1. ALIGN

Align the strategic goals of the organization with the Customer Advisory Board (CAB):

·         Interview executive stakeholders to understand how a CAB aligns with the corporation’s strategic goals - sales, marketing, services and product development will undoubtedly have very different opinions as to what they can get out of the Customer Advsory Council

·         Educate stakeholders in value (TCO and ROI of a CAB) and their critical role in its success - see our ROI calculator and research at http://www.customeradvisoryboard.org/Research.html

·         Explain the success other companies have had with CAB’s and how sales reps will do anything to get their customers into a CAB because it increases customer loyalty over time

·         Invite executives to consider the impact to their business from referrals, if as a result of the CAB, each CAB member were to refer others, just like them, to your organization

·         Set expectation of a conversational and transparent experience among CAB members and executive stakeholders

·         Consider “what’s in it for me” in developing a mutually beneficial Charter for your corporation and your customers. A sample CAB Charter is available at http://www.customeradvisoryboard.org/Research.html    

·         Get individual buy-in from all executive stakeholders on the Charter

·         Develop metrics to measure Customer Advisory Group success at achieving strategic goals. Here’s an example, the full version is available at:

   http://www.customeradvisoryboard.org/Research.html    

 

2. DESIGN

2.1  Member Identification

·         Identify Target Corporations:

o    Target companies that are representative of the type of business you wish to nurture or acquire

o    Consider cultural fit as well - what’s important - are the target corporations innovative, early adopters, collaborative?

·         Identify Individuals:

o    Identify key attributes of individuals to meet your strategic objectives; title, openness to new ideas, access to industry network, committee membership, ability to influence internally/externally, internal decision making power, budget authority, length of experience as a customer

o    Consider board composition in terms of discipline and authority level – do you want a C level marketing CAB or an IT Director CAB, mixing authorities and disciplines may not be effective

·         Look for individuals through social media if relevant – identify customers who are your most vocal brand ambassadors in blogs and discussion forums

2.2  Member Recruitment

·         Set goals - most CAB’s are between 10-20 people, so if you set a target of 15 people with a 75% acceptance rate for your invitation, you’ll need to invite at least 20 people initially

·         Expect to always be trying to fill one seat on the CAB due to people moving on or being unable to continue to commit for some reason

·         Match candidates to the right person from your corporation to extend a personal invitation to participate

·         Create an internal flyer to educate the sales and customer support teams on the new CAB program, how they can get involved and what it means for them

·         Create materials to help candidates accept the invitation:

o    Charter (detailing the strategy and objectives of the CAB defined above) – see our example at http://www.customeradvisoryboard.org/Research.html

o    Expectation of commitment required

o    Legal disclaimer or an abbreviated mutual NDA – this needs to be simple to avoid pushback, see our example at: http://www.customeradvisoryboard.org/Research.html

o    Clear benefits statement (What’s in it for me?):

§  Network with peers to learn and share best practices

§  Identify new market opportunities

§  Access to executives and industry thought leaders

§  Influence New Product Developments to create competitive advantages (see an example Invitation Letter in our research library at http://www.customeradvisoryboard.org/Research.html)