The Process:

• Design and Development.  Based on your sales, marketing and product development goals, Ignite works with you to determine the best format and scope for your advisory board.  We then map out what the board looks like, set goals and objectives and more.

 

• Member Selection and recruitment.  Which customers and executives should you invite? How many? How do you approach them? (Ignite has developed tactics that can actually get customers to eagerly ask to be included.) How do you best frame and position the Board and its activities?

• Setting up the conversation. Here, IGNITE works out the overall tone and nature of the Board. (Paradoxically, the less your Board is about 'sales', the better it ultimately helps you sell.) We work with you on defining strategic opportunities and challenges that are relevant both to you and your customers and then work out the optimum mix of contacts and events: conference calls, informal talks, ad hoc meetings, formal off-site sessions, email or document exchanges, feedback sessions, briefings -- whatever elements best suit your situation.

 

• Launching and managing. IGNITE can handle all the details of inviting and registering your members, as well as conducting the sessions with you, both to keep them productive and on track, and to gain feedback for adjusting future sessions.
  

 

• Debriefing and applying the results. IGNITE will also develop the processes you need to glean the most information and value from the board's activities — interpret it for various organization in your company, and most important to apply it to your ongoing sales and marketing efforts.

 

IGNITE engineers your program from the start to deliver insights and intelligence you can directly apply to your sales efforts and tactics. Your board's activities can provide:

 

A. Early warnings about shifts in thinking, attitudes, or business forces

B. Clues to customer's longer-term goals and issues

C. Feedback for new product or technology approaches

D. Advice on approaching and appealing to similar customers

E. Competitor's tactics and strategies -- successful and not successful.

New opportunities, new perceptions
IGNITE can also show you how to leverage the activities of your Advisory Board to:

• Gain industry coverage and attention. Use the credibility of your Board to issue white papers, reports, and commentaries by your members — all carrying more weight than typical marketing messages.

• Build word-of-mouth and referrals. With the right approach, your Board members can lead you to new sales opportunities in the company, and serve as ideal references for other prospects.

• Re-focus and energize internal staff. Show your product teams, R&D, support staff, sales organization what your customers are thinking, what they want, where they're headed. And use these mission-critical customer insights to transform your sales and marketing organizations