AI Skill Pod

Customer success

QBR deck outline and talking points

Official

Official · updated Nov 4, 2026 · v1.0.1

Prepares a quarterly business review: outcomes vs goals, usage that explains them, ROI in the customer's numbers, roadmap asks, and next quarter's plan.

Sign up free to add this skill to your pod

You come back here after you sign in, and add it with one click.

Sign up freeAlready have an account? Sign in

When to use it

What you give it

What you get

A slide-by-slide deck outline with talking points, questions to ask, and what not to say.

The SKILL.md

---
name: qbr-prep
description: Prepares a quarterly business review (QBR) or executive business review for a customer, with a slide-by-slide deck outline and talking points covering outcomes against their goals, usage, ROI from their own numbers, roadmap asks, a next-quarter plan, and expansion only when the results earn it. Use when a QBR, EBR, quarterly review, renewal review, or account review with a customer is coming up and someone asks for the deck, the agenda, or what to say.
---

# QBR prep

A QBR is a meeting about the customer's results, not a product demo. Show what they set out to achieve, what happened, and what you'll do together next quarter. Bring up expansion only when the results already make the case.

## When to use

- A quarterly or executive business review with a customer is on the calendar.
- A renewal is within 2 quarters and you want the value story in their numbers.
- A new executive sponsor joined the customer and needs to see what the tool does for them.
- Not for an internal account plan or forecast: use account-plan.

## What you need

- Their goals for the quarter, from the onboarding plan or last QBR. If none were set, say so on the first slide and propose goals for next quarter.
- Usage data for the quarter and the one before.
- Their business numbers that show impact (hours saved, revenue, tickets, conversion), if they shared them. Use only their numbers; if you have none, ROI becomes a question to ask, not a slide to fill.
- Tickets, feature requests, and anything that went wrong this quarter.
- Who attends from their side.

## Steps

1. **Start from their goals.** For each goal: target, result, status (met, partly, missed). Put a missed goal on the slide and say why and what changes. Hiding it costs more trust than the miss.
2. **Pick 3 usage facts that explain the outcomes.** Not every chart. Usage matters only as the cause of a result: "Reminders sent rose 40%, and no-shows fell". Compare to last quarter.
3. **Calculate ROI only from their numbers.** Show the formula on the slide: "Hours saved per week × hourly cost × weeks". If an input is missing, write "[ask: ...]" and plan the question for the meeting. Never use an industry average as their result.
4. **List what went wrong and what you did.** Incidents, open tickets, slow fixes. One line each with the current status.
5. **Collect roadmap asks.** Their top 3 requests, with what you can say about each: shipped, planned (only if the product team confirmed), not planned. Don't promise dates you weren't given.
6. **Propose next quarter's plan.** 2 to 3 goals with measures, and the actions on each side. Ask them to confirm or change the goals in the meeting. Send the agenda a few days before, book the next QBR before the call ends, and send a recap with action items within 24 hours.
7. **Decide on expansion with a rule.** Our default: raise more seats, a new team, or a higher plan only if at least one goal was met and the customer asked about it or usage hit a plan limit. Otherwise leave it out of the deck.

## Output format

```markdown
# QBR: [Customer] — [quarter] — [date]

**Attendees:** [their side] / [our side]
**What we want from this meeting:** [1–2 outcomes, e.g. "agree next quarter's goals"]

## Deck outline
1. **Agenda and goals for today**
2. **Your goals and results** — [goal: target → result, status]
3. **What drove it** — [3 usage facts vs last quarter]
4. **Value in your numbers** — [formula and result, or "[ask: ...]"]
5. **What went wrong and what we did** — [items]
6. **Your requests** — [request: shipped / planned / not planned]
7. **Next quarter** — [2–3 goals, actions each side]
8. **[Expansion — only if the rule is met]**

## Talking points
- Slide [n]: [what to say, 1–2 lines]

## Questions to ask
- [Question]

## Do not say
- [Promises or numbers we can't back]
```

## Example

**Input:**

> Customer: Tallis Freight, Q3. Goals set in Q2: cut average quote turnaround from 4 hours to 1 hour; get all 12 sales reps using templates. Usage: quotes created 1,150 (Q2: 700). Template use 9 of 12 reps. Their ops lead said turnaround is "about 90 minutes now" and the 3 reps not on templates still take the longest. Hourly cost not shared. Tickets: 1 outage on 8 Aug (2 hours). Requests: Excel export (planned for Q4, confirmed), SSO (not planned). They have not asked about more seats.

**Output (excerpt):**

```markdown
# QBR: Tallis Freight — Q3 — 14 October

**What we want from this meeting:** agree Q4 goals; get the hourly cost to size value

## Deck outline
1. **Agenda and goals for today**
2. **Your goals and results** — Quote turnaround: 1 hour target → about 90 minutes (partly met, from 4 hours). Templates: 12 reps target → 9 reps (partly met)
3. **What drove it** — Quotes created 700 → 1,150; 9 of 12 reps on templates; [third fact from usage data]
4. **Value in your numbers** — Time saved per quote about 2.5 hours × quotes × [ask: hourly cost of a rep]
5. **What went wrong and what we did** — 8 August outage, 2 hours; [check: cause and fix to state]
6. **Your requests** — Excel export: planned for Q4. SSO: not planned.
7. **Next quarter** — Turnaround under 1 hour; 12 of 12 reps on templates

## Talking points
- Slide 2: Turnaround fell from 4 hours to about 90 minutes. We're not at 1 hour yet; the 3 reps not on templates are the gap.
- Slide 5: Own the outage first, before they raise it.

## Questions to ask
- What does an hour of a rep's time cost you, roughly?
- What's stopping the last 3 reps from using templates?

## Do not say
- A date for Excel export beyond "Q4".
- Anything about more seats: no goal fully met and they haven't asked.
```

## Checks before you send

- [ ] Every goal from last quarter is on the deck, including missed ones.
- [ ] ROI uses only the customer's numbers, with the formula shown, or is a question.
- [ ] Roadmap items say only what the product team confirmed.
- [ ] Next quarter has 2 to 3 measurable goals.
- [ ] Expansion appears only if the rule in step 7 is met.
- [ ] No number appears that isn't in the input.

## Common mistakes

- Opening with a product update. Their results go first.
- A slide of 10 usage charts. Pick the 3 that explain the outcome.
- Pitching an upgrade in a quarter with a missed goal and an outage.

Download SKILL.md

Changelog

Sources

  1. The Essential Guide to Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) (2026-11-04)
  2. How To Lead Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) Customers Want To Attend (2026-11-04)
  3. What is a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) | Salesforce (2026-11-04)

Related skills

← All skills