how to best run a customer advisory board: 10 tips for creating a world-class cab program

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HOW To Best Run a

Customer Advisory Board:

10 Tips For Creating a

World-Class CAB Program

April 2, 2015

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Today’s Speakers

Gavin Nathan, VP Client Engagement, Ignite Advisory Group

Extensive experience designing, managing & facilitating customer

advisory boards in US, Europe, Asia.

Consulted on programs at HP, Brocade, Akamai, Dell, Silicon Valley

Bank, Adobe, Equifax, FICO

Luke Hohmann, Founder and CEO, Conteneo and Inventor of

Innovation Games®

The author of three books, diverse background has prepared him to

design and produce serious games.

Luke’s work has been covered in Businessweek and The Financial

Times.

Facilitator: Rob Jensen, VP Marketing, Ignite Advisory Group

Over 20 years in marketing, communications and business

development leadership positions with enterprise B2B technology

companies.

Specialized in initiating, managing and facilitating customer and

partner advisory board programs

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About Ignite Advisory Group

World’s leading consultancy focused exclusively on helping

companies manage their customer and partner advisory board

programs

Founded: 2007

200 engagements to date

Consultants: experienced CAB practitioners from leading B2B

companies

Ignite Leadership Team

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Ignite Advisory Group Is the Recognized

Authority for Customer Advisory Boards

As featured in...

See more Ignite In The News at http://www.igniteag.com/News.aspx

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About Conteneo

Conteneo provides software and services collectively known as

the Conteneo Collaboration Cloud, helping organizations build

roadmaps, develop strategy, prioritize portfolios and connect

with customers.

Customers include Adobe, Transamerica, Yahoo!

Platforms: Innovation Games, Strategy Engine & Knowsy

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Proven Experience: Sample Ignite and Conteneo Clients

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Housekeeping

Recording made available to all

Questions / comments welcomed anytime

• Submit via chat feature

Q&A at end of webinar

Twitter hashtag: #CABWebinar

• Add the twitter handle of Ignite @IgniteAG and

Conteneo @ConteneoInc

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Polling Question #1

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10 TIPS FOR CREATING A

WORLD-CLASS CAB PROGRAM

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Tip #1: Decide on Desired CAB Type

Executives

VPs

Managers

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LEVEL 1: The vendor presents 80% of the time. This is a poorly executed advisory board that has been convened without the necessary research into top of mind topics for members, in advance. The vendor is left to do all the talking due to a lack of insight into the board members’ challenges in advance. The vendor struggles to get 12 people to attend a meeting, and the members typically delegate their attendance to more junior colleagues.

LEVEL 3: The board views the vendor as a partner. The partner presents 20% of the time while board members are talking 80% of the time. This represents a well-designed advisory board. The company has selected hot topics that are top of mind for members. The focus is on peer exchange and actionable insights. There is a clear sense of accountability and direction.

Third party CAB management typically required to achieve

LEVEL 2: The vendor presents 50% of the time. The board has yet to develop trust, member engagement is relatively low, board objectives are not clear and the vendor doesn’t create the platform for in-depth discussion between members and between meetings.

Three Levels of CAB MaturityTip #2: Make CAB Interactive

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Tip #3: Allow Enough Planning Time

Phase I: CAB Design JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT

Kickoff

Project planning

Finalize design and charter

Phase II: Member Recruitment JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT

Definition, identification and prioritization

Recruiting instructions and materials

Recruitment process

Phase III: Meeting Preparation JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT

SME interviews (internal and external)

Agenda development

Member interviews & Innovation Games

Pre-reading materials strategy and review

Presentation materials creation and review

Meeting

Phase IV: Post-Meeting Actions JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT

Meeting summary and action items report

Follow up on action items

Sub committees / webinars / calls / Innovation Games

Next meeting planning / Innovation Games

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Tip #4: Align Internal CAB Stakeholders

Steering

Committee

Subject Matter

Experts

Program

Manager

Key functional leads -

kept in the loop and

engaged for counsel,

reinforce direction and

importance (quarterly) For content development

and working on agreed

action items (on an as

needed basis)

Provides high level direction,

input and an executive face to

the program (quarterly)

Responsible for design,

development and

communication of CAB

(weekly meetings)

Executive

Sponsors

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Tip #5: Develop a CAB ScorecardObjectives Measures Results To Date

Sales

Customer Referrals Gather 1 referral per CAB member at each quarterly meeting12 referrals, leading to 3 new

sales

Prospects DatabaseIncrease prospects in sales database by 10% by identifying new

target markets

Sales prospect database

grown by 6%

Average Customer SpendIncrease average spend by 15% among CAB members by better

understanding their unmet needs

16% increase in CAB member

Account Values

Marketing

Success Story Press Releases Gain agreement from 10 customers on joint press releases 7 joint press releases finalized

Event PlannningSynchronize marketing budget with 5 events being attended by CAB

members4 events

Customer Speaking OpportunitiesGain agreement from 3 CAB members to speak at Customer

Conference3 speakers

Customer Loyalty

Customer Retention outside of CABIncrease customer retention rates by 5% overall by implementing

practices identified through CAB100% achievement

Customer Retention within CAB Secure annual contract renewals from all CAB members 100% achievement

Innovation

New Product DevelopmentCreate one new product concept to meet the CAB's largest unmet

need annually100% achieved

Innovation Strategy Align R&D investment with industry trends identified by CAB 50% in alignment

Testing & PrototypingCommitment from CAB to help prototype and beta test all New

Product Developments80% achieved

Market Intelligence

Identify Top CompetitorsIdentify top competitors who are approaching CAB members and

understand their strategiesTarget met

Identify our unique market differentiation Gather top 5 reasons why companies buy from us Target met

Total Business Value

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Polling Question #2

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Produce

summary

of each

interview

Theme

from

Strategy

Workshop

Overall Theme for

CAB

Gather Key Topics from

Internal Stakeholders

& Subject Matter

Experts

Create Interview

Discussion Guide /

Innovation Game

Individual Member

Interviews / Innovation

Game

Produce Summary of

each interview /

Analyze Innovation

Game Results

Executive Report

with Key Insights & Top Topics

Draft Agenda for Content Workshop with SMEs

Tip #6: Follow Content Creation Process

Onboarding Pack for members

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Tip #7: Expertly Facilitate the Meeting

Expert Facilitation (to ensure every member has enough time to form their thoughts, express

them and allow the group to build on them. Driving both diverse insights and consensus where

needed.)

80:20 Interaction (members speak 80% of time...)

Ensure members wear two hats (customer and advisor)

Key Takeaway Process to enable ‘active listening’ by employees

Seating Plan (Executive Sponsor? Facilitator? Most/Least Vocal Clients?)

Facilitation Guidelines (roles/responsibilities/techniques for Members & Employees)

Understand cultural communication differences

Meeting Room Checklist to ensure a great member experience

Insight capture through note taking, photography, audio recording

Visualization Techniques (flipcharts, wall of ideas, doodling, Innovation Games)

In-room coaching for session leaders and members presenting

Advisory Board Calendar for next 12 months

Member Feedback Process & meeting benchmarking

Recommendations for future meeting experience improvement

Sta

ge

1

Divergent

Sta

ge

2

Emergent

Sta

ge

3

Convergent

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Tip #8: Use Games to Gather Insight

Get Higher Quality Insights Faster

Example Strategy Games:

• Understand strategic challenges: Forks in the Road

• Level set on a strategy: What’s Working/Not Working

• Understand customer perceptions: Define a Strategic Partner

& develop a Scorecard

• Penetrate a new market with new technology: Team SWOT

Analysis

• Understand competitive threats: Open To Attack

• Develop an ecosystem: Spider Web

Example Innovation Games:

• Determine R&D Focus: Betting The Farm

• Game Changing integrations: Missing Jigsaw Pieces

• How to meet market needs: Prune Product Tree

• Understand limiting factors: Speed Boat

• Determine evolutionary steps: Continuum

Problem: “We are not

hearing anything new from

our advisory board

members”

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Tip #9: Turn Meeting Insights into Actions

Ignite’s ‘Insight to Action’ process turns board member

insights into actions and ultimately deliverables (ROI).

EXAMPLE Ignite Action Tracker:

12 customers

8 sessions

48 Key Takeaway Forms

10 hours Audio Recording

32 Flipcharts

12 Member Feedback Forms

14 Pages Meeting Notes

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October

2013

December

2013

January

2014

March

2014

April

2014

CAB 2014,

F2F Meeting

“All Hands” Call

Subcommittee 1 Call

Subcommittee 2 Call

“All Hands” Call /

Management Update

Innovation Games

Online

Subcommittee 1 Call

Subcommittee 2 Call

SME/Analyst Call

July

2014

June

2014

August

2014

Subcommittee 1 Call

Subcommittee 2 Call

“All Hands” Call /

Management Update

Innovation Games

Online

CAB 2015,

F2F Meeting

October

2014

Tip #10: Engage CAB Members In-Between

Meetings

NOTE: Members can nominate their own experts responsible for topics being

discussed in Subcommittee Calls – expanding the reach of the program

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Bringing it to LifeBonus Tip!: Transform CAB into a

Marketing Platform

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Polling Question #3

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NEXT STEPS

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Special Offer for Webinar Participants!

FREE 30 Minute Consultation

With experienced Ignite CAB Professional

Discuss

• Your current CAB program or needs

• Immediate suggestions for improvement

• Next steps to begin maximizing benefits

Register: http://info.igniteag.com/schedule-

consultation-with-ignite-advisory-group

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CAB Manager Training

June 16-17, San Jose

Successfully design, manage and optimize a world-

class customer or partner advisory board

Industry’s only CAB Manager training curriculum

Guest speaker: David Coates, Iron Mountain

Registration:

http://igniteag.com/CustomerAdvisoryBoard/Manager

Training.aspx

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Special Offer for Webinar Participants!

2 Months Free Innovation Games

Online with Training

Register for an online class:

http://www.innovationgames.com/training/upco

ming-courses/ and use Code CAB15

Get your license:

https://innovationgames.com/user_mgt/sign_up

and use Discount Code: CAB15

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Q & A

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Thank You!