7. Issuing a one sided press release about the advisory board, with customer names and photos included without asking for any customer permissions. Again, executives do not want to feel like they are being used for your own PR activities.

8. Inviting customers that are at completely different position/career levels to the board - e.g. a CEO and a junior product manager. If the CEO of one of your customer organizations must interact with someone in this capacity that is much less experienced and has that much less to offer, the CEO will most certainly be irritated and may obstain from future participation.

9. Treating the advisory board as a focus group, and resist any initial attempt to raise the bar to the more important and strategic discussions. A focus group is convened to help a company make a decision on a given product or service. Executives are interested in a high-level, ongoing dialogue on real strategic issues and challenges.

10. Discontinuing the board after the first meeting. This will send a message that the board is not really that important and will also convey the notion that your company is not truly interested in soliciting and embracing customer feedback and insight.

Page 2 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next