What CS Teams Get Wrong About QBRs

I've sat through hundreds of QBRs. As a customer, as a vendor, as an operator. And I've noticed something: most CS teams approach them like they're filing a tax return—box-checking, slides full of charts, 90 minutes of "here's what we did." But that's not what QBRs are for. They're not a reporting mechanism. They're a sales call wearing business casual.

Here's what CS teams consistently miss: QBRs aren't about proving you did your job. They're about showing the customer that they made the right decision buying from you, and that the best is still ahead.

You Lead With the Wrong Metrics

Most CS teams kick off a QBR by running through the dashboard. Usage went up 14%. You onboarded their new team. They're on track to renew. Fine. But the customer doesn't care about your internal benchmarks. They care about what those numbers mean for their business. Did usage go up because they're getting real value, or just because they have more people poking around? You can't answer that if you're just reading off a graph.

I've seen the best QBRs start with the customer's actual outcome. "You said you needed to cut your analysis time in half. Here's how we've moved that needle. Here's what's still in the way." That's not a report—that's a conversation. You're working backward from what matters to them, not forward from what you measured.

The teams that nail this? They've done the homework before the call. They know the customer's goals, they've mapped their product usage to those goals, and they come prepared to talk about the gap between "ideal state" and "where you actually are".

You Waste Time on Theatrics

You don't need a 40-slide deck with animations. You don't need a choreographed walkthrough of every feature they haven't used. You don't need to showcase product roadmap items that won't ship for two quarters.

What you need is clarity. One, maybe two visuals that tell the story. The rest? Conversation. Let them ask questions. Let them push back. If they're sitting there silent while you click through slides... that's a bad sign.

The QBRs that actually move the needle are the ones that feel more like a working session than a presentation. You're solving problems together. You're identifying where adoption is stuck. You're talking about what they need next, not what you want to ship.

You Forget to Ask Them Anything

Here's the real killer: CS teams treat QBRs like a monologue. They talk at the customer for 90 minutes and call it engagement.

Flip it. Go in with questions. Specific ones. "Where are you seeing the most value?" "What's still painful?" "If we could fix one thing in the next quarter, what would make the biggest difference for your team?" Then shut up and listen. Not just for "nice to know" feedback—for insight into whether they're actually going to expand, churn, or stay flat.

The best QBR I've ever been in had maybe 20 minutes of talking and 70 minutes of the customer telling us what was working and what wasn't. When it ended, they didn't say "great presentation." They said "this was really useful. Let's do this more often."

You're Not Walking Out With a Deal

A QBR should not end with "we'll send you our notes." It should end with an agreement. Expansion. A new use case. A commitment to try something. Something. Even if it's small—a pilot, a test, a conversation with a different team in their org.

If you're leaving the QBR without having moved the relationship forward... you wasted everyone's time.

The Real Deal

Stop thinking of QBRs as a checkup. They're a sales moment. You're fighting churn. You're building the case for renewal, expansion, and advocacy. Come prepared, stay humble, ask better questions, and walk out with momentum. That's a QBR.