Editorial
The Gist
- Drive revenue growth. Engaging customers through strong customer advisory board programs results in 24% higher revenues, highlighting customer engagement's role in strategic company growth.
- Secure executive support. Effective customer advisory board programs need full company backing and a committed executive sponsor to navigate challenges and guarantee success.
- Embrace transparency for insights. Customer advisory boards offer a forum for open discussions on shared challenges, enabling companies to gain valuable insights and strategically allocate resources.
Companies are recognizing the value and revenue benefits of engaging with their customers to help drive their company strategies, planning and growth. Studies show that companies with strong customer advisory board programs enjoy an average of 24% higher revenues than those firms without them, and 80% of executives say they would repeat their customer advisory board program if given the chance.
So while many companies are eager to initiate a customer advisory board program, it would be prudent for those leading the initiative to be sure they have the elements necessary to ensure their success before they begin. As such, based on our many years of experience helping Fortune 500 and small companies alike set up and manage such programs, here are five necessities your company needs to initiate a successful customer advisory board:
5 Essentials for Successful Customer Advisory Board Programs
1. Customer Relationships
While having customers to join your customer advisory board program seems obvious, there’s a bit more to it than just having a list. Your customers should be relatively experienced with your products — ideally even successful with them — and at least be familiar with your company. In addition, those identified for your customer advisory board should be senior leaders within their own organizations — ideally executive management — who have exposure to their own myriad operations. They don’t necessarily have to be actual users of your solutions, as customer advisory boards are not product user groups.
The best customer advisory board accounts are usually those with whom your company has an invested, successful relationship; they may even have published a case study about their success with your solution or have agreed to serve as a reference for your prospects.
Related Article: 5 Reasons You Need a Customer Advisory Board
2. Executive Commitment
As robust customer advisory board will require the participation of several departments within your organization (e.g., marketing, sales, product management, service/support, etc.), customer advisory boards programs should always be considered a companywide initiative. As such, your entire management team should be invested and supportive of the program — customer advisory boards are not “marketing experiments.”
In addition, a senior leader should be identified as the executive sponsor of the customer advisory board program, who will drive the initiative, gather the commitment of other department leaders, keep the executive team posted on progress, and be able to overcome any roadblocks that may be impeding progress.
Related Article: Looking Ahead: Top 5 Resolutions for Your 2023 Customer Advisory Board
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3. Proper Resources
Robust customer advisory boards need the proper resources in place from the start in order to ensure success. This includes the necessary personnel: in addition to a strong executive sponsor, a customer advisory board steering committee led by a seasoned customer advisory board manager and the commitment of other department personnel, including product management, account relationship managers, events, communications, etc., is needed. A budget should be in place to support an in-person meeting at a quality hotel that includes transportation, meals, social activities and even customer advisory board member giveaways.
Most importantly, a customer advisory board program should be allowed the necessary time to complete all the required steps and allow for planning and approvals, topic and content creation, meeting preparation and much more.
Related Article: Are Your Customer Advisory Board Meetings Worth the Travel?
4. Openness
Customer advisory boards offer companies the opportunity to address shared customer challenges and discuss their own plans, budget tradeoffs and, especially, the unknown. Customer advisory board members can help companies focus their resources, understand the competition and consider partnership and acquisition opportunities. That means companies should be open and honest with their customers about their challenges and limitations — and not feel the need to have all the answers and everything covered.
Companies should determine the goals and objectives of their customer advisory board programs and identify what they want to learn from their skilled and experienced customers — not just what they want to tell them.
Related Article: Engaging With Your Resellers: Top 5 Benefits of a Partner Advisory Board
5. Decisiveness
As customer advisory board planning progresses through the various stages — program formation, member recruitment, agenda topic creation, meeting planning, post-meeting actions to be taken, etc. — each stage requires decisions be made so progress on the next stage can begin. While the majority of companies we’ve worked with understand and excel at such decision making, others can be less sure, require agreement by consensus, legal approvals or take longer to agree to needed decisions that delay — or even bog down — program progress.
As customer advisory boards are often working toward an initially agreed-to timeline and meeting date, decision delays can cause later preparation steps to be squeezed and rushed, creating an inferior meeting experience for everyone involved — especially for (and noticeable by) your valued customers.
Final Thoughts
Customer advisory boards yield solid, quantifiable results for those companies that understand their value, commit to running strong programs and are open, honest and decisive when it comes to getting things done. Those companies considering undertaking a customer advisory board should consider each of these elements and honestly assess whether they are up to the challenge. As we always say, it’s best to do a customer advisory board program well — or consider not starting one at all.
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