How to Run an Effective Sales Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

You and the team just successfully finished the quarter which means it’s the best time to run a sales Quarterly Business Review (QBR).

A sales QBR is an excellent chance for you and your sales team to discuss the previous quarter’s sales performance. This open forum allows everyone to showcase their accomplishments while presenting their upcoming goals and sales forecast.

What is a sales QBR?

A sales Quarterly Business Review (QBR) is a presentation where sales teams are given an open forum to discuss their previous quarter’s performance while presenting their forecast for the upcoming quarter. Sales reps present their strategic thinking, skills, and actionable strategies for achieving the quota for the next quarter.

Before a sales QBR, sales leaders work with their sales reps to understand what worked well and what didn’t during the last quarter. 

Based on key learnings, it helps set up the next quarter for success. The sales QBR is meant to be an objective and transparent discussion to gain valuable insights and help the sales team achieve their revenue targets.

At the end of a sales QBR, you should have a replay of the business. When done right, these quarterly reviews will uncover interesting new insights about how to accelerate growth or what’s holding the business back.

The challenge is that many sales teams don’t organize QBRs. For the sales teams that consistently organize QBRs, there may not be a framework to follow to uncover new insights. 

Why is it important to run a sales QBR

Sales teams are consistently engaging with potential customers to close deals. They are so focused on the day-to-day operation that there isn’t a chance to reflect on past performance. 

Sales QBRs allow your sales leaders and reps to review the past quarter and plan for the bigger picture. They offer in-depth feedback to plan for the company’s growth. 

Here are several reasons why sales QBRs are important:

• Review the previous quarter’s performance
• Review strong areas and areas of improvement
• Strategize for the upcoming quarter
• Give feedback on areas for the company to achieve growth
• Collaboration on how to achieve goals

Who should attend a sales QBR

Sales QBRs should have key stakeholders attend, including sales reps, sales management, and any cross-functional leaders that work directly with the sales team. Some important cross-functional roles include demand generation, sales enablement, product marketing, and executive leadership.

For a sales leader, the sales QBR is an excellent opportunity to connect with the team and collectively take a hard look at the overall performance. It is an open forum to celebrate your sales reps’ successes, provide helpful criticism and offer recommendations. Most importantly, it’s an opportunity to coach your sales reps on how to improve further.

Sales reps can review the previous quarter, assess what went well and what needs improvement, and communicate what support they need. Discuss what you’re hearing from potential customers and provide these insights to the team.

The difference between a sales QBR and customer success QBR

It’s vital to differentiate sales QBRs and customer success QBRs. 

A customer success QBR is presented externally to customers regarding their last quarter’s performance. It’s a meeting to review past performance, how you’ve supported their business, and new areas for improvement.

A sales QBR is presented internally by the sales team. It’s an opportunity to present performance metrics, highlight and discuss challenges, and develop actionable solutions.

What should a sales QBR cover?

1. Team and individual metrics

An effective sales QBR is data-driven. As a sales leader, you should comprehensively review last quarter’s sales performance as a team and for each individual. 

Gather data and metrics from your CRM and ensure all information is updated and accurate. This includes closed won, slipped deals, average deal size, and average sales cycle. Your goal is to uncover the truth about what helped or hindered the team’s sales performance.

While a sales rep’s perspective is valuable, it should be reinforced by data from your sales reports.

Put all of your data in context by comparing quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year. This will allow you to uncover any insightful trends about performance upwards or downwards. If there is a downward trend, the team should objectively discuss what’s hindering sales growth. 

2. Sales challenges

With everyone’s minds coming together, a sales QBR should be an open forum to discuss the sales team’s biggest challenges. Sales should use the QBR to surface challenges, whether it’s an emerging competitor, go-to-market shifts, or changing economic conditions.

Allows sales reps and managers to present critical challenges holding them back from achieving their goals. Let other stakeholders share their perspectives on tackling the sales challenges. Additionally, there could be several action items takeaway for others as well.

3. Upcoming goals

Present the upcoming goals for the next quarter. Discuss the key goals you plan to achieve, areas of improvement, and expected forecast. It’s essential to explain why these goals matter and your plan to achieve them. 

This can include prospecting plans to build sales pipeline. For example, where you’ll source prospects, tactics, and the prospecting plan’s impact.

4. Deal support

Discuss deals lost and use the sales QBRs to seek guidance and support for upcoming deals. 

This is a chance for sales reps to review their losses in an open forum with their sales leaders and other cross-functional leaders.

Analyze why you lost major deals by asking:

• How did we lose the deal?
• How competitive was the deal?
• What more could we have done to turn the deal around in our favor?

5. Sales forecast and action plan

Although sales QBRs review what happened in the previous quarter, they present the upcoming forecast also. Along with the positive and negative points, address what’s to come for the next quarter.

Present the upcoming goals you plan to achieve in the future and where the team is prioritizing their time. Identify the areas you’re looking to improve and what will be the outcome of those adjustments.

Present a sales forecast for the upcoming quarter, the deals included, and how you intend to achieve the sales plan. Additionally, present what areas you’re improving and what support you need from the organization to help achieve the sales goals.

Best practices: how to conduct a sales QBR

1. Gather relevant sales data and reports

Take a data-driven approach to your sales QBR by gathering relevant sales data and reports. 

The process of gathering data is vital and can’t be overlooked. You will show credibility by making sure you have relevant and reliable information. And this, in turn, will give you the facts and figures behind the results.

Export any relevant data or reports from your CRM that are worth reviewing. Identify areas of improvement and make comparisons over time. The data should be compelling and tell a story about the past quarter.

Not all the data will show positive trends in performance. Whether the performance is good or bad, it’s essential to present the truth behind the sales figures and explain any shortcomings. This is a great time to reflect and evaluate what happened.

2. Make it visually appealing

A great sales QBR uses engaging visuals to grab and maintain everyone’s attention. Visualizations such as graphs, charts, and images will make your presentation easier to digest. 

It’s not easy keeping everyone’s attention during a presentation, especially when data and sales figures are involved. Having supporting material that is well-designed and cleanly laid out will make it easier to read. Make graphs and charts visually appealing so that it reinforces the sales QBR.

Pick the right charts and graphs to show the data as well. For example, if you’re trying to compare quarter-over-quarter, having a stacked bar graph or multiple line graphs may help explain important points and remove confusion.

3. Keep it a high-level strategy instead of tactics

Considering the big picture is an essential aspect of an effective sales QBR. Provide strategies, plans, and opportunities instead of going through your daily operation. 

Although nitty-gritty information about your performance is good, it should be presented in a separate meeting.

By keeping your sales QBR high-level, you can show your critical thinking skills, planning, and ability to translate strategy into executable solutions. 

4. Prepare a sales forecast

In addition, to recap what happened during the previous quarter, you should also address upcoming results.

Identify specific goals you and the sales team will work on for the next quarter. This includes areas of improvement and expected sales forecasts. 

Your audience will need to believe in your plan, so explain why you think your goals and sales forecast are achievable. 

5. Keep it concise

There is a lot of information to cover during a sales QBR, which can get overwhelming. Keep your sales QBR concise by focusing on the vital information that everyone needs to know. 

Most sales QBRS are between 30-45 minutes, so be mindful of everyone’s time as you present. 

Have a consistent framework and structure for each sales QBR. Include only vital information your audience needs to know while removing anything that touches on day-to-day operations. Keep your presentation to the point while also allowing for feedback and questions.

6. Share the sales QBR presentation

Share your sales QBR presentation with your audience before your presentation. This will allow everyone a chance to digest the information by themselves and prepare any questions beforehand.

Additionally, by sharing the presentation, your audience can review information afterward. It is essential if action items are related to your sales QBR.

7. Engage your audience 

Get a sense of how engaged your audience is during the sales QBR. There’s a lot of information so have a consistent pulse check of everyone’s engagement level.

Liven up your presentation with enthusiasm or an interesting story if you see your audience losing interest. If sales QBRs are stretching over an hour, schedule short breaks in between, so your audience can take care of emails or go for a bathroom break.

Practicing your presentation will allow you to plan how much time you need and when you’ll need to grab more attention from your audience.

Sales Metrics to Include in Your QBR

Being data-driven and objective, key success metrics should explain a firm’s past and present situation. The future value is also important, but only if it changes significantly. With all this in mind, it’s straightforward to see why data-driven culture is so important.

Here are several sales metrics you should present during a sales QBR.

Past:

• Quota attainment
• Win rate
• Slipped deals
• Lost deals that were in commit
• Average sales cycle

Present:

• Average sales cycle
• Slipped deals
• Engagement

Future:

• Pipeline coverage
• Commit
• Most likely
• Best-case pipeline

Transforms your sales QBRs

Ultimately, sales QBRs are pretty simple and easy to action. They provide your sales team and key stakeholders with all the information they need to review the previous quarter and create actionable takeaways.

A carefully structured sales QBR will ensure all the important metrics have been considered and will allow you and your sales team to understand better where your performance stands relative to previous quarters. 

Sales QBRs are an excellent way for sales teams to provide direct feedback on their performance and areas of improvement and provide the next quarter’s sales forecast. Additionally, it allows cross-functional leaders to understand how their sales team operates in the field and how they can support them.