I recently spoke to a group of Banking Chief Marketing Officers at the CFG summit in San Francisco.  My compliments to Pat Scanlon who organizes the group to bring such a high quality program together.

I asked the group of B2B Marketing leaders to pair up and identify the biggest issues that they see in their respective organizations to build out customer engagement at the decision maker level.  The main challenge:  “Gaining executive buy-in”.

This issue is not new, and similar to other company initiatives and transformational programs whether you are implementing a new CRM system, putting your strategic plan in place or implementing a customer advisory board.  Gaining executive support is critical to success of any transformational program.  Here are three quick ways to gain executive buy in.

Show me the money
Customer advisory boards (or councils) and executive level customer programs will yield an increase in revenue from the accounts participating in the program.  Imagine if every customer on your advisory board would buy all the products that you offer and/or fit their business.  Experience tells us that revenues from advisory board members can increase anywhere from 10 -100% - a phenomenal ROI.

Make it easy for executives to engage with customers
Most executives are so busy that they don’t get a chance to engage with top customers.  A typical customer advisory board meeting allows them to engage with a dozen or so customers in a meaningful manner – all at once.  The customer advisory board can eliminate a dozen separate customer visit trips, making great use of executive time.

Make better decisions
All executives want to make better decisions, more quickly and more confidently.  Engaging customers to help validate key decisions will either provide executives with confidence in the decisions – or alter the course and set a clearer path for success. 

In my experience, when executives are presented the key benefits and ROI for a program – they will support the initiative.  The onus then moves to the implementer of the program to deliver the results.