QBR Engagement Rate¶

Definition¶

QBR Engagement Rate measures the percentage of eligible accounts that attend, complete, or meaningfully participate in Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs). It helps track strategic relationship strength and post-sale alignment.

Description¶

QBR Engagement Rate is a key indicator of strategic customer alignment and retention health, reflecting how many accounts actively participate in Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) or equivalent strategic sessions.

The relevance and interpretation of this metric shift depending on the model or product:

In enterprise B2B SaaS, it includes QBR meetings with executives or async participation in reporting
In customer success-led models, it reflects relationship depth and partnership commitment
In expansion-focused accounts, it serves as a precursor to growth conversations

A rising engagement rate reflects trusted partnerships and renewal/expansion readiness. A drop may signal value misalignment, poor CS engagement, or risk of churn. By segmenting by cohort — such as account size, tier, region, or CSM — you uncover insights to refine QBR cadences, content formats, and outreach playbooks.

QBR Engagement Rate informs:

Strategic decisions, like account prioritization and health scoring
Tactical actions, such as customizing QBR decks, updating timing, or shifting to async touchpoints
Operational improvements, including CS bandwidth allocation and lifecycle touch modeling
Cross-functional alignment, by connecting signals across CS, sales, PMM, and RevOps to support expansion and retention strategy

Key Drivers¶

These are the main factors that directly impact the metric. Understanding these lets you know what levers you can pull to improve the outcome

Customer Maturity and Strategic Fit: Engaged, expanding customers tend to value QBRs more than transactional ones.
Value Framing and Agenda Clarity: If QBRs are generic or one-sided, customers skip them.
Timing and Preparation Quality: Late scheduling, clunky decks, or unclear goals lower attendance.

Improvement Tactics & Quick Wins¶

Actionable ideas to optimize this KPI, from fast, low-effort wins to strategic initiatives that drive measurable impact.

If QBR attendance is weak, send a teaser email summarizing key metrics and ROI before the invite.
Add a custom agenda builder — let customers co-own the conversation.
Run a test offering QBRs as short “executive syncs” instead of hour-long deep dives.
Refine CS training to focus on outcomes, not check-ins.
Partner with product to include roadmap previews or sneak peeks as part of QBRs.

Required Datapoints to calculate the metric
- Eligible Accounts for QBR (based on tier, revenue, or renewal stage)
- Accounts That Participated in QBRs (live or async, with criteria defined)
- Tracking Period (quarterly or rolling)
Example to show how the metric is derived

60 enterprise accounts due for QBR in Q1 42 completed a QBR Formula: 42 ÷ 60 = 70% QBR Engagement Rate

Formula¶

Formula

\[ \mathrm{QBR\ Engagement\ Rate} = \left( \frac{\mathrm{Participating\ Accounts}}{\mathrm{Eligible\ Accounts}} \right) \times 100 \]

Data Model Definition¶

How this KPI is structured in Cube.js, including its key measures, dimensions, and calculation logic for consistent reporting.

QbrEngagement

cube(`QbrEngagement`, {
  sql: `SELECT * FROM qbr_engagements`,

  joins: {
    Accounts: {
      relationship: `belongsTo`,
      sql: `${QbrEngagement}.account_id = ${Accounts}.id`
    }
  },

  measures: {
    eligibleAccounts: {
      sql: `eligible_accounts`,
      type: `sum`,
      title: `Eligible Accounts for QBR`,
      description: `Total number of accounts eligible for QBRs based on tier, revenue, or renewal stage.`
    },

    participatedAccounts: {
      sql: `participated_accounts`,
      type: `sum`,
      title: `Accounts That Participated in QBRs`,
      description: `Total number of accounts that attended, completed, or meaningfully participated in QBRs.`
    },

    engagementRate: {
      sql: `100.0 * ${participatedAccounts} / NULLIF(${eligibleAccounts}, 0)`,
      type: `number`,
      title: `QBR Engagement Rate`,
      description: `Percentage of eligible accounts that participated in QBRs.`
    }
  },

  dimensions: {
    id: {
      sql: `id`,
      type: `string`,
      primaryKey: true,
      title: `ID`,
      description: `Unique identifier for each QBR engagement record.`
    },

    accountId: {
      sql: `account_id`,
      type: `string`,
      title: `Account ID`,
      description: `Identifier for the account associated with the QBR engagement.`
    },

    trackingPeriod: {
      sql: `tracking_period`,
      type: `time`,
      title: `Tracking Period`,
      description: `The period over which the QBR engagement is tracked, either quarterly or rolling.`
    }
  }
})

Note: This is a reference implementation and should be used as a starting point. You’ll need to adapt it to match your own data model and schema

Positive & Negative Influences¶

Negative influences

Factors that drive the metric in an undesirable direction, often signaling risk or decline.
- Generic QBR Content: QBRs that lack customization and relevance to the customer's specific situation lead to decreased engagement.
- Poor Scheduling Practices: Last-minute scheduling or inconvenient timing for QBRs results in lower attendance rates.
- Lack of Clear Objectives: QBRs without clear goals or outcomes discourage customer participation as they perceive them as a waste of time.
- Inadequate Follow-Up: Failure to follow up on action items from previous QBRs diminishes perceived value and reduces future engagement.
- Transactional Customer Relationships: Customers with purely transactional relationships are less likely to see the value in QBRs, leading to lower engagement rates.
Positive influences

Factors that push the metric in a favorable direction, supporting growth or improvement.
- Customer Maturity and Strategic Fit: Engaged and strategically aligned customers are more likely to attend and participate in QBRs, as they see value in the discussions and outcomes.
- Value Framing and Agenda Clarity: Clear and well-framed agendas that address customer-specific needs increase the likelihood of attendance and meaningful participation.
- Timing and Preparation Quality: Well-prepared and timely scheduled QBRs with clear goals enhance engagement rates by ensuring relevance and convenience for the customer.
- Customer Success Manager (CSM) Relationship Strength: Strong relationships between CSMs and customers foster trust and encourage participation in QBRs.
- Post-Sale Support Effectiveness: Effective post-sale support reassures customers of ongoing value, making them more inclined to engage in QBRs.

Involved Roles & Activities¶

Involved Roles

These roles are typically responsible for implementing or monitoring this KPI:

Account Management
Customer Success
Product Marketing (PMM)
Revenue Operations
Sales Manager
Activities

Common initiatives or actions associated with this KPI:

Renewal Management
Account Health Monitoring
Expansion Strategy
Success Planning

Funnel Stage & Type¶

AAARRR Funnel Stage

This KPI is associated with the following stages in the AAARRR (Pirate Metrics) funnel:

Retention
Revenue
Type

This KPI is classified as a Lagging Indicator. It reflects the results of past actions or behaviors and is used to validate performance or assess the impact of previous strategies.

Supporting Leading & Lagging Metrics¶

Leading

These leading indicators influence this KPI and act as early signals that forecast future changes in this KPI.
- Product Qualified Accounts: Product Qualified Accounts (PQAs) indicate accounts demonstrating strong product engagement and readiness for expansion or renewal discussions. High PQA levels often forecast increased QBR Engagement Rate, as these accounts are more likely to participate in strategic reviews to explore business alignment and future opportunities.
- Customer Loyalty: Customer Loyalty reflects the likelihood of customers maintaining long-term, positive relationships. Strong loyalty signals higher engagement in QBRs, as loyal customers are more interested in collaborative planning and maximizing value from their partnership.
- Activation Rate: A high Activation Rate, where users reach initial value milestones, often leads to greater engagement in QBRs. Activated accounts are more likely to see the value in participating in strategic business reviews and aligning on goals.
- Monthly Active Users: Monthly Active Users (MAU) measures ongoing user engagement. Accounts with high MAU are more engaged overall and thus more likely to participate in QBRs, as their frequent product use makes business alignment discussions more relevant and impactful.
- Deal Velocity: Deal Velocity, or the speed at which deals progress, can signal account momentum and interest. Accounts with faster deal velocity are often more engaged and receptive to QBRs, viewing them as opportunities to accelerate value realization and expansion.
Lagging

These lagging indicators confirm, quantify, or amplify this KPI and help explain the broader business impact on this KPI after the fact.
- Customer Engagement Score: Customer Engagement Score quantifies how actively customers interact with the product. High engagement scores often confirm and amplify high QBR Engagement Rates, indicating that business reviews are effective touchpoints for fostering deeper relationships.
- Contract Renewal Rate: Contract Renewal Rate reflects the percentage of accounts renewing their contracts. High QBR Engagement Rate often leads to, and is validated by, strong renewal rates, suggesting that strategic alignment discussions during QBRs drive customer retention.
- Churn Risk Score: Churn Risk Score estimates the likelihood of customer loss. QBR Engagement Rate helps explain or mitigate churn risk, with low QBR engagement often preceding higher churn risk, thus confirming the downstream impact of QBR participation.
- Expansion Revenue Growth Rate: Expansion Revenue Growth Rate measures upsell/cross-sell success in existing accounts. High QBR Engagement Rate is often followed by increased expansion revenue, confirming that strategic business reviews contribute to account growth.
- Customer Downgrade Rate: Customer Downgrade Rate indicates the proportion of accounts reducing their subscription value. A drop in QBR Engagement Rate can precede or explain increases in downgrade activity, serving as a lagging indicator of declining relationship health.