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The 3 Questions That Turn Good QBRs into Great QBRs

Use these questions to make the most of your quarterly business reviews.

Time to read: 2.5 minutes

Somrat Niyogi
VP of Business Development, Clari

For those who may be newer to business leadership, QBR means quarterly business review. The QBR is a great forum for sales managers and enterprising salespeople to separate themselves from the pack. After all, the best reps are CEOs of their territory, thinking holistically about their business and knowing what makes their patch unique.

Yet too many managers and reps think of QBRs as simple account reviews, instead of as a forum where reps and sales management align on territory plans, and reps indicate their ability to execute on those plans.

Since all of us in sales are goal-oriented, I’ll give sales managers a concrete goal: Your reps should look back on your QBRs, quarter after quarter, and say, “Those were the toughest meetings of my life, but I sold more and earned more because of them.”

Below I’ve outlined three high-level questions every sales leader should ask to ensure effective QBRs for their reps and region:

Question #1: What happened?

While last quarter’s performance is still fresh, reps should deliver a cause-and-effect review.

The deals we won last quarter and why
What we could have done differently — and when — to turn around losses
The deals we could have won, if we had been in the running

Sales managers should be focusing on deep thinking and easy takeaways during the QBR, not elaborate presentations. Before you meet, send out the questions you expect each rep to answer. Don’t throw curve balls, especially when other managers and executives are in the room. You need confidence in their plan, and they need confidence that you’ve got their back.

Question #2: Can we win?

At the end of the quarter, reps can easily lose sight of pipeline health. With this in mind, the QBR is the time to review your pipeline for:

Coverage (pipeline divided by quota) for the upcoming quarter
The right mix of long-shots and low-risk deals
Deals stuck in a specific stage of the sales process
Deals forecasted out two to three quarters that can be brought in
The needs of prospects who match your value prop and channels

Realign with your reps on your ideal customer profile. Don’t be surprised if your first QBRs with rigorous pipeline analysis result in a slimmer, and even scarier, opportunity set. Forty real opportunities are better than 150 dart throws.

Additionally, don’t wait until the QBR to discuss pipeline. In the first two months of every quarter, make pipeline health part of your one-on-one conversations. Overcommunicate about how to balance near-term selling with pipeline building and know your minimum pipeline coverage ratios. Be skeptical when a rep focuses exclusively on deals far above your average size, as they may put the next two quarters at risk.

Question #3: How will we win?

Every QBR should include a forecast discussion and commitment to it. A manager must decide whether his reps’ plans delivers confidence, based on the following:

The deals in their commit, best case and worst case
For each of those deals, the results to date and the plan to close
When some of those commit deals inevitably fall through, which deals will take their place
Where the rep can find new deals that can be opened and closed in the same quarter

These questions may feel intimidating, but deal and activity questioning has to be built on a foundation of trust — both a manager’s trust in getting the straight story and a rep’s trust in the manager to help.

“Too many managers and reps think of QBRs as simple account reviews, instead of as a forum where they align.”

Somrat Niyogi | VP of Business Development, Clari

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About the Author

Somrat Niyogi
VP of Business Development, Clari

Somrat Niyogi is the VP of business development at Clari. Before joining Clari, Somrat was the co-founder and CEO of both Stitch, a mobile-first sales productivity platform, as well as Miso, an early pioneer in the social TV space. At Miso, he led the overall vision of the company through multiple rounds of financing with top-tier investors, including Google Ventures, Hearst, and Khosla Ventures. Niyogi has worked at early-stage startups most of his career in various roles, including business development, sales, and product. Niyogi started his career at Salesforce in 2003. Somrat graduated with a BS in computer science at the University of Texas at Austin.