Quarterly Business Reviews

Jim explains that Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) provide valuable feedback on the right messaging, differentiation, and value proposition, uncover best and worst practices in the sales process, help founders and CEOs assess the sales team readiness and capability, and foster Alignment between sales and other parts of the organization, particularly marketing (messaging) and product (roadmap and differentiation). Establishing a regular cadence, holding QBRs in-person and preferably offsite, scheduling a team-building exercise, and mixing up the agenda are all critical to the effectiveness of QBRs. Additionally, using a standard template for reps, including others from the company, and following up with designated action plans are crucial.

Brian covers: • Why LinkedIn started using QBRs • How to run a QBR • The benefits that came out of QBRs • Best practices for implementing QBRs

Chad discusses two common myths about Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) in customer success and how to modify QBR strategies. The first myth is that QBRs need to be Meetings, which is outdated and unrealistic. The article suggests that customer success needs to break away from the traditional 1:1 high touch, account management mindset and differentiate the customer journey based on segmentation strategy. The second myth is that substance is more important than style for QBRs. The article argues that the style, design, and layout of the content can be just as important as the content itself. The QBR document should be self-explanatory and optimized so that the value points jump off the page. To improve the style of QBRs and simplify the QBR creation process, companies need to invest in customer success operations. The article suggests leveraging technology and automating the QBR creation process. By changing the way QBRs are delivered, leveraging CS operations, and making changes to how they are created, companies can drastically decrease the time needed to prepare for and deliver QBRs. The focus should be on engaging customers and selling the value of the product, not on PowerPoint and Excel abilities.

This is GitLab's actual detailed process for running QBRs, from their public employee handbook. GitLab Field QBRs are held during the first two weeks of every quarter to review team performance, customer wins, use cases, and insights, as well as forecast and plans for the coming quarter. Field Manager QBRs are typically organized by region and are held starting at the ASM/manager level and roll up by Leadership tier from there. Attendees include managers and delegates from other areas of the business such as Channel Managers, SDR Managers, Field Marketing delegates, and CSM Managers. Managers/ASMs are responsible for gathering insights and input from their teams to inform their Field Manager QBR Presentations. Field Manager QBRs are tracked and managed as issues within the DRI's team Project and will include a global QBR label and year/quarter specific FYxx-Qx QBR label. A sample roll-out of the Field Manager QBR planning and execution process is provided for both virtual and in-person QBRs.