An advisory board is one of the most useful meetings a company can hold. It is also one of the easiest to get wrong.
The test I use is simple: can we write down the question?
A genuine advisory board starts with something the company needs to understand. How specialists see an unmet need. What a new indication means in local practice. What is missing from the information patients receive. If we cannot write that question down, we do not need the board.
The difference shows in four places.
- The reason. A documented question, not budget left before year end.
- Who is invited. Experts chosen for what the question needs, and only as many as it needs. Not the highest prescribers.
- The fee. Fair market value, under a written contract, for real work.
- The output. Written advice, reviewed and acted on. Not photos from a dinner.
And the roles are clear. Medical leads it. Compliance approves it. Sales does not choose the advisers, and there is never any link to prescribing.
Done this way, an advisory board is worth every hour. Done the other way, it is an inducement with an agenda.
“If you cannot write down the question, you do not need the board.”
Lesson 12 of 17 in Step 4: Distributors and market access, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.