As we are full force into the holiday season, I want to ask, what drives you? Whether as a business owner or employee, what is it that makes you get up in the morning, head to work and want to do a good job? It’s a question that anyone can answer, and for me the answer is easy — my kids.

Have you ever thought about starting a customer advisory board? Where would you even begin? Who do you contact for help? And what is the benefit of establishing a board in the first place?

During our annual Farland Group kickoff meeting, our President, Jane Hiscock, had asked us (and I’m paraphrasing here) — share a goal you achieved and the steps you took to get there.

Executives require a different level of engagement and focus. Done well executive relationships will drive lasting value to your B2B marketing and sales strategies.

Understanding what your customer values is critical to building trust, winning the sale and sustaining a relationship over time. Often sales leaders can assume what is valued without asking the questions required to know for certain.

In a previous post, I discussed how it’s difficult to pinpoint the number of jobs that automation or AI will steal from humans. And, that employees’ fear of their duties being diminished or scaled back is partly due to a lack of knowledge about the technology.

When developing Board meeting sessions we ask our clients to be clear about where they want advice. We ask them to consider the questions they have for the Board; where they need advice; and how  an external voice could help their thinking.

In developing customer listening systems – whether digital tools like Twitter or more complex systems like Advisory Boards – avoid course correcting for the loudest voice in the room. Instead, listen for the most important.

In our work at Farland Group, we talk to many different types of business leaders — CIOs, CTOs, EVPs, you name it. During our discussions, we ask them to prioritize topics and security is often top of mind. There are many reasons for the importance placed on security —the threat landscape is always changing, hackers are becoming more creative, vast amounts of data make it difficult to predict attacks, and the list goes on.