QBR: Change the Rules and Design a New Game
If you did not have to survive one, lucky you...
QBR stands for Quarterly Business Review. Throughout my career, I have attended many – note that I am not saying “participated in many” because it is very often a monologue - and they were undoubtedly among the most boring meetings ever. If Death by PowerPoint were a movie, a QBR would be the perfect landscape.
However, it should not be. On the contrary, intrinsically, this touchpoint with the customer should be a great opportunity to build upon past achievements to strengthen the partnership. But in too many cases, it is not. Here are a few mistakes I have seen and a few recommendations I would suggest for revamping this opportunistic occasion.
As you might know by now, even if English is not my mother tongue, words have meaning. And QBR, by essence, is about looking backward, in the mirror. This is good only if a) it is to learn from it and b) to improve and get better at whatever we do. Therefore, as much as the foundation of a QBR is the past, its essence is to prepare for the future. And its name does not convey this at all.
What about the word “Business”? Ask 10 persons to give you a definition of “business,” and you will get 10 different definitions. Here, in most cases, what we are going to discuss is operation-related. We are providing a service to our customer, and based on the KPIs that we agreed upon at the beginning of the contractual relationship (very often influenced if not dictated by the service provider standards), here are the data to measure our performances. You can call it business if you want: in most cases, it is operational.
And “review.” Is there any word in the dictionary more passive than “review”? How to excite, stimulate, or reinvigorate your customer out of a review? When you invite your customer to a review, they know that it will be time for them to catch up on their old emails. Review is passive, lifeless, boring.
To transform this touchpoint with your customer, it's essential to pose two fundamental questions to yourself and your team: Who is it for? And what is it for? Based on the answer, you should rethink the engagement. Note that here, consciously, I am not talking yet about a “meeting.” Because if the sole purpose is to look at the past to analyze some KPIs, a written report will be a much better and more suitable medium. However, if part of your strategy is to engage your customer in the future, to elaborate on something new, something that is not yet written, then a synchronous engagement – aka a meeting, be it virtual or face-to-face – is the best way to go. By adopting this approach, you communicate that time is a valuable resource, and you are committed to making the most of it. This not only enhances your credibility but also signals to your customers and their stakeholders that you are focused on meaningful, forward-looking interactions. Who knows? You might finally captivate the attention of the elusive individuals you've been chasing tirelessly.
As a Sales leader, don’t fall into the monotony of a QBR prepared by some support team for which a QBR is a box to be ticked on their to-do list. Challenge your team in the expected outcome of the meeting. If the answer you are getting is “this is our template,” “this is how we always ran our QBR,” whatever demotivating it might sound, keep pushing because you are on the right track. In today’s business, nothing is immutable, and everything should evolve. Challenge the team. Especially since most probably the reason for keeping the template is that someone, somewhere (possibly in a managerial position, therefore far from the customer) spent some time coming up with the format. It was designed to look good on a PPT, to show nice graphs - potentially copied and pasted from the dashboard (aka mini effort) – not to be meaningful.
So remember:
• Reevaluate the Name "QBR"
• Question the Term "Business"
• Rethink the Term "Review"
• Clarify Purpose and Audience
• Challenge Team Templates
• Promote Strategic Evolution
• Prioritize Future Development
It might take effort and time from your side. But in the end, you are doing it for the good of everyone: your customer, your company and its different stakeholders, and yourself. And if you are not able to change the framework of the QBR, you can always decide not to attend: as a Sales leader, your focus is on the future development of the customer relationship. You are not a historian; you create the future. And your time is precious. You are the captain of your own ship.
Happy Q4 dear friends.