QBRs Are Stupid

Stupid Is As Stupid Does...And QBRs Are In Fact Stupid

I've often times said that QBRs are a necessary evil. In fact, they are the most selfish thing we do in Customer Success. In this article I will explain why I feel this way and why I'm so adamant that they are not necessary.

Add to that: Our customers lives are not consistent. There are times they are much busier than others. Some quarters they'd like to have a sit down and chat all things QBR...other quarters they will NOT want to see or hear from us. Then when we are tone deaf to that, stupid is as stupid does.

In fact, QBRs are just plain ol' stupid when we do them like we have been. It's time to rid ourselves of this overly time consuming, valueless, and friction filled activity for our customers and start Demonstrating Value without increased friction within the Customer Experience.

Necessary Evil

Yes! We must do them. The reason we MUST do something like a QBR is because we need to execute the 3rd D of Customer Success : Demonstrate. We have to find a way to show our Executive Stakeholders and Champions the value we've been Delivering (2nd D ) over a set period of time. And without some form of value demonstration we can't expect our customers to realize everything we're doing for them.

We have to make it 100% crystal clear to them and it must be quantifiable. Dollar ROI, Time Savings, etc...whatever our value proposition is, and whatever we've delivered for them...must be realized by our customer.

Lack of Value Realization Sows The Seeds Of Churn

In other words, when we lose a customer, it's because we either didn't 1) Define what Success was, 2) Deliver that definition, or 3) Demonstrate to them that we've delivered on our promise.

Thus QBRs are a necessary evil. At least some form of Value Demonstration is a must...but a quarterly, one hour presentation about how great you are? Not anyone's idea of a good time.

Often times, the act of delivering a QBR actually creates little to no additional value for them. And if they said "YES" to every request for them to attend QBR's, they'd spend all their time sitting around having their (on average) 13 SaaS vendor CSMs deliver quarterly presentations. They'd have no time for THEIR own teams and lives.

So not surprisingly, most Executive Stakeholders don't want to attend QBRs. They have received little to no value from them in the past, and have 12 other CSMs that want to do the same thing...every QUARTER! ??

Selfish

It's OUR chance to DEMONSTRATE the value we've been delivering...and a necessary evil because we MUST do this demonstration or else we begin to sow the seeds of churn.

But make no mistake: QBRs are by definition SELFISH. They are about US and OUR Product/Service and how much it's made a positive impact on our customer's life. They are so often never about the customer's business strategy like they should be. Or what Business Outcomes we've helped them to achieve. QBRs too often are a breakdown of how quickly we fixed the bug. Or some other tactical presentation about us. Not them. Thus: Selfish.

Increased Friction = Less Success

QBR's are our chance to show them the "CO" they achieved, from our formula: "CS = CO + CX". The Customer's Definition of Success (CS) is equal to their Desired Outcome (CO) plus their Desired Experience (CX).

So we end up adding friction to the CX when all we're really trying to do is demonstrate the CO they achieved. Thus we end up delivering a lower volume of overall success, when we force a quarterly meeting with the customer all designed for us to tell them how great we are. How many CO's they've achieved, etc.

How To Make Them Not Stupid

Here are some parting thoughts on ways to make QBRs not stupid...and even a few ideas on better ways to Demonstrate Value without negatively affecting the Customer Experience:

1. Make them a conversation not a presentation. Don't talk at them...talk with them.
2. Approach the conversation with an intentionally curious mind. Come with more questions than statements.
3. Make them 100% strategic. Don't get into SLAs, IRTs, or anything tactical. The topic du jour is their business strategy and you are there to learn not teach. Then and only then can we find ways to fit into that strategy and actually make QBRs value filled.
4. Make them 50% retrospective, 50% prospective. 100% strategic still. We'll spend half the time (approx.) talking about the Outcomes and Value we've helped your organization achieve. And the other half (approx.) discussing your future strategic plans and how we may fit in with the future. What new Outcomes (pains and gains) can we help you achieve.
5. Get Creative. Much like Spotify's #Wrapped2019 (and 2020 and 2021) campaign , they demonstrate value to their millions of subscribers at the end of each year. But they certainly don't require an hour of our time to do it..and therefore they can do it at massive scale. You can't do face to face QBRs at massive scale.

If you'd like to see more of my thoughts, here's a video where I explain more. But long story short: We can do better, #CSFam! There is no need to continue to add friction to our customer relationships just because we need to demonstrate our value. We can do better. And more creatively build a frictionless experience for our customers while executing the 3rd D.