Back in the late 1990s, when I was a Product Manager back at MCI, we implemented a Customer Council - bringing a couple hundred of our corporate customers together, breaking them into groups based on the products that they were either using or were in the process of evaluating and getting honest feedback and direction. No sales people were allowed in the building - just Product Managers (and the occasional Product Marketing person). We would talk about what we had recently implemented, what was on the roadmap and then we'd stop and listen. Really listen.

Without the pressure of the sales teams being in the same room, the customers would open up - talk about what we've done right and most importantly, what we've done wrong. On more than one of these quarterly meetings, my team would walk out of these sessions furiously rewriting product specifications, or in the case of one advanced product, starting the discussions to actually abandon it before it was launched.

A successful customer council meeting also showed clients that we cared about more than their dollars - and the sort of loyal, rabid support we were able to garner was more that we could gain at a dozen glitzy usergroup meetings. Sure, customers want to be want to be entertained, boozed and schmoozed - but they want to be valued for being an important part of the process rather than just a purchase order.

The sad thing is that in most industries, when a customer council is held, the last thing they want is for the customers' counsel - making the meetings less about receiving advice and more about pitching new products.

The same thing can be said about analyst roundtables or annual analyst meetings. In 2005, I went to a half-dozen analyst briefings - sessions where the vendors would fly anywhere from a dozen to a hundred analysts in to talk about their last year's accomplishments and their next year's roadmap. Each time, the vendor plied us with expensive hotel rooms, lavish dinners, open bars and the occasional concert or theater event. However, there was only one time I can recall when the product manager didn't take his time to pitch a product to us - but to explain why they designed the product, what they had built as a beta and then ask us what we thought wasn't quite right. Considering that analysts have exposure to most of their competitors' products - it was a brilliant move and having seen revisions of that product's roadmap, our input was greatly appreciated.

Customer councils, analyst roundtables and to a lesser extent usergroup meetings are perfect opportunities to open up the corporate kimono and expose your plans to the people who can ultimately help your company either succeed or fail.