Services
Customer Advisory Boards | Partner Advisory Boards | Customer Insights
B2B ADVISORY BOARDS & FACILITATION
When it comes to executing your Advisory Board meetings, you can’t leave anything to chance. This is the one place and one time where you have your best customers, or your top tier partners, in the same room with your leadership team to discuss the future.
Future-proof your business
Since 2002 KickStart has been helping tech companies of all sizes design and facilitate strategy-focused CXO discussions. We ensure these meetings capture value, identify new opportunities, create synergies with your best customers, and produce meaningful guidance that will help drive your business forward. That’s why CEOs and their teams trust us.
Whether you are initiating your first Customer or Partner advisory meeting, or you want to refresh your program, we’ll guide you to maximize your ROI and deliver a world-class experience. Let us show you how.
“With Mike’s leadership, we’ve enjoyed a new type of strategic conversation with our best customers. We could not have achieved this without his expertise in the preparation and delivery of our global CAB meetings.”
Facilitation services we provide:
- Customer Advisory Boards
- Partner Advisory Councils
- Executive Roundtables
- Leadership Planning Meetings
- Marketing & Sales Summits
Discover the newest CAB & PAB trends
Learn about our new integrated model for harnessing the power of your global Advisory Board.
EXECUTIVE-LEVEL CUSTOMER INTERVIEW PROGRAM
This service is specifically designed for companies that either don’t have budget to support a full CAB program, or they believe their business is not yet ready to support a CAB. However, company leaders still want to hear the “voice of the customer” so they can leverage this insight and advice when tuning their company’s value proposition or prioritizing elements in their investment strategy.
Now’s the time to listen
The dramatic events taking place today are reshaping your customers’ priorities and how they operate. It is critically important to stay connected. Our executives will interview your C-suite customers to understand their priorities and inquire how your company can help them succeed. These strategy-level interviews, normally conducted as part of our CAB program, are now available a la carte.
We’ll find out what you don’t know.
“KickStart’s interview reports are fantastic, as they are a really good source of detailed information. I like how the interview notes capture directional plans of the CAB participants as well as their trust in us.”
How it works:
- You pick your customers
- We strategize with you on the interview guide
- We conduct the interviews
- We provide a detailed report from each interview
- We create a master summary complete with our key takeaways & recommendations
- Projects estimated to take 30 days
CAB “HEALTH CHECK” SERVICE
Designed for companies who are running their own CABs, this service provides a 360 degree assessment so you can take your CAB to the next level with confidence. If you’ve been running your CAB for a while, you know how easy it is to fall into a rut. Global conditions have required CAB programs to evolve from the once-a-year in-person meetings to a more global and flexible approach.
It’s time for an upgrade
Mike Gospe is a CAB evangelist, having helped some of today’s most innovative B2B companies design interactive CAB programs over the past 20 years. With experience drawn from having facilitated 250 CAB, PAB, and Executive Roundtable meetings, he’s an expert in tuning CAB programs to deliver real business value to the host company and their CAB members.
With our 360 degree assessment, we’ll compare your CAB with hundreds of others and let you know how yours stacks up. Most importantly, we’ll show you what you need to do to improve. Let Mike help you deliver a world-class experience that differentiates yours from your competitors’ CAB engagements.
“You will find no one better than Mike Gospe to help your team build a solid CAB strategy and then execute a fantastic program to the benefit of your company and ultimately your customers.”
Our CAB 360-degree assessment:
- Talk with your stakeholders
- Review your CAB charter
- Interview your CAB members
- Dig into your pre-CAB process and your post-CAB follow-up
- Analyze how you are harnessing the power of your CAB
- Provide a detailed report on where you are best-in-class and opportunities for improvement
PAB “HEALTH CHECK” SERVICE
This service is specifically designed for companies that rely heavily on the channel and have been managing their own Partner Advisory Board program internally. PAB programs should not be confused with operations, deal registration, or training. World-class PAB programs are strategic, providing an opportunity for broad market research and true collaboration that drives mutual success. How does yours stack up? We’ll conduct a 360 degree assessment to find the true answer.
Accelerate your pipeline
The dramatic events taking place today are reshaping your partners’ priorities, how they operate, and what they expect from you. It is critically important to form meaningful partnerships, at every level, for your mutual benefit. Our executives will interview your senior partners to understand their priorities and how the conversations they are having with their customers are changing. Answers to these questions will have a profound impact on your channel strategy.
We’ll show you where your program is strong. And, we’ll provide a prescription on where improvements are needed.
“Imperva is a ‘Channel First’ company, and with Mike’s help, we rewrote the book on Partner Advisory Boards.”
Our PAB-360 assessment:
- Talk with your stakeholders
- Review your PAB charter
- Interview your most important partners
- Dig into your pre-PAB process and your post-PAB communications
- Analyze how you are communicating with your PAB members
- Provide a detailed report on where you are best-in-class and opportunities for improvement
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS
Understanding your customers is critical for ongoing financial and operational success, especially for businesses running as a service. In order to develop that knowledge, we interview your customers to uncover feedback, what makes them loyal, and if they are possibly at risk. Incorporating this and other measures of customer feedback into your business plan drives better decisions and actions.
In short, we gather customer insights and make them actionable for you.
“As our business grew, we needed to better understand where and why customers might be at risk of churning. KickStart uncovered those answers and provided us with actionable insights. They have become trusted members of my team.”
Interview programs we provide:
- Win/loss interviews & analysis
- Churn analysis
- Long-term happy customers
- New customers
- Lost customers
COACHING SERVICES FOR MARKETING LEADERS
Becoming a solid leader does not just happen. The best business leaders have coaches to help them on their journey. Why not you?
Unlock your full potential
We coach new and experienced leaders who want to be strategic, not tactical: remove roadblocks, build strong teams, improve profits, and manage by objective.
Our seasoned coaches have 30+ years of leadership in VP or marketing and CMO positions. We are experienced and trusted resources to help you navigate blind spots. Your boss has a coach. Shouldn’t you?
Even Tiger Woods has a coach!
A seasoned coach is an unbiased, trusted resource who can help you navigate blind spots.
We help you to:
- Learn how to be the best marketing leader you can be
- Assess your leadership style
- Improve “management by objective”
- Gain executive and cross-functional alignment
- Build personal and professional confidence