A quarterly business report, as we have mentioned, touches on the relationship between a business and its customers. Similar to customer management, the report aims to provide a look into the past quarter’s business performance, and how the performance impacts the customers or the stakeholders. It shows what went well, what went wrong, and what needs to be improved opportunities and aspects. A quarterly business report, again, has to be flexible to meet the purpose of why the report is to be made and presented in the first place. Although there are no strict formats in creating a business report (not unless one has been given), to be effective, the report should at least contain the following essential elements. 1. Business Overview Similar to an executive summary, a business overview provides the reader with background information about the business, what it does and how long it has been in existence. It also provides what are the business’s goals, KPIs, and objectives, and a summary or an outline of what were the steps taken to achieve those goals, KPIs, and objectives. Oftentimes, the business overview contains the mission and vision statement. The mission statement described what is the purpose or reason for the creation of a quarterly business report, in this case, to strengthen or further improve customer relationships. The vision statement states what the business hopes to achieve with its customer relationship, usually in a given time frame. 2. Performance Review This section delves deeply into the business’s sales and marketing performance from the past quarter. For the sales performance, it assesses the sales planning and sales strategies that were implemented to help accumulate sales revenue. The sales performance is often presented as what were the sales goals, what were the sales strategies implemented to achieve those goals, and what were the results. It also emphasizes the sales achievement and sales challenges that were met along the way. The marketing performance review touches on how well the marketing team positions the business in the market and attracts potential customers, and converts them into buying customers. It provides detail on what were the marketing strategies used, the impacts of their branding concept, and the conversion rate of potential customers and customers who are loyal to a different brand. Another part of the performance review can also do a competitor analysis, just like doing a market analysis. Competitor analysis is all about who your competitors are during the past quarter, who were the strongest competitors so that this can help you also to analyze current market trends and see opportunities for growth. 3. Financial Review A financial review, similar to a financial planning statement, presents the overall financial condition and outlook of the business. It first presents the capital budget or fundings used in the quarter, goes into what were the related costs and expenses that occurred during the quarter, and then shows what were the sales revenues. Since this report is focused primarily on business-customer or stakeholder relationships, the costs and expenses shown are those that took place during the implementation of the sales and marketing strategies, as well as how much revenue did the company earned per strategy. A financial review can also contain a cash flow statement and a balance sheet. The cash flow statement shows the amount of money coming in and out of the company, while the balance sheet reflects the business assets, liabilities, as well as stakeholders’ investments. The financial review section is a critical part of a quarterly business report since this section will help your customers or stakeholders determine if doing business with you is still feasible or not. 4. Future Plans & Programs Your customers or investors would like to be reassured that the business is doing everything it can to value their inputs to the company. Hence, a business should always be prepared with plans and programs, either to improve existing strategies or to continue and enhance existing business practices. New plans and programs should be created taking a cue from the past quarter’s performance and strategies. To effectively create new plans, following a SMART goal method is advisable. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A plan should be specific, which means it is identifiable and concise. A plan should also be measurable, something that can be tracked or monitored. Achievable plans are attainable plans, not plans that are next to being mission-impossible planning. Relevant plans are appropriate and applicable to the current time and market, while a time-bound plan should set the tone of urgency for the action to be carried out by having a deadline to it. Note that when planning your new plans and programs, this also meant creating new goals and objectives for the next sales period which, in this case, is the next business quarter.