Reid’s Rituals of Great Boards: the 8 strategic tools used by top companies
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Reid’s Rituals of Great Boards: The 8 strategic tools used by top companies
Board Assists
Inspired by TripActions: Leverage your board's influence to sell and hire.
It’s amazing the weight that a “from” line in an email can carry. I love this from Nick Mehta, the CEO at Gainsight:
“Think of a brand or company you really admire. How would you feel if you got a personal email from the CEO of that company? I’m willing to bet you’d open it quickly and would be more likely to respond.”
Getting an email from a board member can have the same effect. I’m a big believer that making key introductions is one of the greatest contributions a board member can offer a company. In my experience, the best boards actively leverage their rolodex and social capital to help companies:
For example, wouldn’t it be great if every job offer a company extended was accompanied by an email from the board? Or what if VIP customers each received personal thank-you notes from members of the board?
The problem, of course, is that most board members are extremely busy. Personal outreach to every single candidate or key account just isn’t practical.
How TripAdvisor’s board leverages board assists
That’s where come in to play. Inspired by a process developed by the team, board assists scale key outreach and introductions by board members. Every month, the strategic accounts team at TripActions sends a spreadsheet of target customers to their board. The list has a clear breakout of the companies they are targeting, including LinkedIn profiles of important people at each company. Board members can then easily identify people on the list they are connected with and send them a message. The TripActions board even built a leaderboard as a friendly way to track the number of introductions made by each board member.
Not surprisingly, this strategy isn’t unique to TripAdvisor. Other companies are known for running different variations of board assists. GitLab opens up the process beyond the board to its broader investor pool. Gainsight uses to facilitate the outreach.
A board assists ritual for your team
I’ve adapted TripAdvisor’s system into a template you can copy and use with your own board. Here’s how it works:
Ready to give it a shot? Copy and customize the template below for your own team 👇.
. Leaderboard
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Board assists
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