Leadership: Great QBRs

If you're not doing good quarterly business reviews (QBRs) you're asking for trouble!

A few years back, a QBR saved my bacon. We had an SDR who was a problem. I was aware, we were working on it, but it wasn’t my focus.

He didn’t report directly to me, I didn’t have easy access to all of his stats and I honestly didn't dig in. So I didn’t realize how serious the situation was.

But come QBR time, he had to report his activity levels and they were CRAP.

I leaned in and we moved him out in a matter of weeks.

But imagine that I hadn't been doing QBRs. That problem could have festered for months.

You’re not perfect as a manager (or at least I’m not!); give yourself a chance to catch things that you might miss.

How do you do great QBRs? Here's what's worked for me:

The Deck

We want reps to analyze both how they’re doing now and the factors that will help them do better in the future.

They should prepare a deck covering last quarter and this quarter. There are three topics for each quarter: pipeline, revenue, and skills.

Last Quarter

Pipeline:

What was our pipeline goal, what activity did we perform, how much pipe did we generate?

What worked? What didn’t work? What did we learn?

If you have SDR support, the SDR contributes a slide here on their activity and performance.

Revenue:

What was our revenue goal, what did we close, where are we against the annual goal?

What were the big wins? What were the big losses? What did we learn?

Skills:

What are we doing well?

What do we need to get better at?

This Quarter

Pipeline:

What’s the goal? What are our activity targets?

What will we do differently this quarter?

What help do we need?

Revenue:

What’s the goal?

What are the key deals?

What will we do differently this quarter?

What help do we need?

Skills:

What are we going to keep doing?

What do we want to do differently?

What help do we need?

The Presentation

We want to facilitate good conversations without using too much of the team’s time.

Create QBR pods: Everyone in each pod has to attend each others’ QBRs and is responsible for asking at least one question.

Other reps may attend but it’s not required.

If you have a team of eight, create two pods with four reps each. Block off two 90 minute meetings for each pod.

Two reps present in each meeting, 45 minutes each, the non-presenters are responsible for asking questions.

The Takeaway: Don’t skip QBRs! Do them the right way and you’ll be glad you did.

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