Facilitating a Customer Advisory Board

Over the past four years Meeting Facilitators International has received many requests for facilitators for Customer Advisory Boards, or Expert Advisory Boards. We have facilitated sessions for Moen, Sprint Nextel, Eclipse Aviation, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Sanofi Aventis and others.

Observations from an Advisory Board Facilitator

Based on our experience, here are four things to pay attention to in order to get the most out of your Customer Advisory Board.

Its all about priorities

Offer somebody something for nothing and they will probably take it. Ask your customers about a variety of new products and improvements to existing products and they will probably want all of it. Since it is unlikely that you have unlimited resources you need to understand what your customer's priorities are. To do this we typically keep a wish list throughout the session of everything that these customers desire. We will casually refer to this as their Christmas list, because most of us learned as little children that we are not going to get everything that we put on our Christmas list. Before the session is over the facilitator will get each participant to prioritize their wish list. There are a variety of different ways to do this, but whichever method we use, we always have each customer present their list along with an explanation as to why these things are tops on their list.

The Great Debate

One of the most powerful tools we have discovered for facilitating customer advisory boards is to set up a debate. We work with the sponsor before the advisory board session to establish the key issues to be explored. For example in the case of a clinical trial for a new pharmaceutical product the key issue might be whether or not the product will get approval, or whether or not it can become the new standard of care. During the session we break the group into two teams, with each team assigned one side of the debate. The teams are told that whether or not they personally agree, they are to do their best to convince everyone else that theirs is the right answer. The "teams" are then given time to prepare their arguments. Once the teams are ready, first one then the other presents. After the presentation we insist on everyone initially supporting the case made by the presenters, and on everyone joining the team in an attempt to strengthen the case. Only after we have made the arguments as compelling as possible are the Advisory Board members allowed to express doubts. All of this is recorded by the facilitator for the meeting report. After both teams have finished we wrap the debate up by asking everyone individually, what their real feelings on the issue are, and why. The participants love the process and the sponsors benefit from having the issues well and thoroughly debated. Being told to argue something whether they believe in it or not gives people incredible freedom to speak freely and put on the table things that otherwise might not get said.

The facilitators role in building trust

The key to a successful advisory board is building trust in your customers so that they will give you frank and candid feedback. A neutral independent facilitator can help build this trust. Another key to building and maintaining trust is to avoid anything that can be percieved as selling. These customers have come to give you their feedback in the hope that it will influence your future products and services. They did not come to be sold to.

Key Messages

In a half day long or even full day long session the group is going to cover a huge amount of territory. We have already noted the importance of priority ranking, but we think it also important to give the participants one last chance to drive key messages home. The last question we usually ask the participants is this; " What are the three key messages that the sponsoring company needs to take away from today's session?"

The Board Members love it because it leaves them with an opportunity to summarize what is most important to them, and the Sponsor's love it because it succintly summarizes the most important points for them.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you get the most out of a Customer Advisory Board or Expert Advisory Board why not contact us? The initial consultation is always free.

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