By Mike Antonczyk and Matt Hirschland Ph.D., H2A Partners

Social campaigns, webinars, event sponsorships, and other programming can create reach and visibility. The trap is expecting those activities to reliably create one-to-one relationship building with the executives actually making buying decisions. The inherent problem with these channels is that as marketing activities, they are designed for scale. True client development relies on deep trust with individuals inside specific accounts. The good news is that firms do not need to choose between reach and relationship depth. Done properly, they can have both. 

Hosting an executive community offers the solution to bridging core marketing AND sales goals. Done well, these communities provide two additional bonuses: 1) strong brand building and 2) unparalleled insight and content generation. 

Owned, executive communities as a booster rocket for growth 

First things first. By executive community, we mean playing host to carefully curated groups of business leaders (by function, title, topic) on a recurring basis through small, peer-to-peer conversations placing you at the center of the conversation as facilitator and convener. Their wholly-owned nature means no sponsorship red-tape and high costs, no intermediators or gatekeepers and no competitors in the room. 

As a tool tailored for fueling both brand building and sales, communities also solve an internal measurement problem. Marketing is often asked to prove activity through measures such as share of voice, impressions, and other engagement signals, while sales cares about trust, access, and real conversations that lead to work. Executive communities do both. They generate measurable engagement signals while also creating the access, trust, and follow through that large buying decisions hinge on. 

Hallmarks of great executive communities 

If you wish to curate your own executive community, here are the must-haves: 

• A group of true peers 
• Organized around small conversations (in-person or virtual) 
• A commitment to gather the group regularly (quarterly) 
• Gatherings that do not feel commercial in nature (but are springboards into commercial conversations) 
• A focus on short and long tail relationship building with trust at their core 

More than just another event 

While it is easy to classify these as “just another event”, they are not. Executive communities’ entry point to conversations whether executives ever attend the gathering or not. In fact, the gathering is not the finish line, it is the beginning and the setup.  

You were unable to join us? Let’s find time and I’ll share what we discussed. Were there was an expressed interest in a topic? We should continue the conversation and dive in a bit more deeply next week. Helpful follow up, anchored in what executives actually shared (or missed), is what turns a community into a business development engine. Generic nurture does not. A newsletter does not. A vague “great seeing you” note does not.  

In the end, for large transformation projects, buyers are not just selecting a capable provider. They are reducing personal and organizational risk. That is why repeated, trust building interaction matters more than one well attended forum. Communities offer this and so much more, such that the real question becomes, whether communities are part of your broader growth model and, if not, what is filling that role today?