The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) is a center of excellence in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State that is dedicated to expanding academic research and teaching in B2B Marketing 
and Sales, and improving the practice of B2B Marketing and Sales in Industry. ISBM is networked with researchers, educators and practitioners in business-to-business marketing in companies and universities throughout the world.
Please join the ISBM and National Bestselling Author Sean Geehan for a special webinar event:
Dominating the B2B World: Sustainable, Predictable and Profitable Growth on March 22, 2012 at 1pm EST
In this webinar, Sean Geehan Author of the B2B Executive Playbook will illustrates the three key differences in the B2B world along with what to do about them. B2B companies aren’t like B2C companies. They don’t acquire and retain customers with Super Bowl ads, Twitter accounts, or cute, little green geckos. To achieve sustainable, predictable, and profitable growth, you MUST follow a different playbook.
What is a Customer Advisory Board?
A Customer Advisory Board, also known as Customer Advisory Council, is a gathering of group of customers once or twice a year to provide a collective input about products or services offered by a company that they currently do business with.
What is the Goal of a Customer Advisory Board?
The main goal of a Customer Advisory Board is to obtain input on products and services from your most valuable customers. Customer Advisory Boards are incredibly useful in both B2B and B2C organizations because input gathered from these meetings can provide product validation and insight in the reception your product or services.
What is the Benefit of a Customer Advisory Board?
Customer Advisory Boards often yield priceless feedback for companies looking for methods to improve themselves, their strategy and, their customer retention. Companies can synchronize technology and business strategies according to the needs of the customers expressed through customer advisory boards.
I recently sat down with a well respected former CMO (now President), and had a great conversation about the important role Marketing plays in a B2B company. He made a very bold statement,
“Marketing is the Center of Universe.” Someone might argue that, I am biased because I hold a role in marketing, but I believe this statement to be very true. If you don’t, you should and here’s why:
Marketing is the common thread that weaves throughout all other business units in every B2B company. Marketing holds the potential to unleash predictable, profitable growth for your company. When Marketing is utilized to its fullest potential, it can be the driver for customer retention and increased sales, while at the same time creating executive alignment and focused strategic innovation.
How can Marketing do all this? Because Marketing is the
“Center of the Universe”! Author Sean Geehan discusses all of the marketing programs and initiatives driven by Marketing to achieve sustainable, predictable, profitable growth in his
national best seller,
The B2B Executive Playbook. Once you read this book, I would wager a bet, that you will believe that Marketing is the "Center of the Universe" too!
Gary Vastola, Vice President of Field Marketing & Service Support from Xerox and I participated in a Whale Hunters Expert Series call last week. The call and discussion was focused around the common challenges companies faced as they closed out 2011; flat sales, retention, and customer satisfaction issues. 
As we kick off the New Year companies want to turn the tide towards exponential growth. The quickest way to achieve exponential growth is by focusing on your most important customers at a decision maker level. That sounds so simple but so many companies become distracted trying to do that with all their existing customers. The truth is that all customers are all not worthy of that type of attention and resources. As we all know, if you don’t prioritize your efforts than the efforts get diluted and so do the results.
Once you have focused on your most important customers at a decision maker level, the next question is what do you do with them? The days of “howdy calls” are over. You remember those days, an executive comes in to visit one of your important customers and basically the executive takes them to breakfast, lunch or dinner or meets in their office to introduce themselves and talk about sports and something else that is meaningless. The executive leaves and the customer executive is thinking nice guy, but I don’t have time to waste doing that again. One way to engage your decision makers in a meaningful valuable way is through an Executive Sponsor Program (ESP). An ESP is that one on one relationship (executive to executive) that is outside of any sales transaction. When launched well, the results are undeniable.
During a recent meeting with a prospective client, conversation turned to the need for a professional facilitator for an upcoming advisory board meeting. He was considering having a member of his leadership team play that role and wanted to know what we thought. In some ways, having an internal facilitator is a good idea. He/she may be a subject matter expert and may already have some level of relationship with advisory board members. But it’s risky. There is much more to gain from bringing in a professional facilitator from outside the company.
Sure, anyone can run a meeting. But running a meeting well and in such a way that uncovers key insights is a whole other issue! Remember, advisory board members are your top clients. Every meeting with them should be executed flawlessly. Every interaction should be well-structured to deliver rich insight and focused dialogue. Every moment should be well spent. This is not a time or place for an amateur!
We would all like to think that advisory board members will come to meetings well prepared, eager to participate, and ready to function like a team. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Your members are busy executives who still have major responsibilities back home. And as much as we provide them with information on how to participate most effectively (see Tips for Advisory Board Members below), they may still come into the meeting ill prepared. They may be hesitant to voice their opinions or need to step out for a conference call. They may arrive late and leave early. They may stray from the topic, be disruptive, negative or overly emotional. When dysfunctions like these happen, as they surely will, you will want an unbiased, skilled facilitator who can prevent and/or diffuse what could be an uncomfortable situation. After all, professional facilitators have the necessary skills and are prepared to manage dysfunction.
So if you’re considering having a team member facilitate your upcoming advisory board meeting, think again. Is it really worth the risk?
Tips for Advisory Board Members - Read ALL materials prior to the event. Write questions in the margins. Highlight key ideas, areas you don’t agree with, and points that concern you. Review and scan to stay fresh.
- Make an effort to meet everyone prior to the meeting session, especially if there is an opening reception. Meeting your peers prior to the meeting helps the meeting itself move along more quickly.
- Be brief and concise with your comments so conversation keeps moving and everyone can have an opportunity to contribute.
- Ask questions that bring out depth behind the comments.
- When possible, try to remain for and participate in optional social activities. Getting to know fellow members helps for in-session success.
- Constructive criticism is welcome. Even greater value is gained when a solution is offered for host consideration.
- The host organization asked you to be on the Advisory Board because you impressed someone with your talent and insight. Leveraging your customer status will diminish your credibility and frustrates your fellow Advisory Board Members.
- Stay engaged throughout the meeting. You would be surprised what information you can learn, relationships you can forge, and influence you can extend during refreshment breaks.
- On occasion, some have found their emotions taking over. In those instances, take a mental break. You can always reach out to the facilitator at a break. He/she may be able to help guide the conversation more appropriately to avoid an uncomfortable situation.
Powered by Compendium