In a recent community discussion, customer marketing and advocacy professionals shared their experiences and strategies for developing executive engagement programs. Here's what we learned from their collective wisdom.
The Executive Engagement Challenge
The conversation began with a common challenge in the B2B SaaS space: while day-to-day users often love and advocate for products, securing executive attention and buy-in remains crucial for net revenue retention (NRR) and expansion.
As Ashley Ward pointed out, many customer marketing programs focus primarily on users, but there's a pressing need to elevate relationships within customer accounts to the executive level.
Structuring Executive Engagement Programs
Kevin Lau shared a comprehensive approach, positioning executive engagement as one of seven pillars in his Customer Engagement team structure.
His framework includes:
- Voice of Customer (VoC)
- Community
- Customer Education
- Advocacy
- Lifecycle and Retention
- Customer Communications
- Executive Engagement
The strategy segments engagement across three key levels:
- Practitioner level: Community, lifecycle programs, adoption initiatives, education, and training
- Influencer level: Brand evangelists and customer evidence
- Executive level: Thought leadership and exclusive communities
Customer Advisory Board (CAB) Evolution
Emily G. shared valuable insights about their CAB implementation, which primarily consists of directors, VPs, and C-suite executives.
She highlighted an important realization: while product feedback and messaging discussions are valuable, executive-level conversations need to "zoom out" to provide strategic value. This reflects the broader challenge of competing for executive attention among numerous vendors.
Bridging the Gap Between Users and Executives
Kate Ressler offered an innovative perspective on executive engagement through bottom-up enablement. She suggested empowering passionate users with tools and resources to influence executives within their organizations. This approach recognizes that technical teams often need support in communicating business impact to leadership effectively.
Program Implementation Strategies
Several practical implementation tips emerged from the discussion:
- Start with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach, as suggested by Kevin Lau, potentially sharing the program across departments with similar goals
- Focus on creating "reasons to reach out" between formal touchpoints like Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) and events, as noted by Colleen Gauthier
- Implement maturity assessments as entry points for resource sharing, a strategy shared by Kate Ressler
- Consider combining influencer and executive programs for better alignment, as proposed by Ashley Ward
Measuring Success
The discussion emphasized the importance of driving "stickiness" across all levels of customer accounts. Success metrics should focus on:
- Adoption rates
- Retention numbers
- Expansion opportunities
- Executive participation in programs
- Cross-level engagement within customer organizations
Looking Ahead
As B2B SaaS companies continue to evolve their customer marketing strategies, executive engagement programs are becoming increasingly crucial. The key to success lies in creating value-driven interactions that resonate with busy executives while maintaining strong connections with practitioners and influencers throughout the organization.
This article synthesizes insights from a community discussion featuring customer marketing leaders including Ashley Ward, Kevin Lau, Emily G., Kate Ressler, Colleen Gauthier, and others.
Other resources mentioned/shared:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10T5Mm2D4jlG2_VCAe15HaMyF-NvYwWU1ew15rn3hsnE/edit?usp=sharing
