Know your Customer, Know Yourself

July 29, 2011

No two customer reference programs are created equal.  Each is defined by the type of business and the customers served.  Let go of expectations.  Spend some extra time to understand your customer’s needs and where they spend their time, marry that with your unique knowledge of your own business, and you will come away with the most effective reference strategy for your organization.

If you work in a fast paced technology driven industry that derives information from sources such as webinars, YouTube and other online sources think about how to make those references as high profile and impactful as possible.  Focus your energy on technology and work with your marquis reference customers to develop excellent presentations using web technologies and video testimonials.

If you work in a smaller niche industry where buying decisions rely heavily on personal peer interactions, concentrate your reference efforts on direct phone calls and other live discussions such as customer forums and roundtables.

If your company can demonstrate irrefutable results without requiring direct peer conversations, you may want to consider putting an emphasis on the written word.  Case studies, whitepapers, or other types of marketing content can be very effective.  Deliver this type of content to prospects via microsites for a personal yet professional website with built in tracking features.

There is a lot to gain from providing great customer references.  Use your combined knowledge of your business and your customers to come up with the right mix of reference activities.  Consider customizable software solutions to help you stay on track and avoid bottlenecks and distractions.  And finally, remember the importance of metrics, tracking your results allows you to report back on the power of the program and keep it moving in the right direction.

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Get the Most Mileage out of Your Customer References

April 6, 2011

We believe in and promote the value of efficiency.  Be efficient in any work you do and you are guaranteed to go farther, faster. 

There are many benefits to a well defined customer reference program.  Whether your program is managed with spreadsheets or has the advantage of a technology platform, one of the most obvious benefits is the efficiency it brings to sales and marketing. 

Folks often ask us how to get more reference customers, so we dedicated a chapter to that in the Customer Reference Handbook.  In this post we wanted to highlight the importance of being efficient with each of those customer references.  So, take a look at your list – are you getting the most mileage out of each of them?  You may be able to get more by simply finding ways to repurpose, recycle and republish existing content. 

Start by talking to your customers, find out what they are each willing and able to do for your program.  Look at the list of ideas below and remember that content is easily changed to take on new forms, thus it has the potential to fit many needs.  By repurposing existing material you can easily get a lot of mileage out of just one good customer reference.  Some great ways to do this include:

• Sales reference – phone call or onsite visit with prospect
• Press release – supporting quote or customer feature release
• Web site content – published under the customers/clients section
• Case study – published on your web site, in a trade journal or in printed form for the sales force to take along on calls
• Testimonial recording – to easily and quickly play back for prospects
• Press and analyst interviews – to support your external visibility programs
• Event speaker – at tradeshows, industry conferences, company sponsored webinars, sales conferences, etc.
• Advertising – highlight your reference in an advertisement or campaign
• Guest blogger – feature customer reference material in the form of a guest column on the company blog
• Advisory council – leverage the reference by inviting your customer to join your advisory council

References are extremely valuable and sometimes hard to come by, so do what you can to get the most out of them.  Be efficient and maximize your reference efforts through repurposing and republishing, it will amplify your results and help accelerate your business.

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Guest Post: Ask and Ask Again – A Strategy for Extracting Customer Results

July 27, 2009

 

seattle clocks

We have a new post today written by Casey Hibbard of Compelling Cases Inc. Casey has created and managed nearly 500 customer stories for companies over the past decade. She is author of the book, “Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset” and publishes the Stories That Sell blog. Enjoy…

Buyers have always needed help justifying purchases. But today, they are pressed harder than ever to make the case internally before investing in a product or service.

And the higher the risk, the greater the need to validate.

That puts the burden on companies to draw out measurable results from customers – rarely a simple process.

What does it take to consistently collect the return on investment data you need, while still making it easy for you and your customers?

A specific, repeatable approach.

Collecting results is largely a matter of benchmarking, but most organizations don’t formalize the benchmarking process. They may ask the questions, but don’t consider the timing of their information-gathering.

Here’s an approach to collecting the evidence you need to support your customer marketing efforts:

Ask Before You Deliver Anything

Measuring is mostly about the differences between “before” and “after.” Therefore, your first benchmark is before the customer ever uses your product or service.

Thoughtfully create a set of questions that assesses the customer’s situation at the very start of your engagement with them. They should be the exact same questions you want to ask later on to measure results.

Ideally, the sales or account rep goes over the questions with the customer to collect the answers.

Pick Your Next Q&A Points

When does a customer typically see results with a specific product or service? That might be right away or it might be six months or a year down the road. And maybe the results just keep getting better.

Select at least another one or two specific times to go back and ask the very same questions you asked pre-delivery. Hopefully, the answers to those questions have improved because of your solution.

Identify the person for each customer who will own this process. Use your CRM solution or calendar to remind yourself – or whoever is collecting the information – exactly when to follow up with each customer at the right time.

Don’t Ask Because You Want to Publicize Results

When benchmarking with your questionnaire, don’t do so with the sole intention of using those results publicly. In fact, do it first and foremost for your own internal knowledge.

It’s extremely valuable for teams throughout your organization to see that information – even if you can’t ever publicize it. That rich data can help you help the customer get more out of the product or service, or even uncover problems.

During the first Q&A session, let the customer know that this is the first of a few benchmarking points to assess results and success.

Publicize If and When It Makes Sense

If you perform this process with every customer, it will uncover those that are experiencing the most powerful results. If those customers match the types of reference and case study customers you need, then approach them about sharing their results publicly.

Always confirm your findings with the customer and ask which measurement points they are willing and able to make public. If they are uncomfortable, negotiate other ways to present results.

If you can’t publish specific numbers, then how about percentages or factors of (one-third as, 4 times as many).

Most importantly, as much as you can, make this Q&A part of your regular process with every customer.

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Infor Demonstrates ROI of Customer Reference Management

June 24, 2009

Recently I had a chance to sit down and chat with one of our favorite clients, Abby Atkinson. Atkinson is Senior Director at Infor, where she pioneered the Infor Ambassador Reference Program. We spoke about the many things that have made the Infor program unique and such a success.

One of the main things that makes their program different is that they use a “butler service”, where the program is managed by a centralized reference department, rather than the more typical self service mode.  This has allowed for better documentation and tighter control over reference usage.

Atkinson said that recently due to the tougher economy, her budget for the reference program was threatened of being cut. She had to defend the value of the program in order to keep it staffed and active. Using key metrics and simple figures, Atkinson was easily able to determine the savings Infor was achieving with the program as well as the negative impact they would feel without it. By the time she was finished Atkinson had increased her budget by 60%.

Click here to read the whole story.

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Marketing Sherpa article on Boulder Logic’s quick, low cost customer interviews.

June 8, 2009

Recently I had the chance to talk with Marketing Sherpa about how Boulder Logic approaches customer interviews. We talked about an alternative approach to the classic customer case study (situation, challenge, solution, benefits). Our approach uses a recorded Q&A format that makes it easier to get customers to discuss their experiences. Because the interview is published verbatim the approval process is faster and the end result is a great read.

The full article will be available until June 11, 2009.   Check it out

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Find your target for successful case studies

May 28, 2009

Our friend Casey Hibbard of Compelling Cases, Inc. recently wrote a nice post on preparing successful case studies. She talked about the six most important points to consider in capturing the attention of your target audience. Her last point about making the format appropriate for the audience got me thinking about how even the same person might have different needs for format and presentation depending on where they are in the sales cycle. Early on, prospects tend to want something that helps them understand the benefits and have confidence in the credibility of the vendor. Later in the sales cycle, prospects need more details and stories should focus on dispelling perceived buying risks. What’s the best approach? As Casey suggests, it depends who you are trying to reach and when. Check out her post here.

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Guest Post: Do Your Case Studies Have SEO Value?

May 21, 2009

dictionaryToday’s post is by Barbara Krasner, a senior marketing professional with an extensive customer marketing background. She writes about optimizing case studies, success stories and other customer marketing content for search engines.  Enjoy…

If you have case studies or success stories on the web, particularly in text form, are you thinking about all the ways readers can find them?  

Putting active thought into writing for search engines can dramatically add to the value of what you are writing by increasing visibility. You don’t have to be an expert in meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords to maximize search engine optimization (SEO) value. Some very simple tips can go a long way towards helping reference management professionals take advantage of SEO.

Here are some ways to get started: 

  1. How you would search—Think about how you, as a representative of the information-seeking population, might search. Make a list of words you would use. Then apply them to your narrative.
  2. Case study titles—Use a combination of geography, subject, and firm name. Example: “Atlanta Georgia Retail Store Gains $1.3 Million in Benefit with Software Security Solution.”
  3. Sub-heads—These are really important for SEO and, from my observation, not well used in case studies. Instead of inserting merely Challenge, Solution, and Benefit, make subtitles meaty and meaningful. Example: “Stolen merchandise and profits left clothing retailer” instead of “Challenge.”
  4. Alternative phrasing—Using alternative word choices increases SEO value. For example, SEO value increases using “retailer” in addition to “retail store.” Try “GA” in addition to “Georgia.” Insert Atlanta metro area in addition to Atlanta. Mention the county and surrounding county names.
  5. Sometimes being succinct will hurt you—As efficient marketers and writers, we might try to be as brief as possible. In the introductory paragraph above, I used both “case studies” and “success stories.” That was intentional to increase the marketing value of this blog entry. If you have phrases like “pre- and post-installation,” write out “pre-installation and post-installation.” That will increase SEO value.

Make every word in your case study count and work for you and your client. Increase exposure and clicks by maximizing your document’s SEO value. Feel free to contact me with questions.

Barbara Krasner
barbarakrasner@att.net

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Check out some of the people we’re connecting with

May 14, 2009

 We all know that the birth of social media has given us the ability to create and maintain personal and professional connections like never before.  We want to invite you to check out some of the people we are connecting with on sites such as Linkedin and Facebook.

crksn-image The Customer Reference Knowlege Sharing Network (CRKSN) is a group of marketing professionals who come together on Linkedin to share their expertise in customer reference, customer testimonials, and customer evidence. This noncompetitive group is available for questions, ideas, and general networking purposes. You can also find CRKSN on Facebook and Twitter.

sstoryimage2

Casey Hibbard, Principal at Compelling Cases, Inc. heads up Success-Story Marketing on Linkedin. It is another noncompetitve group of professionals who work in sales and marketing and know that the testimonial of a happy customer is one of the most powerful tools you may have. This group exchanges ideas on how to write, manage and use case studies and success stories to their fullest potential.

Get to know us better by getting to know our friends and collegues.

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Guest Post: How an Operational Approach to Customer References Feeds Both Marketing and Sales

April 9, 2009

 Today we have a guest post from Gary Katz on his experience applying a formal Marketing Operations model to customer reference management.  Enjoy…

About five years ago, I walked into Shoreline Communications as the new director of communications and corporate marketing. After completing my first objective – helping to re-brand the enterprise phone company from Shoreline to ShoreTel – I realized I had a significant challenge ahead:

  • ShoreTel had great customer loyalty, which needed to be leveraged as a significant competitive advantage in the market.
  • Our marketing programs depended heavily on great customer references – webinars, seminars, case studies, media relations, analyst relations, speaking engagements.
  • The company’s sales channel model provided neither the structure nor motivation for Sales to collect timely customer reference data. Once the deal was done, the heavily lifting was passed to a channel partner and Sales was on to something else.
  • The same customer references were being burned out, used over-and-over again. Why? Because with more than 1200 customers and more than 150 channel partners at the time, no one wanted to assume responsibility for qualifying and managing these customer references.
  • My success was directly related to being able to tap into this rich pool of customer references.

At that time, I didn’t know about Boulder Logic. I didn’t even know what Marketing Operations was. I just knew I wasn’t getting anywhere trying to qualify these references on an ad hoc basis.

So I worked with a consultant to design a customer reference process aimed at developing a robust and renewable pipeline of customer references – just like a sales pipeline. Specifically:

  • ShoreTel’s customer database was categorized, continuously updated and mined for strong reference candidates.
  • All references were qualified for use in marketing and sales efforts
  • Qualified references were matched to appropriate marketing, public relations or sales opportunities
  • Select customer references were converted into case studies or e-newsletter articles, or used in webinars, editorial calendar, article, analyst research or speaking engagement opportunities.
  • We began formally tracking all active references, including customer contact info, channel partner info, reference type, usage log and color-coded status information.

Since that time, ShoreTel’s customer reference program has grown from about 20 qualified references to more than 1000.  The program generates approximately 25 new case-study candidates every quarter.  The public relations team has a ready supply of credible references to present to editors and analysts as publicity opportunities arise or are uncovered.

But most importantly, within months of rolling out the program, the major benefactor and requester shifted from Marketing to Sales. Today, ShoreTel Sales relies on this program to identify references that help it win strategic deals in new vertical markets and new geographic territories.

And who do you think helps them find the best matches for their requests? The same consultant I hired to implement the program one day a week back in 2004! Dick has out-survived four of my successors and his value (and workload) is greater than ever, even in a miserable economy.

So let’s get with it, people! Odds are, your customer reference effort is suboptimal. Bringing operational discipline to your customer references is not only a Marketing Operations best practice, it’s a proven way to increase your value and contribution to your company’s success.

Today, you have great tools like Boulder Logic to make the customer reference process even more effective.

Think about it. What other marketing program can simultaneously influence your company’s customer lifetime value, ensure that valuable Voice of the Customer insight is collected and utilized in marketing, potentially transform your customers’ technologists into industry rock stars, and help Marketing become Sales’ best friend by increasing the velocity of the sales pipeline?

With a heightened emphasis on Marketing optimization and ROI, today you can’t afford to miss this golden opportunity.

Gary Katz, CEO, Marketing Operations Partners

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Wouldn’t You Want To Know A Path To That Happy Ending?

March 23, 2009

Scott Vaughn, VP of Marketing at TechWeb had the opportunity to speak with some CIOs and IT decision makers recently and came away with some pretty valuable information for marketers. Customer Success Stories are411px-little_red_riding_hood_-_project_gutenberg_etext_199931 nice but people really want to know what lessons were learned along the way. They want to know what mistakes were made, and how were they fixed. If you rework your “Success Stories” and turn them into “Lessons Learned”, you give people something they can really sink their teeth into. These tough times call for marketers to be more creative and see old techniques in new ways. Rethink some of these old standards and you may be able to get more readers and more bang for your marketing buck.

Check out Scott’s article: Create Your Next Customer

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Posted by Joshua Horwitz

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