What is a Quarterly Business Review for Customer Success Managers?

We often hear Customer Success Managers talk about a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) or Executive Business Review (EBR), but what exactly does that entail?

A Business Review is a strategic recurring meeting used to share valuable insights on the partnership with executive stakeholders. While the content is meant to engage executive stakeholders and get buy-in, it’s also a way to strengthen the partnership and mitigate any risks ahead of the renewal. The Business Review meeting should be a strategic approach where both parties are finding value in the conversation so it’s vital to cover the following areas to help the client get the most out of their investment.

Agenda for Quarterly Business Reviews

An executive who has purchased a product or service to help them manage their business will want to understand the following about their purchase:

• Milestones and achievements - Highlight key wins or major milestones since adopting your product or service

• Adoption usage and metrics - One of the biggest indicators of a healthy account is high usage and adoption metrics. The more sticky your product is, the more valuable it becomes and reduces the likelihood for a client to churn. However, if things are going south, you can address health concerns directly and your strategy for turning this around.

• Product updates - It’s important to share product updates for new feature releases because it shows the client that you are constantly improving the product, are innovative, and taking client feedback into consideration.

• Opportunities to unlock more ROI - Through product updates and releases, you can share ways for the client to unlock more value from their current investment. These improvements in the Product could mean more opportunities for them to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

• Success Planning - While your executive’s time is limited, you will want to understand at a high level what their goals are for the upcoming year and how you can work with them towards future initiatives. Without this information, you can’t be a successful partner so it’s critical to cover this area.

• Upsell opportunities - If the client is in a healthy state and are seeing value, you’ll want to use time to pitch feature upgrades that are relevant. Demonstrate how purchasing a specific feature could reduce costs and improve operations, justifying their purchase.

Audience

The goal is to get Executive level attendees, VPs or above, but they might not have the bandwidth to attend regularly. For this reason, it’s really important you have the right content to engage them and show value so that they can keep attending. You can still hold these sessions with the working team such as Director or Manager level. On the Customer Success side, you can have the Supporting team on the account, which would include Account Executive, Account Manager or Technical Manager.

Cadence

Although the title of the Business Review is labeled quarterly, the frequency depends on the client. You can have these meetings quarterly or bi-annually as long as there are updates and value to show at any given interval.