between organizations at a higher level. And if you impress the higher-ups, you may even earn the opportunity to expand your business with their company.

A chance to strengthen working relationships

I like to think of my main point of contact (POC) as our customer champion. When you highlight your customer champion’s efforts to improve their organization’s outcomes and bottom line, you’re more likely to gain their trust and loyalty.

Ways to do better and deliver more value

QBRs give you focused time to ask for constructive feedback. When you get it, take it to heart and follow up with specific ways to improve even more.

A chance to collaborate on challenges

Sometimes the roadblocks to success come from the customer’s side. QBRs present the time, place, and neutral space to explain these challenges and plan how to address them in a collaborative way.

Time to highlight service trends and share key metrics

Even if you email regular reports to your customer champion, and even if they share them with their bosses, there’s no guarantee they all make the time to review them. During your QBR, you’ll have their undivided attention to share data and show progress toward goals.

Input on building your service story over four quarters

Collaborating with your customer champion on QBRs not only keeps you more aligned, but also gives you several chances throughout the year to understand and articulate what you achieve together.

A progress check-in on your most important objectives

Without a formal meeting on a regular basis, it can be easy for people to get lost in their day-to-day tasks, putting check-ins on the backburner and making it all too easy to start moving in different directions. QBRs gather key stakeholders for an update and a chance to make sure everyone is on the same page.

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How to prepare for a QBR

I’ll be honest. The first quarter we delivered QBRs, I built them up to be a big, scary gauntlet I’d have to run. But they’re much more manageable than I thought. In fact, it’s been a great opportunity to highlight my customers’ projects, high-five over good work, and solicit customer feedback that helps us deliver what’s needed. Here are a few tips to help you do the same.

Get into the right mindset

Think of your QBR as an opportunity to speak to your successes. You also get to show your customer champion in a good light, so share the great work that both your team and your customer’s team finished during the last quarter. And remember: QBRs don’t come with the pressure of an annual renewal. While you can certainly focus on the good stuff, there’s no reason to shy away from challenges. During a QBR, those are just opportunities to improve. After all, there’s still plenty of time to get things going in the right direction.

Begin with a project plan

Get clarity on who will spearhead QBR preparation and which people will help them. At Red Argyle, the account manager is responsible for the QBR project plan. I work with a support team that helps gather metrics, craft the story, and create the presentation. I start by setting the agenda and areas of focus to keep things organized. I also use a checklist and shared calendar to ensure we are meeting deadlines. If you’re the one who owns the QBR, schedule time on your own calendar and on everyone else’s to work on it. Reach out to your services team early. Tell them what you need, when you need it, and how you’ll use it. That way, the QBR won’t sneak up on you.

Involve your customer champion

While preparing for your QBR, talk to your main customer contact. Ask them what story they want to tell and what their management will likely focus on. That way you can plan to share stories and metrics that align with their goals. Making them look good helps both of you.

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How to structure a QBR and what to include

Each QBR agenda may look similar, but that doesn’t mean there’s a one-size-fits-all plan. Ask your customer for input as you prepare. Tailor your QBR plan to focus on their priorities, including how they prefer to get information and what their upcoming needs are. I’ve found that some QBRs focus heavily on historic metrics and data while others focus most of their time on how to achieve important future outcomes. While the order and the amount of time you spend on each topic will probably differ from customer to customer, here are the key ingredients to include in your QBRs:

• History of the partnership: Briefly review business goals and realign on service level agreements (SLAs) and objectives.
• Data: Present key metrics. Compare trends with those from your last QBR.
• Insights: Use data to deliver new understanding. Tell a story that showcases success and identify areas for improvement.
• Customer stories: Share stories of your wins and how they’ve made an impact on customer success.
• Financial check-in: Cover budgeted versus actual spend. If you’re over or under budget, be honest about it. Just make sure you support that information with a good reason and have a plan for how to recalibrate.
• Feedback: Ask for feedback, including what might be helpful to include in the next QBR.
• A look ahead: Agree on a roadmap for next quarter and assign specific action items if needed.

One last note: You’re asking your customer for an hour. Depending on how many people attend the QBR, this easily adds up to several hours of work time. Plan a compelling meeting, so they don’t feel like that time was wasted. Stay out of the minutiae and instead take a higher-level, strategic view of your services. Make it clear how those services support your customer’s goals — and how you can improve them.

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How to follow up after a QBR

• Email a recap to all attendees within 24 hours.
• Include high-level notes and takeaways, listing out related action items (e.g., Kacey will send an updated XYZ report by Thursday).
• Attach a copy of the slide deck.

I also highly recommend scheduling a debrief with your customer champion. It should take place within a week of the QBR so everything is still fresh in their mind. A debrief reinforces your partnership and gives you a chance to ask how things went from the customer’s perspective. You can also ask how their higher-ups felt about it.

Afterward, give your internal support team a recap of the debrief. If the reaction was positive, celebrate that with them and give credit where it’s due.

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Highlight the victories and review the playbook

Great QBRs help you keep customer’s goals at the forefront of your work and build a solid partnership throughout the year. This is a great way to support your project stakeholders. They can more easily make the business case for continued (or increased) budget at renewal time, and they may even thank you for showing their work in a positive light. Well-planned, strategic QBRs are a win-win.