What is a Customer Advisory Board?

A customer advisory board is a business-level focus group – a sounding board for your CEO and executive team to test ideas and preview business plans with leaders from your most strategic customers. This representative group of customers (ideally 8 – 12) meets two to three times during the year to offer advice on your products and company direction. These facilitated meetings are a great way to validate that your company vision and product direction is in sync with your customers' technology and business plans.

Getting the best results from your Customer Advisory Board

The customer advisory board is an important part of any marketing plan and should be considered a must-have event for any business. Properly run customer advisory events are different from every other type of customer event. Here are a few tips on how to make yours successful.

1) Invite only your most strategic customers to participate.

An advisory board is made up of your best customers – those 20% who provide you with 80% of your revenue. By having a board comprised of the "20%" you not only find out how to get more customers like them but also how to keep them coming back. The main reason many boards fail is because they are made up of all types of customers, not just the 20% who make up the core of the business. In this improper case, the feedback is random and difficult to rationalize. But, avoid inviting competing customers within the same market segment, as competitors will be leery of discussing their challenges in front of one another.

2) The Customer Advisory Board is not a sales event.

Often times, sales management will want to treat the customer advisory board event as an extended sales event. Do not let this happen. There are other formats and events for sales reps to be directly involved with their customers, demo products, and negotiate deals. The customer advisory board is a business-level focus group designed to discuss, debate, and provide honest and direct insight and feedback on industry trends, business drivers, customer issues, and market opportunities that face your specific company. Treating the customer advisory board event as a thinly veiled sales event to a captive audience will be viewed as an unwelcome use of their time. They will likely not return to the next meeting.

3) Set the right agenda.

Begin with the end in mind: what vital information do you want to receive during the customer advisory board meeting? Be focused. Many times, companies try to force too much information into the CAB meeting, turning it into a five or six hour lecture from product managers with little time for discussions with customers. Instead, the best sessions are made up of 80% facilitated discussion between the customers, with the executive team politely listening.

4) Invest in a facilitator.

Customers often complain that customer advisory board sessions hosted by a company executive are highly biased as they overtly drive the customers to a seemingly apparent conclusion. Using a facilitator can help create an unbiased atmosphere and a safe environment for customers to voice their views and experiences.

5) Be prepared to act on the information you collect.

Although this is an input and feedback session, not a decision-making body, customers will be eager to know what actions you will take based on the discussion. It is therefore imperative those executives set an agenda that is sincere and that they are willing to entertain counter points of view.
The basic research rule applies: Don't research something that you're not willing to change.

Planning your Customer Advisory Board meeting

It’s never too early to start planning. Once you’ve set the strategy for using customer advisory board meetings as part of your overall marketing strategy, use your CEO and executive team to make the initial invitation to your best customers. Aim high, with expectations of getting senior decision makers to participate.
They are an important element of your overall business and marketing plan, providing invaluable insight into your customers and what makes them tick. And, actually asking them for this information builds loyalty and commitment from the board members. You now have a team of dedicated customers dealing with you regularly, keeping an eye on your business, and helping you keep an eye on your competitors.

Mike Gospe is Founder of the KickStart Alliance (www.kickstartall.com). Contact Mike Gospe at 650-464-7662 or mikeg@kickstartall.com to learn more about executing a customer advisory board meeting for your customers. Copyright © 2005