Build Alignment That Delivers Revenue

The QBR Hero The one metric your CFO actually cares about Within the space of one week, the UK has seemingly gone from summer to autumn, and this is always an interesting time of year. For many, it’s back-to-school or the start of a new sports season, and for Customer Success, it brings year-end into full view. Even if your financial year is based on the calendar year, many customers will want to get a number of projects completed before we lose focus over the holiday season. I worked with a...

The QBR Hero Your Stakeholder Cancelled Make Sure Your Agenda Keeps the Senior Stakeholder in the Room I bet this has happened to you: you’ve invested hours into preparing a business review, only for the senior stakeholder to cancel at the last minute. All that effort, gone. I know this has happened to me, and it feels like a punch in the stomach. “What could be more important than our meeting?” you might ask. Well, if they cancelled, the answer is probably: plenty. The reality is, your...

The QBR Hero Value Beats Adoption Customers Wanted Results I've been working in Customer Success for nearly 15 years. In the early days, the role was very much focused on training and enablement. Showing the user which features and functions they needed to do their job. A measurement of this, of course, was adoption. How often does a user log in? Which features do they use? How many actions do they take? The other side of that coin was an element of technical support, helping to solve issues...

The QBR Hero QBRs Are A Value-Driven Conversation Hello, I've recently come across a few LinkedIn posts with comments like "Swap the QBRs for value-driven conversations." This phrase leaves me entirely astounded. I don't know what a QBR is if it's not a value-driven conversation. I really don't. For me, a QBR is, and always has been, a strategic conversation with your senior stakeholders. It's not just a meeting, it's a strategic opportunity to align with your customer on their long-term...

The QBR Hero A Recession is Coming Hello, I'm not here for doom and gloom, but we should recognise the fact the global economy has just lurched into a bad place. Global economies are flashing red with ongoing geo-political problems and the recent application of trade tariffs. And whilst global politics might seem a long away from our day-to-day roles, this situation will start to tickle down to customers, which, in turn, will impact your business. I've been through a couple of recessions, not...

The QBR Hero A QBR is not a Report Basic Data Shouldn't be in a QBR Over the last couple of weeks, I've picked up on more and more conversations referring to a QBR as a report. For me, this couldn't be further from the truth. A few voices claim that the QBR is dead, especially in light of AI and automation. For those that think a QBR is a report, then sure, they are dead. I suspect some CSMs have only been pasting data showing user logins and feature usage, and that is not strategic...

The QBR Hero Let's Go! Hello, Having been in Customer Success for over 10 years, I have conducted hundreds of QBRs. Some of my early ones were pretty poor, but through practice, feedback and a desire to improve, I got to a stage where I thoroughly looked forward to a QBR knowing that I had the skills and experience to deliver them successfully. I won't lie and say it was a smooth journey, in fact here was one meeting where I didn't even get past the agenda slide, but as I heard someone once...