How To Create A Powerful Customer Advisory Board That Delivers Competitive Advantage

Simply put, your CAB is tasked with making you better at doing what you do. It’s a commitment on both sides that provides plenty of WIIFM for customers (that’s for another discussion that we’d love to have with you) while providing several tangible business benefits you won’t get anywhere else:

Ongoing candid feedback and insight into product, delivery/implementation, support, marketing, sales, and even business strategy
Product roadmap guidance and input based on customer evolving needs and plans
Buyer insights into business strategy, business operations, customer operations, and overall competitiveness
Baked-in brand champions

While the benefits of a Customer Advisory Board can be transformative, many companies don’t know how or where to begin organizing it or don’t have the time, resources or wherewithal.

Below are several questions to think through that can help you to start organizing how you approach forming a Customer Advisory Board. While these are examples of the key considerations (there are about 20) it gives you an idea of how the answers can help to shape a plan.

It’s not difficult but does require some effort and a thoughtful process.

And that’s why we’re here! We are happy to help think through the various aspects.

Strategy

What do want from the CAB?
What business issues will we ask them to address?

Recruitment

What are the key characteristics, relevant experience, job level and other variables you want to be on the customer Board of Directors?
What is the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)?

Meeting Management

Who will plan and manage meetings?
Who attends from the company?
How often will we have meetings ( in-person & virtual)?

Communication

Who will be accountable for members' follow-up and closing the loop?
Who will be responsible for internal communication to address takeaways and next steps?

Hope this is useful. Let us know if we can help you organize a Customer Advisory Board.