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!

Have you given your Advisory Council member roster a good, long look recently?  I am not talking about just looking at the number of members, but really analyzing the level of engagement from each member.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with realizing there are members on your Advisory Council who may have passed their prime or just no longer fit your Council's profile.  As such, it is important to review membership engagement on an annual basis.  These are just a few areas I recommend you consider when reviewing the level of engagement from each Advisory Council member:

1. Attendance and level of participation in Advisory Council functions, such as regular Council meetings and interim conference calls.
2. Willingness to be an advocate for your company or provide a referral.
3. The member continues to provide a perspective relevant to the strategic direction of your company.

In order to drive sustainable, predictable, and profitable growth, you must gain the level of insight only fully engaged customer decision makers can offer. Ensure your Advisory Council is providing that direction by evaluating each member's level of engagement.

Two weeks ago, I attended a breakfast briefing hosted by Sinclair Community College, Street Smart Secrets for Change Management, where Jeff Cole, co-author of Driving Operational Excellence, shared nine tips for changing behavior throughout an organization. I found it intriguing. In less than 90-minutes, Jeff managed to get me thinking differently about how customer advisory boards impact an organization.

I’ve seen first-hand how customer advisory boards provide market/leadership team alignment, strategic insight, and marketing direction, and that they lead to improved sales, customer retention, and product innovation. I’ve also known them to lead to sustainable, predictable and profitable growth (SPPG), as outlined in Sean Geehan’s book, The B2B Executive Playbook. So I know how customer advisory boards can truly impact an organization. I did not however, consciously realize that an organization’s inherent resistance to change can make that transformational impact that much more difficult.

To achieve truly impactful results, consider the following when developing your advisory board.

• Done right, an Advisory Board is synonymous with continuous improvement and can be transformational.
• An Advisory Board implies that change is about to happen. After all, that’s why you are investing in it! You see the need for change (a new direction, increased sales, improved relationships, etc.) and realize that your customers can provide you with the guidance you need to make it happen.
• Stakeholders inherently resist change, so communicate progress early and often.
• Culture impacts an organization’s ability to change, so build a tolerance for ongoing change into your corporate strategy. 
• Change doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time and requires a certain set of skills, so designate a change agent/architect to manage the process.    

As you can see, I had a few “Aha” moments during Jeff’s presentation. So much so, in fact, that I immediately ran out and got myself an early Christmas present! I’ve barely finished the Introduction, but it’s already proving to be a good read and I’m anxious to move on to subsequent chapters. Look out chapter one; here I come!

P.S. If you would like to read along and discuss as we go, let me know! 

 

As a business leader, how do you know if your Customer Advisory Council is yielding you the strategic results it should?   

An Advisory Council is a huge opportunity to gain insight on your strategic, marketing, sales, services, product and merger/acquisition opportunities.  This insight when executed properly yields companies Sustainable, Predictable, Profitable Growth.

If you are not getting this level of insight and results, you need to look at how you started the process.  I recently observed an advisory council meeting where the executives felt that their advisory council meetings were getting stale.   We did an assessment and discovered several things:

• Internal Alignment – Executive internal alignment was lacking. The Executives each had different ideas of why they had an advisory council and the results it should yield.  The result was the executives treated this like an event that happens twice a year
• Company Priorities - When we evaluated this meeting as well as went back to their first meeting, we identified that the agenda’s never tied back to the company priorities.
• Decision Maker Mix - They had technical and business leaders on their council – The decisions will always go to the lowest common denominator, which in their case went to technical discussions.

Based on what we identified, it was not surprising that the executives felt the advisory council was getting stale.     They were completely missing a huge opportunity to help them continue to transform their business to achieve the high growth they desire.

First of all, the executive team needs to understand the value that a decision maker council can have on your business.  Once you have alignment there, you need to look your planning process.   The executive team should look at their business priorities and align the agenda to drive outcomes that fit into those priorities.   Finally, once you have alignment, you have mapped this to your company priorities, it will become very clear who would be the right type of decision maker on your council.

Navigating Growth & Transformation

The B2B Executive Summit is designed and reserved exclusively for executives (VP & higher) who are plotting a course to future success. Whether you are contemplating the journey or already immersed in it, the B2B Executive Summit will provide you with fresh insights and guidance to help you along the way. 

Join other B2B leaders from companies like VMWare, Wells Fargo, Canaan, HCL, Oracle, Savvis, NCR, VeriSign, Xerox and Standard Register.  Learn from their experience how customers are helping them transform and re-design their organizations to achieve sustainable, predictable and profitable growth.

This year’s event will be held at the Grove Isle Hotel & Spa in Coconut Grove, Florida. Spaces are filling up quickly as there are a limited number of registrants available for this exclusive event. To receive registration information and your personal invitation, please send detailed contact information including; name, title, company name, and email address to: Misty Strawser: mstrawser@geehangroup.com.

Here are a few quotes from last year’s attendees:

Neal Polachek, CEO, Kelsey Group
“Few conferences – large or small – offer attendees both the opportunity to engage and interact and the provocation to stretch and explore. Geehan’s event in Phoenix provided this unique mix and forced the attendee to ponder all aspects of their enterprise – from how they work with their best customers, to the pace of innovation, to the business partners they ally to the role of the board. I look forward to attending another Geehan Group event!”

Joe Morgan, CEO, Standard Register
"When you can get executives of the quality you had from such a variety of industries who are working on really big and important things for their own companies to be that attentive for two days, talking about issues facing their business, you must have really, really rich content. For them to sit and actively participate, adding value to one another, and then have tremendous follow-up afterward where people want to continue the dialogue and actually impact each other’s businesses relationships and development, that for me is a real benefit. I’ve already heard from four people and it’s only been 3 days since the Summit. That’s rare. You created a dynamic environment where people expect they’re going to stay in touch."