Customer or partner advisory boards can significantly help organizations gather insights into its corporate strategies and product direction. Join this insightful and educational webinar to learn how such an advisory council can bring tremendous value to your company.

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Why Customer Advisory
Boards are a Business
Imperative Today
February 26, 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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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 & Conteneo Clients

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Today’s Agenda
 Why Customer Advisory Boards
 Top 5 Benefits
 Gathering Insights Through Collaboration &
Serious Games
 What Next

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Housekeeping
Slide deck & recording made
available to all
Questions / comments
welcomed anytime
• Submit via chat feature
Q&A at end of webinar

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WHY CUSTOMER ADVISORY
BOARDS

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What is a Customer Advisory Board?
Panel of leaders from
customer organizations who
work with host company’s
senior leadership team to
guide strategy and offerings,
and address shared industry
challenges
CABs are NOT
• Sales pitches
• Focus groups
• Boondoggles

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Types of Customer Advisory
Managers
Administrators
Users

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CAB Stakeholders
A professionally run, world-class customer or partner advisory
board can address all of these challenges, and more

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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.
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 MaturityThree Levels of CAB Maturity…

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Top 10 MEMBER Benefits of Participating on
Client Advisory Panels
1. Influence Host Company Product or Solutions Roadmap
2. Acquire Best Practices from Peers and Benchmark against Peers
3. Obtain Insight Into Host Company’ Strategic Initiatives
4. Opportunity to Beta Test New Products
5. Interact with Executive Management Teams
6. Improve Customer Service and Support
7. Learn About Industry Trends
8. Help Solve a Business Issue Impacting Everyone on the Panel
9. Opportunity for Thought Leadership
10.Network for Potential Personal and Professional Growth

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TOP 5 COMPANY BENEFITS

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Benefit #1: Strategic Business Direction
 New customer segments
 Emerging industry trends
 New product/service categories
 Competitive opportunities
 Companies to merge or acquire
 Viable partnerships to pursue
 Potential reseller channels

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Benefit #2: Product Roadmap Direction
Advisory board members are
your existing buyers
• Targets for new offerings
Product direction
• Most pressing customer
challenges, pain points and needs
• Specific functionality requirements
desired
• Gaps in the market that you can
serve
Beta testers and sounding
boards

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Customer Advisory Board enabled New Product
Development Process
DISCOVERY
Asking each CAB
member to bring 3
ideas to each CAB
meeting on new
business problems
they need solved
LAUNCH
Ask each member to
suggest 3 companies
that could use the
product in their industry.
Ask the CAB what
marketing channels they
find most effective in
their industry.
TESTING
CAB members are
ideal beta program
candidates
BUSINESS CASE
Collect CAB member
data on internal costs
& time estimate to
understand ROI
CO-DEVELOPMENT
Ask CAB members to
contribute
code/technical skills
to development
IDEA SCREEN
Review & rank ideas
to gain consensus on
which ideas are most
valuable and why…
SCOPING
Gather and shape
requirements into
mutually agreed
document

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Benefit #3: Incremental Revenue
Customers that participate in Customer Advisory Panels add more value:
According to Ignite AG research (n=85) B2B companies that have active and
successful Customer Advisory Panels enjoy:
• A retention rate of 95% among program participants
• 9% increase in new business, starting in year 2
Continue Purchasing 18%
Willing to Recommend 24%
Overall Satisfaction Rating 25%

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Benefit #4: Engender Customer Satisfaction and
Loyalty
Bringing members into your company’s “inner circle” you are transforming
them into even bigger raving fans
Become professionally and emotionally invested in your success, and their
enthusiasm and passion tends to permeate their immediate team and
beyond
Group of highly loyal customers who have a vested interest in sticking
around – and not defecting to your competition.
Members will likely refer other prospects to you

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Benefit #5: Marketing Platform
 Nurture influential clients into advocates and references
 Create & publish joint research, examples:
• Benchmarks
• Dashboards
• Case studies
• White Papers
• Best Practices Guides
• Letter to industry regulators

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GATHERING INSIGHTS
THROUGH INNOVATION
GAMES®

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‘Gamification’ of Advisory Board sessions
= Need to get Higher Quality
Insights Faster!!!
Problem: “We are not hearing anything new
from our advisory board members”
Problem: “How do we make it easy for our
members to share critical feedback?”

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Collaborative Serious Games
Innovative approach to engaging executives in meaningful discovery
dialogue
Research shows that people are hard-wired to express themselves and
interact with each other through games
Engaging your advisory board members through Innovation Games
delivers deeper, more actionable insight than is available through those
stodgy brainstorming sessions, online surveys, focus groups or other tools.
Playing Innovation Games helps you:
• Understand your customers needs
• Make better product & strategy decisions
• Improve the effectiveness of sales and services
• Identify the most effective marketing messages and sellable features
• Uncover breakthrough opportunities

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Collaborative Serious Games
Innovation Games Online – collaborate with your CAB members before
your in-person event as a way to engage around key topics
Use online games as a way to continue the conversation with members
post-event and in-between events.

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NEXT STEPS

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Follow-Up Webinar!
HOW to Run Customer Advisory Boards: Top 10 Tips
for Creating a World-Class CAB Program
When: April 2; 9:00 AM PST / 12:00 noon EST
HOW TO:
• Design a board – target members, goals, topics
• Effectively recruit members
• Build a advisory board charter document
• Onboard members – discovery interviews on top-of-mind topics
• Build a meeting agenda
• Sustain board momentum between calls and meetings
Watch for follow-up eMail to register

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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/ManagerTraining.aspx

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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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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!