Editorial
The Gist
- Start with structure. Lay a solid foundation by defining goals, membership criteria and participation guidelines to ensure clarity and alignment from day one.
- Keep communication intentional. Clearly state what you want to learn from customers and turn meetings into two-way discussions, not one-way presentations.
- Treat it as a long-term commitment. Build a multi-year CAB program that evolves through consistent engagement, feedback loops and follow-through on member input.
- Avoid rushing or over-controlling. Don’t rush timelines, dominate meetings with slides, or focus on trivial logistics — prioritize strategic insights and customer relationships.
- Honor the Yoda principle. As the author says, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Commit fully to the CAB’s purpose, or reconsider doing it at all.
As I ride off into the sunset of retirement, I cannot help but reflect back on my 30 years of B2B technology marketing and customer advisory board (CAB) program management. Just as Jedi Master Yoda from the Star Wars movies conveys his knowledge and guidance to young Luke Skywalker, here is my final advice for anyone starting or managing a CAB program – for them to do AND do not:
Table of Contents
- Do This: Establish a Solid Foundation
- Do This: Communicate What You Want to Learn
- Do This: Plan for an Ongoing Program
- Do This: Report Back on Actions Taken
- Don't Do This: Start With a Set Meeting Date
- Don't Do This: Plan to Present to Your Customers the Whole Time
- Don't Do This: Focus Planning on Logistics
- Don't Do This: Skip Prep Meetings
Do This: Establish a Solid Foundation
Investing the time to establish a strong foundation of a CAB program will ensure its success over the long term. That means creating a charter document, highlighting initiative goals and objectives and establishing a strong program theme, membership criteria and participation guidelines. Accomplishing these will ensure your members are clear on what they are signing up for and, perhaps more importantly, confirm your own management is on board with the program, timelines and their expected roles and responsibilities.
Related Article: How Customer Advisory Boards Supercharge Account-Based Marketing in 2025
Do This: Communicate What You Want to Learn
Articulate what you are trying to learn from your customers, and, at the meeting, begin each session with the questions you are trying to get answered by your CAB members. Doing so will help frame each session as a discussion in which input is the main objective and get your members thinking of their ideas and suggestions.
Do This: Plan for an Ongoing Program
Your CAB program should be established as a multi-year (at least three), ongoing program in which ideas will be gathered, considered and acted upon via multiple in-person and online meetings.
Doing so will establish a mindset for all participants and enable personal relationships to flourish. Do not dip your proverbial toes in the CAB water to “see how it goes” with an initial meeting, as this will diminish the program and your customers’ (and management’s) interest.
Do This: Report Back on Actions Taken
Well-run CAB meetings will uncover a range of ideas, suggestions and desires from your customers. All of these must be captured, considered, prioritized and acted upon by your company via a robust action tracker document and program.
More importantly, you need to report back the status of actions you’ve taken as a result of CAB member input, otherwise your members will wonder what happened to their previous input and lose interest if their ideas are not acted upon.
Related Article: Customer Advisory Boards: The Customer Data Strategy Advantage
Don't Do This: Start With a Set Meeting Date
Companies will sometimes initiate their CAB program with a set meeting date, often around a user group or other event a mere couple months before it takes place. However, these same companies often do not understand the steps needed to establish a strong program, recruit customers and plan for a meeting – and the timelines required to do so.
I recommend planning for at least six months before holding an initial meeting for a new CAB program. Doing so any earlier will necessitate cutting corners and creating a rushed program that your customers will recognize.
Don't Do This: Plan to Present to Your Customers the Whole Time
Companies new to CABs often have a long list of items they are excited to communicate to their customers, such as the latest corporate initiatives, upcoming products, new demos and screen shots, etc. via hours of PowerPoint presentations.
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Again, your program and meeting should be established to gather member input, and get them out of their seats and brainstorming via exciting games and/or breakout sessions. These should be well organized and rehearsed so everyone from the host company is clear on what to expect.
Don't Do This: Focus Planning on Logistics
Planning meetings, especially with upper management, should focus on the high-level strategic items listed above. Do not waste your precious face-time with management to discuss tactical logistical items such as dinner menus, wine lists, bus schedules, chotchke giveaways, etc. Leave these details to your skilled event management team to determine. Perhaps it’s just human (or management) nature, but I’ve always been disappointed to spend too much planning time spent on such trivial event details.
Don't Do This: Skip Prep Meetings
Session presentations should be created and reviewed well before your CAB meeting takes place. In addition, each person from your company attending the meeting should attend an onsite prep meeting just before it takes place, to be clear on meeting objectives and participation requirements, and review content and CAB member participants. Those skipping the prep meeting will not only be lost as to how the CAB meeting should go, but can even steer it offtrack and in the wrong direction (as we’ve witnessed numerous times).When it comes to CAB meetings, I always recommend investing the time, money and personnel to do the meeting right, or if you can’t, consider not doing a CAB at all. In other words, as Master Yoda would say, “Do or do not. There is no try.”
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