“Watch your audience’s reaction for signs that you might be losing them. Use techniques like audience participation, pacing, volume, and humor to reengage them.” – Warwick Brown in today’s Tip 934
How do you turn your Quarterly Boring Review into a Quarterly Brilliant Review?
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The KAM Club
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Warwick Brown on LinkedIn
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Warwick Brown. Warwick is the founder of Account Manager Tips, host at The KAM Club and on a mission to help organizations leverage the power of key account management to accelerate client retention and revenue. Here he is:
Warwick Brown: Hi everyone! It’s Warrick Brown, founder of Account Manager Tips, host at The KAM Club and on a mission to help Key Account Managers get results. Now look, it’s that time of year again, Quarterly Boring Review. And if you’re not sure if your QBR is a bust, let’s run through a few clues to help you decide. Does review time feel like torture? Do you find yourself preparing the review the day before or even the day it’s due? I mean, you barely read it, but you think yourself, look, I’ve done it a million times before, I can get through it blindfolded.
You find your clients dodging requests to schedule the review. You either skip them or you find yourself presenting Januaries review in June. Your client constantly cancels or reschedules your review at short notice. Attendees drop off like flies as the review approaches are worse. You turn up and half the audience is just a no-show. And when you’re there, people are on their laptops and their phones instead of paying attention to you and your presentation.
So if any of that’s happened to you? Yeah, you’ve got a Quarterly Boring Review on your hands. So look, let’s fix this.
Here are 9 tips to turn your Quarterly Boring Review into a Quarterly Brilliant Review.
Number 1. Don’t call it a QBR. Use an alternative description that really inspires and reflects the objectives of your meeting.
Number 2. Keep it short. 30 minutes to review the past and 30 minutes to plan the future. No more than 15 slides and move any surplus data to an appendix.
Number 3. Tell QBR as a story. Find the narrative in the data. Tell a new unexpected story of what is, what could be and how you are the guy that will get your client to the Promised Land.
Number 4. The rule of three. Working memory holds up to 9 items of data for 30 seconds. You’ll improve recall by chunking your insights into groups of 3 short, powerful messages. Use pictures. Humans remember pictures far better than words. So ditch the bullet points and use a variety of charts, images, diagrams, and icons to communicate your ideas.
Number 6. State to strategy, not tactics. Keep the QBR a high-level review on supplied performance, return on investment, progress towards goals, potential roadblocks, and emerging opportunities. Schedule separate time for operational matters or your QBR will dissolve into a problem-solving and complaint resolution mess.
Number 7. Is to make it an event. Make sure that your client knows this QBR isn’t just another meeting that could have been an email. Generate some buzz with a series of emails that showcase the objectives of the QBR and invite some A-list guests along. Those that have got the authority to make sure that your review is strategic and where decisions get made.
Number 8. Send QBR in advance. Send the review to participants before the presentation and ask for comments. If everyone is better prepared, then you can spend less time in the meeting on the past and more time planning for the future.
And finally, Number 9. Read the room. Watch your audience’s reaction for signs that you might be losing them. Use techniques like audience participation, pacing, volume, and humor to reengage them.
That’s it, heroes. I hope this has been useful and I look forward to you smashing your next Quarterly Brilliant Review.
Scott Ingram: For more about Warwick, including links to The KAM Club where he’s offering 14 days free for Daily Sales Tips listeners, just click over to DailySales.Tips/934.
Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!