Customer Advisory Boards: Expense or Investment?

Actually, it’s all up to you. You get to choose. So then … does knowing that make you feel empowered … or is it already causing you some anxiety?

I have had the opportunity to observe firsthand both situations and know beyond a shadow of doubt that customer advisory boards can be the sharpest tool in any B2B company’s tool belt.

You can choose to make the most of what has got to be the smartest use of exclusive resources, or you can simply put together a meeting and check it off your to-do list.

A lot of the research-based market insight you acquire is also available to every one of your competitors. Wouldn’t you rather make strategic decisions based on valuable insight gained from your most important customers—those few that probably make up most of your revenue—who probably hold the life of your business in their hands?

Checkpoint:

Are you thinking about starting a customer advisory board?

If your answer is yes, congratulations! You can be on your way to making a valuable and long-term contribution to your company. If your answer is no, shame on you! This could be your best chance of becoming a rock star at your organization.

Do you already have a customer advisory board

If your answer is yes, how much time, thought and energy are you putting into planning the content for the meetings? Where on your list does this to-do fall? Is it a high or low priority compared to all your other deliverables? Are you feverishly running nowhere like a hamster on a wheel? Are you worried about how much of your budget you are using? Or are you confidently moving forward, adding value every day to your organization?

Regardless of which group you are in, keep in mind that every day what you do with this deliverable will either make you look like a smart investor of precious resources, or perhaps … a coward … if you do nothing at all.

By making the board a strategic initiative, a marketer looks like a rock star and earns recognition with senior leadership. Otherwise, it just becomes a budget item that gets looked at often enough to eventually get cut.

So then … investment or expense? You choose. MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE AND BE A STAR.