The QBR Agenda That Secures Executive Sponsorship Every Single Time

Introduction: The Reason Executives Avoid QBRs

Quarterly Business Review or QBR is a process that helps in strengthening the customer relationship and proving business value. However, most of the executive stakeholders do not attend these meetings or send someone else in their place. The reason is not the lack of importance attached to the customer relationship, but rather ineffective QBRs in the past. These QBRs end up being just an extended version of dashboards and support tickets. Therefore, executives see no need to waste time in such QBRs.

One way in which the QBR agenda influences attendance at QBR is by attracting executives to the meetings. Executive participants attend meetings that help them make business decisions and understand their return on investment. Executive participants have limited time, so they are unlikely to find value in meetings that simply repeat information already available in dashboards or reports. A good QBR agenda transforms the meeting from a mere status update to a strategic business conversation.

Understanding Executive Priorities

To develop an agenda for a successful Quarterly Business Review, it is essential to understand what the priorities of the executives are. The senior management is tasked with making the company grow, perform well financially, become more efficient in its operations, and define the right strategy. Therefore, their main priority is whether the investments made by the organization yield tangible results that help them do that.

In most cases, business outcomes take precedence in any conversation that executives have. It is necessary for them to find out whether the software has increased productivity, lowered expenses, sped up revenue growth, boosted customer satisfaction, and helped the company solve any problems it might have had when purchasing the product.

It is also essential to address the initiatives of the company. Every company implements new initiatives all the time, enters new markets, uses new technologies, and reorganizes itself internally.

Organizational problems must also be discussed openly. The factors of market environment, resource limitation, competition, and organizational changes frequently affect the goals of the client. Customer Success Managers aware of such situations can give more practical advice and establish their role as strategic advisors, not just product specialists.

Ideal Executive QBR Agenda

The ideal agenda of an effective Quarterly Business Review must help executives have a sensible conversation that links previous results with future successes. All aspects of the discussion must deliver business value and encourage strategic collaboration, not passive observation.

The meeting must start with a brief business overview. Rather than reviewing every activity completed during the quarter, Customer Success Managers should focus on the most significant achievements and milestones.

The second part of the agenda needs to focus on measuring progress towards the goals that were set in prior periods. Customers feel good about seeing the impact of their investment in helping them achieve those goals that have been set either during implementation or during previous Quarter Business Reviews.

Recommendations need to form the heart of the discussions. Customer Success Managers will not only talk about past performance but will make recommendations about ways to help customers adopt better practices, work more efficiently, lower risks, or grow their business.

The third section of the agenda will focus on laying out a plan for the future quarter. It should cover the goals, ownership, and measures of success for the coming period.

Avoiding Operational Conversations

The main difficulty for any QBR process is not falling into the trap of talking about operational details for too long. Information about the use of products, their features, updates on the implementations, and customer service data can be useful, but they should only serve as background information for strategy-related discussions. The executives do not usually come to QBRs to look at the information available in dashboards.

The only way to keep the discussions strategic is to make sure every piece of information discussed has a clear relation to business results. The use of a particular feature needs to be linked to the impact it has on productivity, cost reduction, or other organizational goals.

Moreover, it would be wise to give executive dialogue more consideration than any presentation. Those QBRs that have been most successful were those that engaged executives in discussion of changing priorities, challenges, and future initiatives. The Customer Success Managers need to facilitate discussions, make inquiries, and allow decision-making.

Such an approach changes the nature of the QBR meeting itself from reporting to a strategic planning meeting. In cases when both companies actively influence the creation of future priorities, there is much more executive engagement.

Leading by Example at the QBR

Conducting a successful Quarterly Business Review is about much more than delivering a great presentation. Customer Success Managers should show leadership qualities through leading the strategy discussion, facilitating executive discussions, and offering valuable business insights. It is how the Customer Success Manager will be perceived as a trusted advisor and an asset to customer success.

Facilitating conversations is perhaps one of the greatest leadership skills. Instead of talking all the way during the session, Customer Success Managers should make people talk to each other. Asking questions about their business objectives, the company's priorities, and future projects makes the discussion more interesting and valuable.

Strategic conversations should never focus only on the current quarter. Effective Customer Success Managers also help customers prepare for upcoming priorities while ensuring today's objectives are met. This forward-looking mindset is similar to the balance sales teams must strike between achieving immediate targets and building future pipeline, as discussed in our article, "The Sales Juggle: Prospecting for Next Quarter While Closing This Quarter."

Offering valuable insights helps to gain credibility even more. Executives would greatly value your advice based on customer information, industry trends, market knowledge, and best practices. That is how you demonstrate your understanding of the bigger picture rather than just the product.

Lastly, executives need confidence that their technology investment aligns with the company's strategic objectives and that the Customer Success Manager has a clear plan for driving future success.

Executive Sponsorship Maintenance Following the Meeting

While securing executive sponsorship prior to the Quarterly Business Review process is important, it does not end there. It requires a sustained effort from the Customer Success team in order to maintain such engagements. Executive relationships are built based on consistent value delivered by the organization rather than just occasional meetings or calls.

Research supports the value of ongoing executive business reviews. A Deloitte survey found that only 27% of customers consider their technology providers to be trusted advisors. However, providers that conduct regular business reviews and help customers measure business value are twice as likely to earn customer trust and advocacy. This highlights why Quarterly Business Reviews should focus on measurable business outcomes rather than operational updates.

Every Quarterly Business Review should be wrapped up with an action plan containing all key items discussed and defined. The action plan will serve as an accountability tool that will make sure that both organizations are aligned on their goals for the upcoming quarter.

Communicating progress and status regularly is critical for building trust. The Customer Success Manager cannot just wait for the next Quarterly Business Review to deliver the progress reports. There needs to be scheduled updates and proactive communication to keep customer executives in the loop.

Value realization must continue to be the main focus of every interaction. Customer Success Managers need to pay attention to business results achieved, identify additional opportunities, and solve any existing problems.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of a Quarterly Business Review does not depend on the number of slides that are shown and the volume of product information disclosed. The main indicator of its success lies in the quality of discussions initiated. Executive stakeholders attend meetings where they can make strategic decisions, analyze the results of their work, and plan further actions. They turn off when quarterly reviews transform into standard operational meetings irrelevant to organizational goals.

The proper QBR agenda keeps discussions in line with business results, strategic suggestions, executive cooperation, and plans. Knowing what executives want and how to start meaningful conversations with them, Customer Success Managers earn the role of trusted partners and not just product specialists.

Executive sponsorship maintenance needs constant work after the meeting, too. Clear action plans, consistent communication, and continuous value delivery demonstrate a manager's commitment to customer success.

In conclusion, it is necessary to emphasize that a good QBR agenda serves not only for the organization of a meeting. This tool helps to conduct an executive business discussion aimed at increasing the customer value and strategic alignment of efforts.