Field Advisors are Essential
No matter where you are in your progression as a company, having a field advisory council in place is essential. One of my favorite types of advisory councils is a growth council. Members are not determined by rank but rather are determined by an index that indicates whether they are growing their business, and helping others to grow their businesses as well. Want to watch field reps scramble to perform, just announce the selection criteria (how you’re going to keep score) and when you’re going to select your advisory council. Keep score. Select and announce the group. Let them serve for a year or so. And repeat the process. They’ll work hard for the recognition and for the opportunity to be on the “inner circle.” You’ll benefit in so many ways. You can involve them in developing corporate initiatives and secure their support before roll out to the field. You can gather their input on areas for needed improvement. You can learn from them what’s really working, so you can duplicate their success as you provide training programs for new field reps. The list of benefits goes on and on. Be sure you select people by the numbers, or it can become a political mess that can blow up on you. And, be sure to have a charter and ground rules and work from a pre-approved agenda before each call or meeting. Have fun, and enjoy this tremendous tool!
