As a sales manager, you know quarterly business reviews (QBRs) can — and should — be so much more than routine check-ins with yawning customers.
But some teams still treat QBRs as a one-way status update, with reps and CSMs doing most of the talking while customers listen. Or maybe they use the time to catch up on the work that actually should be taking place throughout the quarter.
Transforming QBRs into dynamic, interactive discussions will position your team as indispensable partners to your clients. But how do you elevate these quarterly customer meetings to create lasting value for your clients?
Our team has distilled the QBR process into three role-specific guides:
- Sales leaders: Guide leaders, managers, and reps through pipeline reviews for strategic alignment and precise forecasting. The focus of this guide is on internal QBRs.
- Sales managers: Coach your team to diagnose pipeline issues and ensure accountability at every level. The focus of this guide is on external QBRs.
- Account managers: Transform customer conversations into actionable insights, driving retention and long-term growth. The focus of this guide is on external QBRs.
In this post, we’ll explore how sales managers can help their teams make client-facing QBRs collaborative and visual experiences to build trust and grow their accounts.
Related: Quarterly business reviews: The definitive guide and best practices
Key highlights
- Create dynamic QBR discussions that drive clients to understand their business goals and growth opportunities.
- Use visuals to clearly express ideas and interactive elements to boost engagement during QBRs.
- Sales reps and CSMs should co-create solutions and strategies with clients to drive future value.
- Effective QBRs need clear objectives, aligned goals, data-driven insights for clear next steps and stronger client relationships.
Visual collaboration: Key to a successful quarterly business review guide
Your competitors are probably conducting standard QBRs. So, what will set your team apart?
Coach your team to be trusted advisors to your customers. QBRs are opportunities for future-focused discussions focused on customer goals, challenges, and opportunities. Only 31% of B2B customers are fully engaged, according to Gallup. Companies are leaving money on the table if they don’t regularly and fully involve clients in a partnership.
Alex Ticas, AVP of Enterprise New Business at Mural, shares his perspective on how go-to-market teams can run better QBRs:
“Sales managers can set their teams up for successful QBRs by driving cross-functional collaboration. Aligning sales, CSMs, and product teams ensures we bring valuable insights, not just updates, to customers. By treating QBRs as strategic conversations, rather than status meetings, we turn them into opportunities for growth and partnership.”
As Alex explains, successful QBRs are meaningful conversations, not one-way presentations. Your reps and CSMs must position themselves as thought partners for the client’s business, and use QBRs to co-create solutions to drive future value.
Visual collaboration is key in shifting from transactional interactions to strategic partnerships.
- Show performance trends with bar graphs, diagrams, or flowcharts and ask the client to annotate with questions
- Embed interactive elements so clients can explore data themselves before, during, and after the meeting
- Run live brainstorming and idea generation using structured methods
- Share a sales QBR template with clients for real-time input and discussion
- Pull themes and insights during the session using AI to make decisions faster
- Allow clients to interact with goals and future plans through comments and live feedback
- Use mind maps to structure collaborative solutions to plan tasks and resources
Visual collaboration can help your team simplify complex ideas and drive collaboration, so QBRs are co-created conversations. As trusted advisors, your reps and CSMs facilitate QBRs structured around problem-solving, planning, and actionable insights. By focusing on developing solutions for your clients, your QBRs will be more human-centered, oriented to outcomes, not just updates.
Related: Ashley Welch on design thinking in sales
Running external QBRs: A 3-step quarterly business review guide
Wout Hermans, Director of Customer Success (EMEA & APAC) at Mural, shares his take on how CSMs and reps can run better QBRs for their clients:
“A successful QBR is an interactive discussion. A one-sided presentation isn’t worth people’s synchronized time in a meeting.
With that philosophy, my team structures their QBRs to focus on interactivity as much as possible. Our team sends a short five-minute video presentation to customers a week in advance. This way, in the session itself, we can say, ‘You’ve seen the numbers and how you performed. Let’s run human-centered design activities like What’s on Your Radar to understand what’s a priority now compared to the previous quarter.'
Use activities to lead to outcomes so that the audience isn’t just sitting there listening to you present, but is participating in the conversation, driving the conversation. It’s the job for the CSM or the rep to talk as little as possible, and have the customer talk as much as possible about what’s on their mind and what they want to prioritize, and in the end, leave the QBR with next steps and actions.”
Step 1: Set clear objectives and align on goals
Following QBR best practices, your reps will begin with a clearly defined set of objectives for the meeting that are communicated in advance. Sales managers should make sure that sales reps, CSMs, and the client are aligned on the desired outcome of the QBR. This alignment will serve as the foundation for the discussion.
- Utilize data: Collect relevant performance data, case studies, or success stories ahead of time. QBRs built around insights show how your solutions are driving results for the customer. Your team can visualize data or build infographics to highlight the main points clearly.
- Prep your team: In advance of the QBR, schedule internal preparation meetings with your reps and CSMs. Align on the goals, successes, and challenges that will be discussed so everyone is on the same page.
Start with a sales QBR template, so your team has a collaborative workspace tailored to each client. Some customers will appreciate reviewing and contributing ideas in advance, so consider sharing the mural link in the calendar invite.
- Be client-centered: Your team should deeply understand each client’s business objectives and how they tie into the product or service you provide. Help tailor the QBR agenda so it focuses on what matters most to the client. Your team can organize a visual agenda so key discussion points are agreed on collectively, and easily accessible before, during, and after the QBR.
Step 2: Use data-driven narratives
Data is crucial, but your sales team won’t get far just presenting raw numbers. Help your reps translate data points into insights that guide decisions.
- Contextualize your data: Have your sales team frame the numbers in a narrative, linking them to broader business goals or milestones. Show how your solution has positively impacted the client’s business, whether through increased revenue, improved efficiency, or better customer satisfaction.
- Use visuals: Visualize a clear story of progress. Use visual aids to connect data with narrative elements, making it easier to understand the impact and relevance of trends over time. Use your shared mural to highlight KPIs and insights so clients can quickly see how their goals are being met.
Step 3: Foster collaboration and actionable next steps
Beyond reviewing progress, QBRs are about planning for future action items. Alex shares his suggestions for helping customers take part in planning and execution:
“Collaboration is key to action-oriented customer sessions. Using a structured approach like a shared mural for pre-work, live discussion, and next steps keeps everyone accountable. I coach my reps to define clear takeaways with owners and deadlines, ensuring follow-through isn’t an afterthought, but a built-in expectation.”
As a sales manager, help your team guide the conversation toward next steps to demonstrate the long-term value of the partnership.
- Create a shared action plan: Encourage your team to collaboratively work with clients to develop an action plan with clear milestones and timelines. This plan should address areas of improvement, opportunities for growth, and adjustments based on the previous quarter’s feedback. You can use templates like the mutual action plan or a simple action plan to get started quickly.
- Promote accountability: Remind your reps and their CSM partners to always assign ownership of tasks and responsibilities, typically at the end of the review. Using Mural, your team can update dates and tasks as they are completed, or remind clients directly in the platform about upcoming deadlines. Track your progress using a kanban-style template for complex planning.
Related: DACI Decision Making Framework: Managing accountability with Mural
How to coach your team for transformative QBRs
In 2024, 56% of surveyed executives said coaching their sales team was a top five priority. As a sales manager, it’s essential to equip your team with the right skills and mindset to deliver effective QBRs. Wout offers two pieces of advice that help his team to have more meaningful client QBR sessions:
“One, understand how the customer works, like culture, communication, how meetings are run. There is no silver bullet. The same thing doesn’t work with every customer.
Two, build a strong relationship with your customers so they trust you. When you understand a little bit about them, you can start introducing new approaches or ideas on a small scale in a way that makes sense for them.”
Your coaching should balance focus on the soft and hard skills. Try these techniques with your team to help them engage clients and drive action:
Practice storytelling: Have CSMs and reps practice telling short (e.g. 2-minute) true-life stories and anecdotes as part of their QBRs. Your team can share real examples of customer pain points, and how they felt during their struggles to bring the past quarter to life. Encourage them to highlight feelings like frustration, relief, joy, or satisfaction to relate your product to solving their problems.
Sharpen listening skills: Teach your team to listen actively during the QBR. This means not just hearing what the client says, but interpreting their concerns and goals. Have your team ask: “What specific challenges are you facing?” or “How do these metrics impact your overall objectives?” Ask a peer to observe and give feedback on their active listening, live notetaking, and reflection skills.
Gamify your prep: When reps are under pressure, even a simple warm-up or trivia game like Jeopardy can make preparation for QBRs more engaging for sales reps. Try Mad Libs-style questions to get reps thinking creatively, or loosen up stale narratives with story slam practice sessions. You can even rename a standard QBR prep session as a Talent Show or Show and Tell to lighten the mood or ease the nerves of a new or low-performing team member.
Role-play QBR scenarios: Work with your sales enablement colleagues to set up practice sessions for your team. For example, they might role-play QBRs for different personas or challenging scenarios. Coach your reps on communicating value clearly, driving the conversation toward solutions, and keeping the client engaged.
Related: How to enable sales teams with product knowledge
Your quarter-long coaching strategy for QBR success
Over a quarter, you’ll take incremental steps to ensure your team is prepared for QBRs. Here’s Alex’s take on QBR best practices:
“QBR success is built over time, not in a single prep session. I encourage reps to continuously capture insights in Mural throughout the quarter like key wins, challenges, and customer priorities so nothing gets lost. Regular check-ins help refine the narrative, making the final QBR a natural extension of ongoing conversations, rather than a rushed exercise.”
Here’s how your quarter might look, broken down by week:
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Leverage Mural for effective QBRs
Mural helps sales teams make your team’s QBRs more engaging, collaborative, and insightful. The result? Your team will help drive faster decision-making and the client alignment that leads to account growth.
Wout shares two of his favorite features in Mural for running QBRs:
“A mural is a living document. You can share insights with your customer like usage, performance, achievements before the meeting, so your customer can review the mural and using comments, add questions.
Our team also uses the prioritization matrix template to prioritize what's most important. It’s a simple activity, and customers understand it very quickly. But it’s powerful, because it guides you to the right solution.”
A quick summary on how Mural features help with QBRs:
- Save time designing QBR sessions by having your team customize a quarterly business review template with specific client metrics and branding.
- Your team can host interactive QBRs using Mural’s infinite canvas. Zoom out for a comprehensive view, and use the Summon and Follow features for active client participation.
- Reps will have no trouble keeping QBRs on track with Mural’s features like the Timer, Laser pointer, and Voting. Discussions are more organized and engaging.
- Your team can use Mural’s Presentation mode and Outline to easily navigate and facilitate smooth transitions.
- Reps and CSMs can synthesize ideas and insights fast with Mural AI. Live with their customers, your team will uncover deeper insights by spotting trends and themes together.
For a demo or to learn more about how Mural can improve your QBRs, get in touch with us today.
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