By Patricia Seybold

Does your firm have one or more Customer Advisory Boards? How useful are they to your customers and to your business?

The traditional model for a Customer Advisory Board is an annual or semi-annual meeting with the most senior customer executives from your most strategic accounts. You trot out your best and brightest executives with the best and brightest ideas and solicit feedback from these influential and important customers. You play a round of golf. You create strong friendships.

There's a new model emerging for Customer Advisory Boards. It's a customer-empowered model in which customers' issues and priorities are the focal point for the meeting. The customers you recruit are your most insightful ones; not necessarily the ones who spend the most with you today. They'll be happy to be wined and dined. They'll comment frankly on your strategy and your roadmap. But they're most interested in co-creating your strategy so that it meets their goals.