This is a topic I'm discussing a lot at present. Mostly it is around the intersection of community building to foster dialogue and relationships, and then engaging those customers as advocates in the sales process.

Recently we have been advising organizations that sell to enterprises on their community building activities. The customers in question are classic C-suite. Important customers, who sign off big budgets and require a certain quality standard. Successful approaches need to wed online and offline relationship tools.

Today the standard got raised. We were meeting a company that sells to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. You guess... (its not yachts, space travel or football clubs).

Naively I asked about their customer events.

"Last time we hired U2 for a private party. And the time before that, there was the coaching session with Ronaldhino."

That raises the bar then, just a little bit.

Tags: customer advocacy, customer communities