QBR Mistakes to Avoid

Oni McNeil
  -  
December 20, 2024
  -  
5 min

QBRs are a critical opportunity to showcase the value your product delivers, strengthen customer relationships, and align on future goals. However, executing an effective QBR requires careful planning and a customer-centric approach. By addressing common pitfalls and focusing on delivering meaningful insights, you can turn QBRs into a powerful tool for retention, trust-building, and long-term success.


In order to improve the QBR process overall, it's important to think from your customer's perspective and share the data they care about most, while streamlining the process for internal teams. Improving the QBR process can contribute to other benefits, including boosted retention, reduced churn rates, and greater customer trust. To work toward making QBRs better for everyone involved, keep an eye out for these common mistakes:

Lack of proof

In a QBR, it's essential for customers to see clear evidence that your product is helping them achieve their goals. During periods of economic uncertainty, companies are reassessing their tech stacks to identify which software is essential and which can be cut. Therefore, failing to provide the necessary data to support your product's value is a major mistake in the QBR process.

Complexity

While it's crucial to present a variety of data points during a QBR to demonstrate your product's value, it's equally important to avoid overwhelming your customers with complex or unclear data that requires them to interpret the information themselves. A QBR presentation (and any data-driven content) should be engaging, easy to share, and to the point. Using data visualizations such as charts, tables, and graphs can help make the information more accessible and easier to understand.

Not Involving the Right People
It’s crucial to ensure key stakeholders are included in the process, as they need access to the data and insights for the messages to be impactful. Collaborate with your account contacts to make sure the decision-makers who influence purchase decisions are involved in some capacity.

Inconsistency
A quarterly business review is meant to take place every quarter, but some teams struggle to maintain this cadence for all accounts. To maximize the effectiveness of your QBRs, they should be held regularly for every customer.

QBRs are a critical opportunity to showcase the value your product delivers, strengthen customer relationships, and align on future goals. However, executing an effective QBR requires careful planning and a customer-centric approach. By addressing common pitfalls and focusing on delivering meaningful insights, you can turn QBRs into a powerful tool for retention, trust-building, and long-term success.


In order to improve the QBR process overall, it's important to think from your customer's perspective and share the data they care about most, while streamlining the process for internal teams. Improving the QBR process can contribute to other benefits, including boosted retention, reduced churn rates, and greater customer trust. To work toward making QBRs better for everyone involved, keep an eye out for these common mistakes:

Lack of proof

In a QBR, it's essential for customers to see clear evidence that your product is helping them achieve their goals. During periods of economic uncertainty, companies are reassessing their tech stacks to identify which software is essential and which can be cut. Therefore, failing to provide the necessary data to support your product's value is a major mistake in the QBR process.

Complexity

While it's crucial to present a variety of data points during a QBR to demonstrate your product's value, it's equally important to avoid overwhelming your customers with complex or unclear data that requires them to interpret the information themselves. A QBR presentation (and any data-driven content) should be engaging, easy to share, and to the point. Using data visualizations such as charts, tables, and graphs can help make the information more accessible and easier to understand.

Not Involving the Right People
It’s crucial to ensure key stakeholders are included in the process, as they need access to the data and insights for the messages to be impactful. Collaborate with your account contacts to make sure the decision-makers who influence purchase decisions are involved in some capacity.

Inconsistency
A quarterly business review is meant to take place every quarter, but some teams struggle to maintain this cadence for all accounts. To maximize the effectiveness of your QBRs, they should be held regularly for every customer.

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