Quarterly business reviews determine budget allocation for the following period. Department leaders who secured 61% budget increases in 2026 used QBR presentations that accomplished three goals: they demonstrated clear ROI from current investments, connected departmental performance to company objectives, and presented specific plans for deploying additional resources. The presentations that won budget battles showed that investment creates measurable value rather than just requesting more money.
How Should You Frame Current Performance?
Your performance section must connect activity metrics to business outcomes. Executives allocate budgets based on impact, not effort. Show how your department activities translated into results that matter at the company level.
Start with business impact metrics before discussing activity metrics. One marketing leader opened with: Marketing-sourced pipeline increased 42% quarter-over-quarter, contributing $18M in new opportunities. 35% of closed deals this quarter originated from marketing campaigns, up from 22% last quarter. This generated $4.2M in new bookings, representing 340% ROI on our quarterly marketing spend of $1.2M.
Present trends that show trajectory, not just point-in-time numbers. Executives want to see momentum. A customer success leader showed: Net revenue retention improved from 98% to 112% over the past four quarters. Customer churn decreased from 18% to 11% annually. Expansion revenue from existing customers grew from $200K to $450K quarterly. These trends demonstrate that our customer success investments are compounding over time.
Connect your metrics to company priorities explicitly. Show how departmental performance supports broader company goals. One product leader wrote: Our release velocity increased 60% this quarter, enabling us to ship 12 customer-requested features versus 7 last quarter. This directly supports our company goal of improving customer satisfaction scores, which increased from 7.2 to 8.4 following these releases. 80% of features shipped were top requests from enterprise customers representing 65% of our revenue.
- Business impact metrics with quarter-over-quarter comparison
- ROI calculation showing value created versus investment made
- Trend analysis demonstrating trajectory over multiple quarters
- Connection to company-level objectives and priorities
- Specific examples of high-impact wins or achievements
- Comparison to targets or benchmarks where relevant
What Investment Case Wins Budget Increases?
Your budget request must show specific returns from specific investments. Avoid vague requests for more resources to do more of the same. Present clear hypotheses about how additional investment creates measurable value.
Structure your request around specific initiatives with projected outcomes. One sales leader presented: Requesting $180K quarterly increase to add two sales development reps. Based on current SDR productivity of 60 qualified meetings per quarter per rep, this adds 120 qualified meetings. At our 25% close rate and $45K average deal size, this generates $1.35M in new bookings quarterly, or 7.5x ROI within the quarter.
Show the constraint that additional investment removes. Explain what you cannot do today that limits performance. A product leader argued: Our current engineering capacity limits us to 8 feature releases quarterly. Customer demand and competitive pressure require 12 to 15 releases quarterly to maintain our position. Adding three engineers at $250K total quarterly cost increases capacity to 14 releases, enabling us to address the enterprise feature gaps that have stalled $2.8M in pipeline.
Present alternatives with different investment levels and returns. Give executives choices rather than take-it-or-leave-it proposals. One marketing leader offered three tiers: Baseline increase of $50K quarterly adds content marketing capacity, projected to generate $600K in pipeline. Growth increase of $120K quarterly adds field events, projected to generate $1.4M in pipeline. Aggressive increase of $250K quarterly adds account-based marketing program, projected to generate $3.2M in pipeline focused on enterprise segment.
How Do You Address Risks and Alternatives?
Executives appreciate leaders who think about trade-offs and risks honestly. Your QBR should acknowledge what could go wrong with your plans and explain how you would mitigate those risks or adapt if assumptions prove incorrect.
Identify the key assumptions underlying your projections. Show that you have thought through what must be true for your plan to work. One operations leader stated: This plan assumes we can recruit qualified candidates within 60 days. Recruiting market is competitive, particularly for specialized roles. We have mitigated this risk by pre-qualifying 12 candidates through our network and offering compensation at 75th percentile for the market.
Present what you would do if you do not receive the budget increase. Show how constrained resources force difficult trade-offs. A customer success leader explained: Without additional headcount, we must prioritize our top 50 accounts representing 70% of revenue and provide limited service to our 150 smaller accounts. This likely results in increased churn among smaller customers, potentially costing $400K in annual recurring revenue. We believe investing $300K in two additional CSMs to serve these accounts properly is more economical than accepting the churn.
Address potential concerns proactively. If executives might question whether you can effectively deploy additional resources, show evidence of successful scaling. One marketing leader included: We scaled from 3 to 7 marketers over the past year while maintaining or improving efficiency metrics. Cost per lead decreased 22% and cost per opportunity decreased 18% during this growth period, demonstrating we can scale effectively.
What Presentation Style Wins Executives Over?
Your QBR presentation must respect executive time while providing depth for questions. Structure slides to communicate key points visually with supporting detail in notes or appendix.
Use visualizations that make trends immediately clear. Replace tables of numbers with simple line charts showing trajectory. One sales leader used a single chart showing pipeline growth trend over eight quarters with a projection line showing expected growth with additional investment. This visual told the story more effectively than spreadsheets.
Tell stories with specific examples alongside aggregate data. Executives remember concrete examples more than statistics. A product leader shared: One enterprise customer told us they nearly switched to a competitor because we lacked API rate limiting controls. We prioritized this feature and shipped it in 3 weeks. The customer renewed their $180K annual contract and expanded to two additional divisions. This example illustrates why engineering velocity directly impacts revenue retention.
Practice brevity in your main presentation while preparing deep answers for questions. Plan for 15 to 20 minutes of presentation with 10 to 15 minutes for questions. Include detailed appendix slides covering methodology, assumptions, and supporting analysis for executives who want to dig deeper.
What Should You Do Next?
Build your QBR around business impact metrics that connect your department performance to company objectives. Show clear ROI from current investments before requesting additional budget. Present specific investment requests with projected returns, not vague pleas for more resources.
Address risks and alternatives honestly. Show that you have thought through trade-offs and contingencies. When executives see that you think strategically about resource allocation, they trust you with larger budgets.
The QBR presentations that secured 61% budget increases in 2026 all demonstrated clear value creation, strategic thinking about resource deployment, and specific plans with measurable expected returns. Department leaders who mastered this format consistently won budget battles. Use River's AI writing platform to help structure your QBR narrative and refine the story that connects your department's performance to business outcomes, making the case for increased investment based on demonstrated ROI and strategic opportunity.