just to recap, a qbr is a quarterly meeting you hold with your clients to review all the progress made in the last quarter and to share a plan. if you are setting up a qbr meeting and are unaware of your client’s goals, you are unlikely to be successful at driving value. once you have recapped the goals in the meeting, your next job is to show your performance toward achieving them. this is the chance for you to cover up the gaps identified. show your clients what areas you will be working on in the next quarter.

qbrs are a must because they allow your customers to directly see the impact your products and/or services are having on their business and their bottom line. but not all qbrs are created equal; if you want your qbrs to drive actual results for you and your customers, you need to include the correct information. let’s look at the elements you want to include in your quarterly business review: as mentioned, one of the main objectives of a qbr is to review performance over the past quarter. for example, does your customer use your company to help them build their business and engage new clients? the point is, if you want your qbr to lead to continued engagement with your customer (which is always the goal!

we’re going to give you the secret sauce - what you should include in your quarterly business review agenda to make it truly valuable for your customer, minus the fluff.‍ quarterly business reviews, also known as executive business reviews, are a crucial part of any customer success manager’s toolkit. we’re going to go one-by-one through the elements you should include in a qbr or ebr agenda. while you craft an agenda, focus on what the customer wants, how it aligns with what you’ve provided, and what you could do in the future to be even more indispensable. ‍ the first step to making the connection between you and your customer is to talk about goals upfront. give your attendees a preface of what’s to come in the rest of the meeting - start by setting that unified goal. the rest is padding that will pull focus away from the story you’re trying to tell and may lead down time-consuming rabbit holes. ‍ an unwritten rule that has been around since the dawn of time says that as soon as you start sharing metrics with a customer, they will respond by asking, “is that good?”  to more effectively answer the question of what “good” looks like, include how your customers are currently performing against the goals that they have set. speaking to the goals that were set up previously also lends credence to what you’re sharing - you’re not backing into a goal you created afterwards to make what you’re sharing look more impressive than it is, for example.

in partnership with the sal/ ae, a tam is responsible for working with their customers to identify the primary objectives and desired business outcomes for the meeting, then scheduling and conducting the ebr. if this is the customer's first ebr with gitlab, explain to them what it is and what value it brings. the important thing in this situation is to deliver an ebr to demonstrate the value of the meeting, and have a targeted conversation about the customer's objectives.

in order to have a productive conversation, ask your team members to review and populate each section of this meeting template prior to the quarterly planning meeting. you’ll be more likely to have a productive conversation if everyone prepares in advance! fellow is the meeting productivity and team management software where teams gather to build collaborative agendas, record decisions, and keep each other accountable.