We’re excited to share that as of Q2, 2019 our Client Advisory Board is back! The vision for SearcherMagnet CAB 2.0 is to be THE definitive authority on online lead generation, as it pertains to advertising, marketing, sales and success, stemming directly from our all-new, inside-out, totally revamped, client-results-driven brand.
A lucrative exclusive to SearcherMagnet agency clients, at a $0 out of pocket cost, CAB 2.0 offers enormous value for professional development as well as practical technical skills to executives and business owners. Compare with the Vistage peer groups that carries (as of this writing) enrollment fees of $2250 and per meeting fees of $1,380.
It’s shocking to believe that the last CAB was 3 years past this June. Yet, what we learned face to face with our clients in the few meetings we had was nothing short of earth shattering and is part of why the agency started down a path that came full circle to our roots in lead generation.
Before we get into learning and improvements of the past 4 years, here’s 3 key reasons our clients gave when asked why they attended CAB:
- To network with their peers to discuss business-related topics of mutual interest,
- Learn important information about SearcherMag.net business direction that can only be obtained via an non-disclosure agreement,
- Contribute specific feedback and input because they believe SearcherMagnet is genuinely interested in what they think and and is prepared to take action accordingly.
What does it do for the SearcherMagnet agency? Not only had we seen increased revenue through clients who “cross-pollinated” market, technology, service and staffing trends, these organizations made more revenue and profit and satisfaction was much higher, resulting in a longer, stronger client/agency relationship.
Here’s the process improvements! CAB 2.0 will be:
- Professional Facilitation In the past, we made the mistake of running the meeting without proper facilitation. Moving forward, we’re retaining a professional facilitator
- Open Source Agendas In the past, we tried an agency defined agenda, and no agenda at all. The latter was in spirit for the startup nature of the program, but quickly got out of hand. The former hurt the conversation by making it less fluid and organic. 2.0 will solicit specific agenda items through surveys and interviews and make time for proper discussion.
- Minutes / Meeting Notes With an online format, we can now record the call and take minutes which can be distributed to the entire board as an immense value. One of our most requested features.
- Web Meeting Based. The original CAB was a face to face in Sacramento CA. More than ever, our clients are distributed across the US, Canada, and internationally, so online meeting is the most convenient overall option. When surveyed, 3/4 of local clients indicated they would not mind a web meeting.
- Exclusively Lead Generation business models. In the past, we found that nonprofit, e-commerce, political and other such models, while sharing certain tactics, simply didn’t have much to add. or get from, a discussion that tended to revolve around lead generation.
- Meeting on Mondays. We surveyed a couple times, and Monday beat out the other days by a factor of 2x. We will this time try to avoid holidays, summer / winter break and holidays that fall on a monday.
- Meeting Quarterly. We found that monthly meetings were too much and biannually meetings too much time was spent on updated.
- Guest Speaker To add variety, a guest speaker or client will be allowed 10 minutes to present and discuss on a relevant topic. The focus is on education and no direct solicitation of any kind will be allowed.
We’re super excited to bring this back. It’s a lot of work to produce but such a wonderful win-win for everyone. We’re finally in a position to make this shine and I can’t wait to share how things have changed.
Our new Agenda (run time 50 minutes):
-10 min meet and greet
-3 minute guest presenter
-7 minute guest Q&A
-35 minute Issue Processing
-5 minute recap and close out
In closing, keeping with the client-centric craving for feedback and input, keep an eye our for our survey, which helps us keep the meeting on traffic and drives value.
