Series 3: Market Advantage

Co-Creation → Ecosystem → Barrier to Entry

By now, you’ve built real trust with your customer advisory board (CAB). You’ve moved beyond feedback and into shared momentum.

This is where the most committed CAB programs create their true competitive edge—not just inside the company, but in the market.

Your CAB becomes more than a strategic sounding board. It becomes a living ecosystem of advocates, advisors, and amplifiers.

This is also the moment to lean into emotional intelligence (EQ) and prep with your board members.

During your Zoom check-ins or board prep calls, listen carefully.
- Who lights up when talking about your product?
- Who has a story or use case that provokes deeper conversations?

Start to identify the customers who can own the room, by sharing insights, use cases, or challenges that spark something bigger.

Let them lead a story. Provide them space to shape the conversation.
The more you elevate your customers, the more they elevate your brand.

At this phase, companies often see:

• Unprompted referrals from CAB members

• Competitors blocked through stronger customer alignment

• Influence in analyst reports, partner ecosystems, and industry discussions

What’s really the value of a customer advisory board?

CAB members helped solidify a company’s category leadership by influencing peer organizations—and even investors.

You’re no longer just collecting input or building relationships.
You’ve created a moat—one built on trust, shared success, and customer-led market influence.

But the strongest CABs don’t stop there.

While vendors often focus on cultivating advocates, don’t forget to give your customers space to build their own networks, too.

Many CAB members may not know one another when they arrive. Make time for connection.
Leave room for a long lunch. Add a walk-and-talk session or small group activity.
Encourage mingling, storytelling, and even moments of silence.

This isn’t just your time with them—it’s their time with each other.

Because while they’re here to help you, they’re also here to enrich themselves.
And when customers leave feeling more connected, inspired, and valued…
your CAB becomes more than a strategy.
It becomes an executive community, one that freely allows customers to send a text to run ideas by one another.

That’s priceless.