qbr-builder

QBR Builder

Produces the full kit for a customer business review: the meeting objective, who should attend, a short deck outline focused on outcomes, the data to pull, the questions to ask, a pre-read, and the follow-up. The aim is a meeting where the customer's leaders see the value they are getting, shape the next quarter, and agree to concrete commitments.

When to use

• A quarterly or half-yearly review is scheduled with a customer.
• A renewal or expansion conversation is two or three quarters away.
• The customer's executive sponsor has stopped attending meetings.
• A new sponsor or champion has arrived and needs to see the value so far.
• After a difficult quarter (incident, missed goals) when you need to reset the relationship.

What you need

Ask for these before building:

1. Account basics: customer, contract value, renewal date, products, time as a customer.
2. Goals agreed at onboarding or the last review, with the metrics attached.
3. Results data: usage and adoption trends, outcome metrics, support history, delivered projects.
4. Stakeholders: sponsor, champion, users, and their priorities; any changes since the last review.
5. Customer context: strategic priorities, recent company news, budget cycle.
6. Your objectives: what you need from this meeting (sponsor alignment, expansion opening, reference, risk resolution).
7. Issues to address openly: incidents, delays, unmet goals.

Process

1. Set one primary objective for the meeting. Examples: confirm value and agree next quarter's priorities; re-engage a new sponsor; address a risk before renewal. Everything in the deck should serve this objective.
2. Plan the attendees. The customer's executive sponsor is essential; without them it is a working session, not a business review. Keep your side small (account owner, plus one senior leader if the account warrants it) so the customer feels free to be candid.
3. Lead with outcomes against their goals. For each goal agreed earlier: the target, the result, and what drove it. Translate usage into business impact (hours saved, revenue influenced, risk reduced). If a goal was missed, say so and explain the plan.
4. Add two or three insights, not a data dump. Patterns they could not see themselves: a team with much higher adoption and why, a feature that would close a gap they mentioned, a benchmark against similar customers (without naming them).
5. Address risks honestly. Incidents, delays, or adoption problems with what you have done and will do. Customers trust vendors who raise problems first.
6. Run a discovery segment. Ask about their priorities for the next two quarters, changes in their organisation, and what success would look like next quarter. This is where future value and expansion come from, so give it real time.
7. Build the forward plan together. Three to five priorities for next quarter, each with a metric, an owner on each side, and a date.
8. Make clear asks. What you need from them: access to a new team, a sponsor check-in, a reference or case study, feedback on a roadmap item. Raise commercial topics only after value has been shown, and only if the account is healthy.
9. Send a pre-read two to three days ahead. A one-page summary of results and proposed discussion topics. The live meeting can then focus on discussion and decisions, not reading slides.
10. Follow up within 24 hours with decisions, the agreed plan, owners, and dates.

Output format

# Business Review Plan: [Customer]   Date [ ]   Renewal [ ]

## Meeting objective
[one sentence]

## Attendees
| Side | Name | Role | Why they are there |

## Agenda (45 to 60 minutes)
1. Their priorities and what has changed (10 min)
2. Results against goals (10 min)
3. Insights and recommendations (10 min)
4. Risks and how we are addressing them (5 min)
5. Next quarter plan (10 min)
6. Asks and next steps (5 min)

## Deck outline
| Slide | Content | Data source |

## Results against goals
| Goal | Target | Result | Driver / explanation |

## Insights
1.
2.

## Discovery questions
- 

## Proposed next-quarter plan
| Priority | Metric | Customer owner | Our owner | Date |

## Our asks
- 

## Pre-read (one page)
[summary text]

## Follow-up email
Subject: [ ]
[decisions, plan, owners, dates]

Quality checklist

• One primary objective drives the content.
• The executive sponsor is invited and the reason is clear.
• Results are framed against the customer's own goals and in business terms.
• Insights are limited to two or three and are specific to this customer.
• Risks are raised openly with a plan.
• A discovery segment with real questions is included.
• The forward plan has metrics, owners on both sides, and dates.
• Pre-read and follow-up drafts are included.

Common mistakes

• Status updates disguised as a review. Ticket counts and feature release lists do not interest executives; outcomes do.
• Walking through every slide live. Send the material ahead and use the meeting for discussion.
• Pitching expansion before showing value. It turns a partnership meeting into a sales call and lowers trust.
• Hiding problems. If the customer raises an issue you did not mention, the whole deck loses credibility.
• Too many people from your side. A crowded vendor side makes customers guarded.
• No customer voice. Reviews where the vendor talks for 50 minutes miss the most valuable information: what is changing for the customer.
• No follow-up. Agreements without written owners and dates are forgotten by the next quarter.

Example prompts

• "Build a QBR for a customer renewing in six months. Here are their onboarding goals and our usage data."
• "Our executive sponsor changed. Plan a business review that re-establishes value with the new VP."
• "Turn these usage stats into business outcomes for an executive audience."
• "Write the pre-read and follow-up email for next week's QBR."
• "We had a major incident this quarter. How should the business review address it?"