A quarterly business review (QBR) is an opportunity for sales representatives and management to analyze and discuss the sales performance of the previous quarter.
This review evaluates sales performance, and areas of improvement identifies bottlenecks and helps devise actionable tactics for improving future performance. A QBR is a systematic process involving immense introspection, effort, and planning.
So, how can salespersons demonstrate analytical thinking and tactical planning skills to outshine their peers?
Read on to find out the best practices for establishing a successful sales QBR.
Practice #1: Collect Relevant Sales Reports
The sales report must entail data-driven facts for a killer quarterly business review. Leverage the power of sales CRM for small businesses to access and extract different sales reports-daily reports, monthly reports, and quarterly report-to identify the wins and the gaps.
Your sales report must tell a story. It should depict your achievements and explain limitations and propose solutions for unachieved goals. Subsequently, you can include reports that compare quarterly growth on a year-to-year (YoY) basis, sales revenue; deals closed against a quarterly target, or the close rate.
Practice #2: Sales Forecasting
Now that you have boasted about your wins and losses from the past quarter reports extracted from your sales CRM for small businesses, it’s time to offer more to your audience.
Your QBR must help you set future goals that you intend to prioritize in the upcoming quarter (aka Sales Forecast). The Forecasting data from your CRM provides actionable data that helps identify trends and changing customer behavior.
Practice #3: Visually Engage Your Audience
Want to command attention and guide your audience through the quarterly business review?
Create a visually appealing presentation with bars and charts, templates your sales CRM for small businesses offers. Engage your audience completely with the KPIs and numbers, and incorporate neatly arranged supporting materials in your presentation to clarify your objectives.
Practice #4: Be Prepared for Q&A Sessions
Your QBR indicates a growth mindset, encourages analytical decision-making, and can interpret past failures into actionable outcomes. But the buck doesn’t stop here; the management wants to know more.
For instance, they would like to understand how you operate daily or your effectiveness as a sales manager. Hence, you can create reports that can help you be prepared to answer several questions.
Practice #5: Keep the Presentation Short
Often, sales representatives are tempted to include details that may not be valuable to their audience. It’s essential to remove the noise and keep the presentation firmly structured, focusing on wins, losses, proposed solutions, and forecasts.
Therefore, your QBR should be presented for a maximum of 45 minutes. If you sense your audience losing interest halfway, crack a joke to make the environment lighter and for pulling them back into the review.
Conclusion
For an engaging and successful QBR, capture the essentials, goals, and plans, in a structured and seamless manner. By harnessing the power of CRM for small businesses, built exclusively so that you can easily derive effective Quarterly Business Reviews and provide your sales team with the direction that they need.
