7 Questions to Answer for Pro-Level QBR Metrics

Lists of QBR metrics to include in your internal business review are a good starting point, but they should be taken with a grain of salt. Why? Because the people who write them don’t understand your business – you do. Where you really need to begin is by answering a few questions to help you narrow down precisely what QBR metrics to track each quarter.

Prepare the Right QBR Metrics

1. What size is your business?

In a recent survey, 58% of salespeople reported that they track sales by region, territory, and team. However, tracking all of these may not be necessary. For larger companies, tracking the success of larger regions and territories is typically more important while smaller companies that don’t have many territories will likely find it more meaningful to track if individual sales reps are making quota.

2. How old is your business?

This is likely related to the size of your business, but not always. Regardless, an established company has more time and means to keep track of a larger variety of quarterly business review metrics, while a younger company is better off honing in on a few key data points while they grow. Align closely with management to make sure everyone agrees on what few key QBR metrics sales should be measured by.

3. What does management want to accomplish?

Speaking of management, they are probably more familiar with the overall goals of the company. Ask them what data points they want to see regularly to benchmark improvement over time. Or, if you’re trying to choose just a few QBR metrics to track, present them with some options you are considering.

4. What do you want to know/how do you define success?

It’s also important to consider what metrics you care about. The QBR metrics you focus on will depend on the size of your team or teams, how many teams you manage, and will also be influenced by the overall goals of your company such as increasing account penetration or win rates.

5. Are your customers happy?

Metrics around customer success are growing in popularity because of customer retention and satisfaction. This is especially important for growing businesses where one unhappy customer could make or break your own success

6. How often will you re-evaluate goals and how they are measured?

Nearly a quarter of organizations either only conduct business reviews annually or have no set schedule for performing them. So you’ll want to consider if metrics will be reviewed yearly or regularly. For example, some companies may review the current year to date versus the previous year to date only after the end of the year, while doing a quarter by quarter or month by month comparison throughout the year.

7. How can you make the process more efficient?

Quarterly business review templates can help professionals filter the ideas in the presentation, stick to the agenda, and focus on what’s most important to the organization. In fact, 65% of organizations have a standardized format for conducting their QBRs. By standardizing the format, organizations can reduce the time needed to prepare for QBRs while making it clear to the team what quarterly business review metrics should be tracked.

But the most agile business reviews are driven by native Salesforce dashboards, reports, and key account plans that include stakeholder hierarchy maps and SWOT analyses. Using Salesforce to track and share QBR metrics means you can provide updates at any time, not just quarterly. Plus, data is always up to date across individuals and teams. You can take your QBRs miles ahead so you can outmaneuver the competition with the right tool.