Not every meaningful customer interaction needs to be a sales or support conversation. Bringing customers and prospects together around shared challenges can create opportunities for engagement, feedback, and stronger relationships.
That’s an approach Stephanie Fox, fractional CMO and former marketing leader at Digital Science, has used to engage enterprise buyers across different market segments.
During a recent Winalytics peer roundtable, Stephanie shared how Digital Science organized advisory discussions around industry events, bringing together customers and prospects to exchange perspectives on specific topics. “Your advisory board is an element of the community you serve. By empowering the participants to drive the conversation, not the vendor, everyone gains a clear understanding of the community’s current needs.”
Her experience highlights three considerations for making these conversations valuable.
1️⃣ Bring Customers and Prospects Together Around Shared Interests
At Digital Science, the Marketing team organized small group discussions alongside industry conferences, bringing together customers and prospects around topics relevant to their work.
Having established customers in the room and keeping the focus on business challenges, rather than products, helped attract interest and gave prospects an opportunity to learn directly from peers rather than relying on vendor messaging. “If you don’t yet have an advisory board structure, this can be as simple as hosting a cocktail event near the conference venue. It’s about creating a space to listen.”
2️⃣ Match the Audience to the Conversation
Stephanie emphasized that not every discussion is suitable for both customers and prospects.
While broader industry topics worked well with mixed groups, sensitive product issues or detailed roadmap discussions are better suited to customer-only sessions.
The key is choosing the right participants based on the purpose of the conversation, creating space for more open and valuable feedback. “Select people who are known to be problem-solvers, who not only want to be heard, but who want to help.”
3️⃣ Use Customer Feedback to Build Stronger Engagement
Stephanie’s experience also reinforces the value of creating opportunities for customers to contribute beyond their existing commercial relationships.
Advisory boards give customers a forum to present their priorities and needs in context, describe concerns, and ask one another about how different organizations approach similar challenges.
They also create opportunities for prospects to learn from existing customers in a setting that is not focused on selling.
For marketing teams, these conversations can complement traditional demand generation by creating direct engagement with buyers who are willing to invest time discussing relevant industry and product challenges. Perhaps more importantly, they present customer needs in their own words, enabling content marketers to map content deliverables to specific, though anonymized, customer situations.
Stephanie added, “My experience with advisory boards has shown that these conversations are rich with insights, both for the customers in attendance and my colleagues. Giving customers the ability to share ideas with one another in a productive, focused setting builds trust in the brand and in the team hosting them.” And what happens after the advisory board is key, she notes. Sharing a meeting summary immediately after the conversation, along with specific commitments for next steps, helps those in attendance feel heard in the moment, and opens up a longer-term communication pathway for ongoing engagement.
By involving customers and prospects in their advisory board strategy and creating separate spaces for sensitive feedback when needed, vendors can strengthen trusted customer relationships while gaining a deeper understanding of the markets they serve.
