I was struck by a LinkedIn post with the opening line: “Microsoft just made QBR prep obsolete. And CSMs everywhere should be celebrating.” The rest of the article talked about how Microsoft has integrated AI into it’s products, eliminating all the work needed to prepare the charts for a QBR.
And there is post after post, outlining the same principles. We no longer have to do pre-call research and prep, there are AI tools that do all of it for us, presenting us the call plan a few minutes before we make the call. Or after the call, we no longer have to think about what happened and what we do next. AI analyzes the transcript, gives us the conversational intelligence data and summarizes the agreed upon action plans.
I could go on, we are leveraging AI in everything to do the work—and our thinking for us.
Using the QBR example, we forget the real value of the QBR is the thinking, analysis, creativity required to develop the slides. It requires us to dive deep into anomalies, re-check our assumptions. It requires us to think, “Why is this happening? Are we missing something? What should we change? How do we leverage this and move forward?” It requires us to make judgments based on what we are understanding. To do these well, we have to have a deep understanding of the business.
Sometimes we learn a lot in the effort to find and validate the data. We learn a lot in looking at the data, scratching our heads, trying to figure out what it means. Or going further, thinking about what caused it. And then, thinking about what do do about it.
We get information about changes in our customers, their markets, new opportunities or problems. But the data, information, even AI generated recommendations don’t help in understanding what it means–to us, to our customers. It’s reflecting on this, leveraging curiosity/creativity, that gives us ideas on what to do.
Through all of this, we are making judgments. These are not based on just the charts and data presented, but the understanding that underlies these. The understanding we develop in creating the QBR presentation. What we have learned, what ideas we have developed, what ideas we have discarded, to determine what is critical and how to use it.
Dwight Eisenhower is quoted as saying, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
What do we lose when we let AI do all our thinking and preparation? While AI can prepare a fantastic deck, what’s really important is what’s not on the slides. While AI can do outstanding call analysis, it can’t read between the lines of what was actually happening in the conversation. While it can help us with the call prep or develop the deal strategy, it can’t provide the intuition built on years of experience in doing the work. It can’t provide the context the data can never capture. It can’t help us understand what’s really happening and why.
But there is a deeper danger in how we use AI. If it does as good or better than we can do, then it exposes what we aren’t doing. It show how through If all we have been doing is going through the same motions AI can do–only better, faster, and cheaper, then what role do we play? Are we even needed?
In the sense of the QBR, the deck is never the point. The thinking that underlies the creation of the deck is.
Afterword: This is a fascinating AI based discussion of this post. It’s really well done, enjoy!
David, could not agree more, my Sales team is always asking about how we incorporate AI into what we do to make things “easier”. Now, I have a young sales team and my focus with them is understanding how to solve client problems and establishing a consistent process BEFORE we start looking at shortcuts.
Patrick, thanks for the great comment. We seem to live in a world where people are constantly looking for short cuts, or looking to avoid doing the work. But those that have the greatest impact and ability to connect in meaningful ways with customers consistently produce the best results. I love what you are doing to develop this within your teams.