QBR/EBR Questions

Michael Buccellato

Right now we have a partnership slide that's goal is to address the partnership both on a macro and micro level. 

What are your go-to 'What" and "How" questions in a QBR/EBR?  What area of the presentation do you reserve to ask these questions? How many do you ask? 

In my mind, I'm looking specifically for more information on where we currently stand on delivering their desired outcomes and how we can improve the relationship. 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Steve Bernstein

Hi @Michael Buccellato I think our approach to EBRs may a bit different than others.... in a nutshell, before the EBR we send a short assessment questionnaire to all the various constituents (key stakeholders, influencers, end users, etc) to be able to understand what is working well and what needs improvement. The assessment questionnaires (NAY "surveys") are persona-based, so that each contact is sure to get the questions that are appropriate for how they work/relate to us, and then we use Waypoint's TopBox software to put the right visualizations together of that feedback to clearly show we are listening and avoid wasting precious executive time in the EBR discussing problems. Instead, with this process we are focusing on Joint Success Planning in the meeting, where we establish priorities, assign action items, and establish the framework of the plan forward.

Because we're transparent in sharing data, we have strong motivation for execs to attend.  As a result they can clearly see how and where they need to step up to support the "program." We are able to demonstrate value, show that we  are and are truly listening/supportive, ensure we are managing expectations clearly, and as a result we are creating strong relationships at scale with our clients such that when they inevitably leave to take on a new job we're not scrambling to keep the client. Instead we drive new sales from the new companies that our contacts eventually go to.

Of course, to make this happen, there are key tasks for the CSM to drive participation in the process. Most of that work is automated, but still nothing like a phone call from the CSM to the client to explain the process and get them involved in driving up participation in the assessment process.  As a result of this, we see response rates to our assessments of 80%+, so we clearly see what we need to see with trustworthy and representative data.  

An incredible ancillary benefit is that everyone across the company can see and "hear" the voice of the customer. They understand what's working and not working across patterns of accounts, and can focus on the right improvement priorities inside their own orgs. Alignment is easy when you're focused on the customer and don't need to make "I think we should..." statements and instead can focus on "I know..." priorities based on the data.

/Steve

Karen Bros

Business Reviews are so vital, but I'm finding my team is having a hard influencing the idea of a QBR/ABR with their clients. I, too, would welcome the opportunity to collaborate. Thank you!

Jeremy Mulder

Hi Michael - Thanks for your question. And thanks for doing the work to make incremental improvements to the QBR/EBR process.

Success for me in EBR/QBRs is about seeing the reality of the relationship. Here are some questions I've used to better understand whether customers and companies are having their needs met in the relationship: 

What is working? What worked last time? What didn't work? What has changed? What did you think was important that turned out to be not as important? What did you think was unimportant that turned out to be important? What do other teams in your company think about this project? What jobs where you able to accomplish by doing business with us?  What suggestions do you have for other members of my team - support, product, sales, marketing, ops, leadership, etc?What got harder? What got easier? What is an example of us falling short of your expectations? What is an example of us exceeding your expectations? What was your peak experience in our relationship? What are you currently responsible for that we can help with? What are 3 areas of focus for the next 3 months? 

How can we make it better? How can we measure that? How have things changed since we started working together? How is this project being evaluated? How are you being evaluated? How did it feel doing business with us? How do you think you compare to our other customers? How can we help you look better internally at your company? How likely are you to take us with you if you moved to a new company? How might we help you be more successful? How would you like to be connected to other customers like you that are getting even more value from the relationship - by phone, group meeting, etc? If the renewal was today, how likely are you to renew? If things go off the rails, how will we know? If things are fantastic, how will we know? How do you like to celebrate successes? 

Once we see the reality of the relationship, we can communicate it to our company, teammates, and customers. Then we can come up with a plan for what to do about it and take action.

Jenny Li

Hi Byron,

I'm in the same boat as you. In the past couple of months, I've been building the framework for QBRs and introducing this to our team and customers. 

Since our customers are being introduced to this framework, I found that having a very open conversation with our customer about this, and getting their feedback at the end of the first session was very helpful. What did you learn so far in your own process?  

Look forward to hear your experience and ideas you might have. 

Thanks 
Jenny 

Kaz Sahota

I work in the enterprise b2b software space and we have a pretty comprehensive solution - no single customer uses all the functionality and our focus is on incremental value realisation.  We are always looking for ways to encourage the customer to do more with the solution that they have already invested in.  Our approach is pretty high-touch. With this in mind, a couple of things that work well for us are:

- Prep session with the sponsor & sometimes their team (not exec sponsor) in advance of the EBR to review current functional usage, where they could get more value, which areas are just not relevant to their business etc. This allows us to articulate a view of "how much more value could you get?" allows us to focus on goals and objectives for the coming period.  Often, we'll do a short prioritisation exercise at this point (where the team understands the exec's position well) or save that for the actual EBR so that there is an opportunity for interaction and the ability to dig a bit deeper with the exec. The objective here is to always be looking ahead and get the exec's buy-in on the next set of goals and objectives. We also use this to celebrate successes since the last review and the customer team will often do that part of the presentation. 

- Benchmarking against other customers - how are other customers using the platform and how do you compare? This has proven to be very popular with the execs and allows us to again focus on that roadmap & "what's next for you?" conversation.  It also allows us to challenge the customer a little in regards to their future goals and aspirations and position ourselves as more of a partner on their journey.