This document provides guidance on how to effectively conduct Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with customers. It recommends that QBRs should: 1) Reinforce the value the customer receives from the product, review progress towards past goals, and establish new goals for the next quarter. 2) Occur quarterly to show progress within a timeframe that is not too long or short. 3) Include key stakeholders like the primary contact, business unit leader, or C-level executive. 4) Involve preparing the customer, reviewing value delivered, progress on goals, setting new goals, and assessing the customer relationship.

1. ART OF THE QBR

2. Every QBR should
do four things

3. 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.

4. Let’s start by questioning
the foundation of the
QBR concept
Why quarterly?

5. Three months is enough time to show
progress – you can implement plans
and show real results in this time
period.

6. 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).

7. 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).

8. Who should be
in the room?
?

9. 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.
Primary Contact
VP, Director or LeaderCEO or CTO

10. Prep work

11. 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.

12. The art

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.
1 2 3

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. The extra perks

20. These meetings show the customer you
care about them and that you’re willing
to invest time in making their product
experience better.

21. 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.

22. 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.
NEW

23. 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.

24. So go forth and be an artist.