Advisory Boards as Business Development Engines
A well constructed and professionally managed advisory board can bring amazing benefits to a company. A poorly designed and managed one is usually a colossal waste of resources. The difference often lays not so much in the idea of an advisory board, but in the execution of that idea by the senior management team, and particularly the CEO, of a company. In many cases, the productivity of a company’s advisory board is an indication of the effectiveness and sharpness of focus of the senior management team.I learned this lesson early in my career when I discovered how to leverage the needs of a client base and fund the launch of my company using customer’s money. This was the company that also taught me how an advisory board, if appropriately structured, populated and managed, can radically improve a company’s performance.As it turned out, there was a second major benefit that came out of that experience. I had developed 1) a promising solution to a major problem will draw investment from those who will most benefit (the customers) and 2) involved potential clients intimately in the process of developing solutions to their problems. Both ensured their support of the company which then offered those solutions, another important lesson was learned … this time quite by accident.From my team’s perspective, the Advisory Board made life much easier. The flow of product, investment funds and bank loans was all organized within one venue. The regular meetings of the Board provided a contin

Overcoming Hidden Competition
The competitive situations that people are facing today are much more intense and complex than they’ve ever been before. Most often we typically focus on other companies trying to win the same business we’re pursuing, and we label these the “competition”. We identify positioning and relationship-building strategies as important when competing against another company, but there are other serious issues hidden within the client’s own organization that are equally important, and that are frequently overlooked in our strategy. Competition is defined as any alternative solution.Customer decides not to do anything. This is the greatest overlooked type of competition. Change is hard. The customer is doing nothing, because it’s easier than spending resources and energy to do something new. There must be a high degree of urgency to convince someone to buy something. In this scenario salespeople need to be concerned with the issues that might cause a potential customer not to take any action.Ask yourself: What are the costs or consequences to the client for doing nothing and how can I make the client aware of these? If the customer decides to do nothing, what do we need to do to maintain our presence there until they have a more immediate need for our help?Customer provides internally. Most companies have resources to undertake many things themselves. Although an outside supplier might provide special equipment or talent, you may be faced with an “I can do it myself for less” attitude.Ask your