There are some human truths that, if you allow them to, can dramatically affect your marketing efforts and focus.

• Human Truth #1: We want to be helpful.

• Human Truth #2: We like being part of an exclusive group.

• Human Truth #3: We like to be perceived as smart and in the know.

• Human Truth #4: We like being asked for our opinion.

• Human Truth #5: We like it when other people know that we’re a part of an exclusive group and in the know.

When you add all of these together, you create an opportunity to incent your regular customers to go beyond buying your product or service and actually become your advocate.

I recently saw a study commissioned by the Corporate Executive Board Co. that found that 60 percent of the sales cycle is over before a buyer ever speaks to a salesperson. That’s a cold, hard slap-in-the-face reminder that a host of factors – word of mouth, social media, your website and review sites – have a powerful impact on your business, whether you know it or not.

When you consider that much of your sales process is actually occurring in advance of what you can control with your official sales process, it makes leveraging your best customers and giving them ample opportunity to sing your praises an even more vital tactic. It’s your best shot at moving the prospect along the purchasing spectrum.

Some ways to activate your customer army:

User-generated content. Get your customers to submit stories, photos, artistic renderings or videos that talk about how they use or love your product or service. Better yet, make it a contest where votes matter. Then, not only will they upload their own content, but they’ll also ask their network to vote for their entry, exposing each and every one of them to your brand as well.

Create an advisory board or invite online discussion. Whether you want to choose a small group of best customers to create a formal group, like an advisory panel, or open this up a little for some groupthink, you can pick their brains for new ideas, variations and even parallel products and services. Who is better positioned to know how to make what you sell even better?

Exclusive events with a twist. Remembering that your existing customers want to feel that they’re part of something elite but that they also love sharing access, hold some sort of exclusive event. It might be a ticket holders-only sale or a highly sought-after speaker. Offer admission to your best customers, but with a twist. To get in, they must bring someone who is not a current customer.

Let them decide. Give your best customers a chance to have an impact on your brand. Conduct a poll that allows them to truly change an element of your business. It might involve a new product launch or a pricing issue or something else. But trust their judgment, open up the voting, and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn.

Procter & Gamble Co. believes so strongly in this method of marketing, it has developed its own formula, which is: VIP vote + sneak peek + inside scoop.

The psychology behind all of this makes perfect sense. We care more about something when we’re a part of it. The more you can relinquish some of the control or power to your customers, the more you can make them feel so much the insider that they’re invested in your success, just as if they worked for you.

Try one or a combination of these marketing tactics to turn your customers into your most active cheerleaders.