9 Steps to Make Your Next Marketing QBR Less Stressful More Impactful

The Gist

• Set the agenda. Take charge by defining the narrative and focus of your quarterly business review to showcase marketing’s impact and preempt unexpected questions.

• Focus on outcomes. Go beyond stats by connecting KPIs to business goals like revenue growth, cost savings and operational efficiencies to tell a compelling story.

• Showcase your team. Use the QBR to highlight your marketing ops team’s contributions, celebrate wins and gain visibility for behind-the-scenes efforts.

The quarterly business review (QBR) has earned a dubious distinction in marketing as one of the most stressful and nerve-wracking events on the calendar. Worse yet, the fact that it happens every three months means that by the time you recover from one, it’s nearly time to start prepping for the next. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, with some strategic planning, QBRs can be an opportunity, not a threat. They can allow marketing teams to tell a compelling story, demonstrate their value, celebrate wins and gain executive buy-in for the next round of campaigns.

Transforming Marketing Quarterly Business Reviews

As you gear up for the new year, here are nine steps to reimagine quarterly business reviews, strengthen your team and bring sharper focus to your business impacts in 2025 and beyond.

1. Define the Agenda

Don’t wait for executives to ask questions. Start from a position of authority and set the agenda for what you’ll communicate during the QBR. Seize the opportunity to drive the conversation by showcasing what you can provide. This can help prevent feeling broadsided by unexpected questions.

2. Pick a Narrative

What’s the story you want to tell, and how can you use the data you have to tell it? Think outside of the box. Too often we think only of driving revenue through lead generation, conversions and sales growth, but saving money generates revenue too. Maybe you made a process more efficient, whittled a task that took seven clicks down to just two or automated something that drove a 10% increase in productivity within marketing. That’s just as valuable as boosting MQL, and you deserve credit.

3. Align on Business KPIs

I’ve never seen business KPIs include clicks, engagement, email opens or any other metric that is likely the focus of your standard campaign reporting. Leaders want to know how those vanity metrics translate into business growth, and that means dollars and cents (i.e., revenue, sales, market share, lead pipeline and cost savings). Focus on delivering the results they want to see, and they’ll be less likely to press you for data you don’t have.

4. Address Specific Requests Offline

When you share the agenda and overview of what will be presented, it’s inevitable that some leaders may come back with specific inquiries and ask about reporting that isn’t on the agenda. Addressing these during the QBR can sometimes open a can of worms, so responding offline with this information can head off the tendency to go down a rabbit hole in the meeting.

5. Consider the Audience

Who are your stakeholders, and what do they need to know? This includes not only those who will be at the QBR but also those two levels up who will be asking questions of those attendees. Find out what they’re looking for by building relationships with those stakeholders. Ask what keeps them up at night, what their goals are, what’s working and what’s not. Find out what they’re being asked for and the specific context in which the data is being requested.

They may not need a deep dive, only talking points with some top-level insights. Giving them enough to speak eloquently to their higher-ups without burying them in too much information builds trust.

6. Give Analysis, Not Just a Stats Dump 

Instead of showing raw numbers, explain what it means in the context of what’s happening in the market. For example, explain the relationship between MQL and unsubscribe rates by showing that, for example, MQL rates hold steady through the third email in a nurture campaign, but unsubscribe rates start to spike at the eighth email. Or explain how you’re reaching 80% of your mailable database with two engagements this quarter versus just 50% last quarter. Another option is to demonstrate how the average time to MQL status has shortened. These examples provide insight beyond the numbers and help stakeholders see the value behind the stats. 

7. Plan for Next Quarter

It seems obvious, but you can’t report on data that you don’t collect. Before leaving the QBR, choose a priority for the coming quarter — whether it’s an initiative, campaign or specific data points — that can help narrow the scope for better data collection and success metric alignment. This will ensure that you’re able to answer the questions being asked and give you a defensible position if questions go beyond the agreed-upon scope.

8. Leverage Your Strategic Knowledge 

Marketing ops is an art and a science, but too many marketing ops leaders view their role as transactional. They gather and report on the campaigns. Period.

Instead, point out strategic opportunities based on the tools you have at your disposal and your knowledge of the market. Be clear about technical limitations, but also brainstorm ideas about how to leverage capabilities to uncover insights beyond taking the data at face value.

9. Showcase Your Team

Marketing ops teams usually work behind the scenes, and in many organizations, they’re only thought about when something goes wrong. QBRs are the perfect opportunity to be the hype squad for your team and get them the recognition they deserve.

Better yet, let them present a piece of the story with a few slides about a project or initiative they took on. For example, if they figured out a new process that shaves off time, translate that into dollars-and-cents operational savings to show how it impacts the organization.

Related Article: Customer Experience Metrics: 3 Steps That Drive Growth