The Customer Advisory Council Process:

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

 

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

• Setting up the conversation. Here, Ignite AG works out the overall tone and nature of the Customer Advisory Board. (Paradoxically, the less your Customer Advisory Council 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 AG 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 AG will also develop the processes you need to glean the most information and value from the Customer Advisory 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 Advisory Group engineers your program from the start to deliver insights and intelligence you can directly apply to your sales efforts and tactics. Your Customer Advisory 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 AG can also show you how to leverage the activities of your Customer Advisory Board to:

• Gain industry coverage and attention. Use the credibility of your Customer Advisory Council 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 Customer Advisory 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