Exercise Overview

Time Required: 45 minutes

Format: Roleplay exercise (pairs or small groups)

Deliverable: QBR presentation delivered and feedback received

Objective

Practice conducting an effective Quarterly Business Review meeting that focuses on customer value, builds partnership, and sets the stage for renewal and expansion. You'll prepare a QBR presentation, deliver it in a simulated meeting, and practice handling customer questions and concerns.

Setup

Roles:

• CSM Team (1-2 people): Prepares and delivers the QBR
• Customer Team (1-2 people): Receives the QBR and plays the role of customer stakeholders

Scenario: You're conducting a QBR for "Acme Corp," a mid-market customer who has been using your SaaS product for 9 months. Their contract is up for renewal in 3 months.

Instructions

Pre-Work: Prepare the QBR Presentation (20 minutes)

CSM Team: Use the data provided below to create a brief QBR presentation (5-7 slides):

Acme Corp - Customer Data:

• Contract Details: $50K ARR, 9 months into 12-month contract, 50 user licenses
• Usage Metrics:
  • Active users: 38 out of 50 (76%)
  • Login frequency: Average 3x per week (down from 4x per week at month 3)
  • Feature adoption: Using 5 of 8 core features
  • Integration status: Connected to Salesforce, Slack not yet integrated
• Support History:
  • 8 tickets in last quarter (up from 4 in previous quarter)
  • 2 P1 issues (both resolved, but took 5 days each)
  • Average satisfaction: 7/10 (down from 8.5)
• Engagement:
  • Attended 1 of 3 webinars offered
  • NPS: 7 (passive)
  • No attendance at last QBR (scheduled but customer canceled)
• Business Context:
  • Customer's goal: Reduce project delivery time by 20%
  • Their team recently lost their main champion who moved to another company
  • Budget discussions happening for next fiscal year (starting in 4 months)

Your QBR Presentation Should Include:

1. Agenda Slide: What you'll cover in the meeting
2. Last Quarter Recap: Goals set and progress made
3. Current Metrics & Value Delivered: Usage stats, outcomes achieved
4. Challenges & Our Response: Address the declining engagement honestly
5. Next Quarter Plan: What you recommend and how you'll support
6. Product Roadmap Preview: Relevant upcoming features
7. Next Steps: Clear action items with owners

The Roleplay: Conduct the QBR (15 minutes)

CSM Team: Deliver your QBR presentation (10 minutes maximum)

Customer Team: Play the role of Acme Corp stakeholders. You should:

• Ask clarifying questions during the presentation
• Express some concerns (choose 2-3 from below):
  • "We're not seeing the ROI we expected"
  • "The recent support issues were really disruptive"
  • "Our new team lead isn't as excited about the product as our previous champion"
  • "We're evaluating whether to renew or switch to a competitor"
  • "Budget is tight next year, we might need to reduce seats"
• Also show some positive signals:
  • Certain features are working well
  • Interested in the roadmap
  • Want to see better results

CSM Team: Respond to customer concerns professionally:

• Acknowledge issues without being defensive
• Show empathy and accountability
• Propose concrete solutions
• Focus on partnership and value

Debrief: Feedback and Discussion (10 minutes)

Customer Team provides feedback:

1. What did the CSM team do well?
2. What could be improved?
3. How did you feel as the customer - confident in renewing or uncertain?
4. Were concerns addressed effectively?

CSM Team reflects:

1. What was hardest about the QBR?
2. What would you do differently?
3. What additional data or prep would have helped?

Group Discussion:

• How do you balance celebrating success vs addressing concerns?
• When should you bring up renewal explicitly vs implicitly?
• How would this QBR differ for a "green" healthy account vs this "yellow" at-risk one?

Alternative Scenarios

If time permits or doing multiple rounds, try these scenarios:

Scenario 2: "The Expansion Opportunity"

• Customer is exceeding usage limits
• Health score is green
• They're asking about additional features
• Goal: Position an upsell naturally within the QBR

Scenario 3: "The Smooth Sailing"

• Everything is going well
• Customer is happy and engaged
• Risk: QBR feels like a checkbox exercise
• Goal: Make it valuable and uncover new opportunities

Key Takeaways to Practice

✅ Lead with value - Show outcomes and impact, not just usage stats

✅ Be consultative - Act as a trusted advisor, not a vendor

✅ Address elephants in the room - Don't ignore declining metrics or issues

✅ Make it collaborative - Customer should talk almost as much as you

✅ Create clear next steps - Everyone leaves knowing what happens next

✅ Set up for renewal - Even if months away, build the case throughout

Deliverables

1. QBR Presentation Slides (or outline)
2. Role-play execution with feedback
3. Action Items List from the QBR with owners and due dates
4. Post-QBR Internal Summary (brief notes on what happened, customer sentiment, next steps, renewal risk assessment)

Bonus: QBR Preparation Checklist

Before any real QBR, CSMs should:

• Pull all relevant usage and engagement data
• Review support ticket history and themes
• Check on last QBR action items - were they completed?
• Research customer's business news (funding, leadership changes, etc.)
• Identify 1-2 case studies or best practices relevant to them
• Prepare questions to uncover their evolving goals
• Coordinate with account team if expansion opportunity exists
• Send calendar invite with agenda at least 1 week in advance
• Confirm customer attendees include decision-makers
• Prepare a follow-up email template with action items