With the threat of downsizing looming around the heads of employees in any basic firm, the whole concept of ‘working smarter’ has become the lifeblood and sustenance of employees in a work place, given the demand of efficiency despite the sparse budget and abysmal headcount.

What are the best tips for Accelerating Sales

There are some ways in which you can efficiently cause accelerating sales which benefit your company and its employees. These include Customer Advisory Boards or Councils and Executive Summits

Customer Advisory Boards (CAB) or Counciils (CAC)

A Customer Advisory Board is a high-return, high-profile event that can heavily influence your company's competitive standing. A successful CAB provides a powerful format that turns customers into true advocates and provides executives with the information needed to align customer programs with company strategy. A formal Customer Advisory Board should be in your marketing and strategic arsenal.

Executive Summits

Executive Summits are one-time centralized or regional events – that bring key decision-makers together to preview a strategy, product or market innovation. Through these focused exchanges, customers become first-to-know, first-to-buy and first to advocate your solution in the marketplace.

Rob Urbanowicz, Principal at Geehan Group wil be presenting at the CFG October Round Table in San Francisco October 11-13, 2011.

Session Outline:
The expanding role of the B2B chief marketer requires a rare skill and level of business savvy that is far beyond the messaging and creativity of a brand marketer in the B2C space.  Advancing the role of the B2B marketer to a strategist, innovation catalyst, growth generator, customer loyalty advocate and business partner is the new norm.

We will explore how B2B companies are rebalancing marketing budgets and focusing on the programs and relationships that propel organizations to develop executable growth strategies.  Participants will share perspectives regarding their challenges in executing customer engagement programs that drive strategic value.  Sharing real situations, Rob Urbanowicz will speak to the examples and approaches where “Top Customer” programs have advanced organizations to:

• Engage your most valuable customers in highly relevant and meaningful ways to capture market insight, align your senior executives and deliver a market driven strategy
• Differentiate you from other providers while systematically building deeper relationships and account penetration
  

For more information regarding this event please contact: meetings@cfgglobal.com

I was listening to Sheryl Crow tunes Friday night with some friends as we were throwing back a few cocktails.  As she was jamming away we couldn’t help but echo a few of the lyrics.   The next morning one of her top singles “A change will do you good” kept ringing through my head… Great tune…

Then, as I sat down and sifted through some of my weekend reading I came across a CMO survey and article addressing B2B strategies that focused on 2011 initiatives. The article stated “After supporting too many random acts of Marketing in past years that did not effectively drive business forward …marketers are getting focused…” (BMA CMO Council Marketing Outlook 2011).

I found it interesting but not surprising that B2B Marketers that jump from marketing campaign to sales program to marketing campaign are finding that their results aren’t delivering value.

In the B2B space, where relationships are critical to success, change can be catastrophic.  So why would a B2B Marketer feel the need to change approaches?  Building relationships and loyalty with top accounts in the B2B world takes a long-term commitment to stick with the programs that work.  That’s why Springer has been so successful with their B2B customer advisory councils and executive summit programs. They've found a proven customer advocate program and executive engagement formula and have stuck with it year after year which in turn delivered results and sustainable, profitable growth.

Sometime’s change isn’t so good. Maybe we need to go back to Bob Seger…”It’s still the same…”

As the midyear approaches, have you taken a look at whether or not you are on track to reach your yearend sales goals? If you are behind or want to exceed your 2011 sales goals, now is the time to plan and execute an Executive Summit.

Benefits of Executive Summits include:
• Customers selling customers
• Executive contact with customers
• Accelerated sales cycles

Tom Webster from i-Trade Network was quoted: "By having customers talk about their solutions, it was exponentially more credible than presenting.  It was so real in content and a huge deal flow accelerator.  Those who attended this conference showed a close rate that was 300% higher than those who didn’t.   Time-to-close for this group was nearly cut in half as well, which was great for cash flow. “

An Executive Summit is a B2B Customer Program where your best customers become your true advocates with potential customers.  A properly designed and executed Executive Summit is a proven event that successfully drives and accelerates sales, and can be implemented across mulitiple industries.

There are many different names used to describe a Customer Advisory Board but the end goal of the Board, Council or Panel is ultimately the same. A Customer Advisory Board (CAB), Customer Advisory Council or Customer Advisory Panel are all terms used to describe a program that connects executives (decision makers) with current market conditions while simultaneously building relationships with their key customers.

Customer Advisory Boards create an environment where key customers or customer advocates can contribute and help drive internal alignment with your B2B Company Strategy and provide actionable feedback.  Professionally run and facilitated Customer Advisory Boards have proven to: