Customers « Reference Success

Finding New Customer References

September 6, 2011

Do you find yourself stuck in a reference rut? Are you using the same handful of customers time and time again to fulfill reference requests? Worried about burning them out? It might be time to recruit some new customer references.

Finding new references can be challenging especially if your customer list is not as long as you would like it to be just yet. But, believe it or not, sometimes those that do have a lengthy list of customers, have just as hard a time finding good references than those that have a dozen or fewer. Regardless of the length of your list, there are several ways to uncover and cultivate a variety of great references for your company. Below are three to get you started.

1. Build relationships with your sales team. Depending on the size of your sales organization you may need to be selective about who you focus on as it may not be possible to have a relationship with everyone. But getting to know your key sales reps is the yellow brick road to uncovering hidden customer gems. You will have the inside knowledge about what the customers are doing and how they feel about the company. This will put you on the fast track to adding new reference customers. Make yourself valuable and likeable to the sales team and you will be rewarded.

2. Send a survey out to your sales team. Just ask a few key questions or use it to request that they each nominate a few new customers for the program and then do the follow up research yourself. Try to do this in bite size chunks so as not to overwhelm them and turn them off to the process. Remember, every sales team is different in terms of their willingness to participate in these types of activities. So, if your group is likely to be less motivated, try enticing them with some type of incentive or play on their competitive nature by making it a contest.

3. Scour the list. Whether your list is scribbled on your office white board, maintained on a spreadsheet or securely housed in a customer reference management database, take a good hard look at who you have, who you have already used and who you have not. Try to give those you have used recently a break and find ways to use the others, the underused members of your program should be considered a wasted asset and given some extra love and attention.

Sometimes it helps to step back from your day to day routine and take a look with fresh eyes. Be creative, switch up your typical way of thinking. Dig a little deeper, you will find fresh resources that will take your program further.

Leave a Comment » | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: customer reference management, Nominations, Customer References, Recruit, customer reference program, Customers | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

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.

Leave a Comment » | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: marketing, customer reference management, Reference Program, Customer References, strategic plan, Case Study, customer reference program, Customers | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Look Forward by Looking Back to Your Most Loyal

June 9, 2011

In a recent post we discussed making the most of existing customer reference content. With a similar mindset, let’s talk about the customers themselves. If you are running an effective program and avoid burning out your customers, it’s not uncommon to establish long term customer reference relationships.

These customers that have been with you a while require a few extra considerations so you can continue to maximize the value of their ongoing contribution:

• Keep it Relevant Take the time to really understand how your customer is using your solution today and what’s happened in their environment recently. It’s too easy to presume their good stories will continue to be of interest to new prospects when in fact things may have changed on their side or yours. Take the time to determine if their message is still on target and if possible, help them understand the talking points that are important to your current prospects’ needs and selling situations.

• Go For The ROI Customers are often recruited into reference programs way before any return on investment (ROI) has been materialized. Those that remain loyal customers are most likely to have achieved the most real value from your solution, but it’s not unusual to forget to go back and ask again. Take the time to work with them to explore further than you have in the past.

• Find New Faces Don’t be afraid to ask who else might have stories to tell. We always recommend trying to find multiple contacts within each customer reference site, but that request gets easier as the relationship matures. Asking your loyal customer to vouch for how easy it is to be a reference for your company can make all the difference in recruiting others that may have new perspectives and new stories to share.

One of the most important reasons to run a formal reference program is to increase the tenure of customers who agree to be references. Take the few extra steps needed to ensure they continue to add value long term.

1 Comment | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: customer reference management, customer reference program, Customer References, Customers, Recruit, strategic plan | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Guest Post: Building an Advocate Army

May 11, 2011

We were super excited when our good friend Kerri Shea Beers agreed to write a guest post for us. Kerri really understands the value of customer references, has a ton of high tech experience, owns her own firm called Monarch Communications, and is an award winning writer to boot. Enjoy!

If you are reading this blog, you already understand the value of customer references. You know the power your customers hold in helping your sales team close more deals and close them faster. Maybe your program is new and just getting off the ground — or maybe you have a robust program that’s been in place for years and is a well-oiled machine. In either case, you are undoubtedly always looking for new ways to differentiate your program and to do more with less. Building an Advocate Army is one way to extract the power of influence from your customers, increase your brand awareness and accelerate the sales cycle all at the same time. And it’s free. Sound too good to be true? Read on.

What Is An Advocate Army?

An Advocate Army is a group of customers who will fan out across the online world of social media, community forums and product review sites and say good things about your company and your product. They will comment on a blog post or industry article, chime in on a Linkedin conversation or forum discussion, tweet in response to a complaint about a competitor’s product – all in the name of YOUR company and YOUR products. Sure, your social media intern or PR team can do this until the cows come home – but it is usually ignored, disregarded and not trusted. Of course your highly paid PR agency is going to say your product is great! Yes, your product manager will tout the cool feature she just released. Comments from your internal people will fall on deaf ears, most of the time. Prospects don’t want to be marketed to on this turf and it is often a breach of social media etiquette to pitch your product there.

However, if you can get an actual customer (with a credible point of view and real-world experience solving a similar problem) to endorse your product or service – that third party validation from a peer or colleague is what can turn a prospect into a customer and what can poach a competitor’s customer and make it your own. Wouldn’t your sales team love that? Isn’t that why we have customer references in the first place? Having customer advocates sing your praises in the conversations where buyers are making buying decisions is powerful promotion. Plus, it’s a free way to increase your brand awareness!

Who Should You Recruit Into Your Advocate Army?

An Advocate Army is your chosen inner circle of customers — your favorites, your “go-to” customers. When the Wall St. Journal wants to talk to a customer – you pick your strongest media-savvy customers to be interviewed. These are the ones who get it – they are active in social media, they keep up with the latest industry trends, they love your product and they will gladly evangelize for you. They are active on Twitter; they belong to industry groups, Linkedin groups, etc. They don’t need their hand held in a press interview and they return your calls and emails. They are on your CAB and beta test your product. They are confident both in talking about your products and in social media. In short – you can trust them and know they will never say the wrong thing when talking about your product or company.

How To Build Your Advocate Army

Building your Advocate Army does not take much time, effort or budget. Pick your best customers from your reference program and don’t forget to talk to your Sales team — whom would they choose to evangelize for you? Start small – depending on the size of your customer base, maybe you only have ten customers to start. You can grow it over time as you see fit. Reach out to these customers personally – either with a phone call or a personalized email explaining that you are inviting them to be among a select group of elite, trusted customers. Once you have a solid set of participants, schedule a one hour webinar (with your PR, Social Media or Product Marketing Director) setting out some guidelines, expectations and gentle messaging guidance. Be sure to leave ample time for questions.

Where is the conversation happening? What is the current chatter in your industry? Decide if you simply want them to say good things about your product/service/support or if you actually want them to comment with links to trials or demos. Be careful that you don’t micromanage them too much – in order for their online reputation to remain credible, their participation needs to be genuine. Also, be sure that you set it up so that they are simply weaving this into their current activity – it should not be thought of as additional reference “work” they are doing for you per se, but more like extra credit. Then, cut ‘em loose! Monitor their progress and measure their influence.

How Do You Thank Them?

Be careful how you thank your customers. Depending on your industry and your company policy, you should reward them the same way you would for any other customer reference work. If you have a point system, you could add the Advocate Army in as another way they can gain points (see extra credit above). A phone call, a handwritten note, a box of chocolates – something small with a personal touch says a lot. Let your customers know you appreciate the unique value they provide and nurture them along the way.

Building an Advocate Army is one way to extract the power of influence from your customers, increase your brand awareness and accelerate the sales cycle all at the same time. Good luck, have fun and let me know how it goes!

Kerri Shea Beers has worked in high tech for over 15 years (at both start-ups and large corporations) as a marketing director, technical writer, communications manager, copywriter, PR manager, freelance writer, advertising manager and customer reference guru. She is a published writer who has created award-winning collateral and managed global marketing communications and PR programs for multi-million dollar companies. Kerri is the owner of Monarch Communications – a strategic sales empowerment, marketing and communications firm that can help you clearly articulate your message and turn prospects into customers. Learn more at www.monarchcomms.com.

2 Comments | Customer References, Guest Post, Program Tips | Tagged: customer reference management, customer reference program, Customer References, Customers, marketing, sales, strategic plan | Permalink
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.

1 Comment | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: customer reference management, Customer References, Testimonials, Case Study, customer reference program, Customers, success story, customer interviews | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Getting the Most Out of Your Customer References

November 18, 2009

We all know that getting positive references from a customer can be a challenge, no matter how great the relationship may be. Because of this fact, we try to maximize existing material to get the most out of each reference. To do this, we recommend using the 4 Rs: Reconnect, Repurpose, Recycle, and Reward.

A well managed reference program can help unify an organization and enhance relationships with customers while conserving internal resources. We invite you to check out our recent article in Chief Marketer and learn more on how remembering the 4 Rs can help you get maximum results from your reference efforts.

Leave a Comment » | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: customer reference management, Customer References, Customers, Reference Program | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Guest Post: Think Small

October 28, 2009

iStock_000000081309XSmall In this economic downturn our budgets are shrinking and we are all trying to stretch each dollar. It seems that all this really takes is a little creativity, a few hours, and a very small budget. Today’s post is written by Anika Lehde of Projectline. Anika gives us some really simple (and inexpensive!) ideas on how to get the most bang for our B2B marketing buck. Enjoy!

Think Small

The bad news is that marketing budgets are tight. Surprise. The good news is that if you have a great product, you still have your most influential sales and marketing crew: your happy customers.

You don’t have to delay or shrink your customer reference and testimonial program because you can’t afford $30k videos, or a collection of expensive deep-dive analyst papers. Even in the business-to-business world, you can let your customers tell their story naturally and unproduced. You’ll end up with genuine messages for a fraction of the cost. Here are some examples of small formats with big impact:

Handheld Videos: Send your customers a Flip camera or other small camera with a list of questions, and ask them to film their offices and interview their employees. They can send you the footage on a memory stick, and keep the camera as a “Thank You” gift. Then you only need to edit the pieces into a 1 minute snippet and publish both to your external site and your internal reference database. Be sure to publish in a format that one can easily pass along. Ask your customer to publish it on their site too. Make it a fun storytelling event.

Solo Quotes: Create a simple place on your website to allow customers to write reviews of your products and services or use a tool like TechValidate. You can take the best quotes and integrate them into your marketing content repository, internal reference database, and CRM database. Then share these quotes via Twitter, Facebook, customer communities, direct mail, and other targeted locations unique to your audience. Be sure to package your quotes in an easily shared format. Some of the strongest quotes submitted by your customers can easily segue into more formal case studies.

Phone Audio: If you are going to interview your customers for case studies, splurge for a high quality recorder to record phone interviews. Then have your customer approve 3 or 4 audio quotes per interview. You can integrate these into online documents, presentations, community sites, your reference database, and podcasts and radio content, all for much less than sending a high-end production team to record onsite. The quality of the sound recording over the phone will add to the authenticity of the content. Hire a local photographer to take a few professional photos of your interviewees to accompany the audio quotes and bring the story to life. Just make sure to keep it short. 3-4 sentences max.

Each of the items above will cost less than $1000 in productions costs, and if you already have a reference program in place, about 10 extra hours of time devoted to the project each week. This relatively small investment can produce dozens or even hundreds of unique pieces of customer evidence required to sell in this economic environment, and add serious heft to your word-of-mouth marketing and corporate reputation efforts.

About Projectline
Anika Lehde is one of the principals at Projectline Services, Inc. Founded in 2003, Projectline is a global consulting firm dedicated to helping clients expand customer relationships and get the insights needed to make operations efficient and marketing effective. Through our expertise in Customer Engagement, Business Intelligence, and Marketing and Consulting Services, we connect customers—to our clients’ technology, to their marketing efforts, and to each other. We also connect information, bringing together comprehensive data and deep industry knowledge to deliver actionable insights that help drive technology adoption. Each of our consultants has the talent to deliver effective (and measurable) results and the commitment to share wholeheartedly in clients’ missions.

2 Comments | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: customer interviews, Customer References, Customers, Quotes, Testimonials | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

More Asking Customers For Quotes…

September 22, 2009

quotes22 Here are five more tips for collecting quotes from your customers to support your customer reference marketing efforts. And in case you missed the first post, here is part one on tips for asking customer for quotes.

1. Ask more than one contact within an organization.
Once you have identified your target customers make sure you are asking the right people within those organizations. If there are multiple people using your products/services at one company, go ahead and ask as many of them for a quote as makes sense. Again, remember to check to make sure there are no open issues with any of these individuals before you make the requests.

2. Be sincere and express gratitude.
You want good quotes, but you also need to make sure that they are real and credible. Ask only active or in some cases former customers that have real experience with your products or services. And as you do receive good quotes or reviews, make sure to reach out and let those individuals know you appreciate their support. Use this as an opportunity to build a stronger business relationship.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for more.
Folks willing to review products and services may be references in waiting. Just because they provided you with something once doesn’t mean you can’t ask for more from them. They may be willing to be a more active customer reference that speaks directly to your prospects. Or perhaps they would be willing to provide comments for an upcoming relevant news release. Use your best judgment, be respectful and ask appropriately, but remember to watch for these potentially valuable opportunities.

4. Assign an owner.
If you don’t have an owner to oversee the quotes campaign, you need to assign one. If it is left up to everyone or no one at all, you are not likely to receive the kind of results you are hoping for and you risk alienating customers. Consider assigning this important responsibility to someone in Marketing, Communications or Sales Operations as these departments are closest to customers and understand the sensitivities around caring for and servicing them.

5. Use your results.
Now that you are on your way, don’t forget why you started all this. Remember to promote the quotes on your web site and in your sales and marketing materials. Gather constructive feedback and leverage it to close support issues, to help in product development, and to develop lasting improvements in your business. Use the quotes as a launching pad to propel your business to the next level.

Done right, a proactive program to secure customer quotes can help add credibility, provide valuable insight, create a community around your products and services and ultimately convert prospects into sales.

Leave a Comment » | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: customer marketing, Customers, Quotes, Reviews | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Guest Post: Is Your Largest Customer Your Most Important One?

August 27, 2009

-l.i.l.l.i.a.n-

Maeve Naughton is an expert in the field of customer references and loyalty, and we are lucky to have her write for us today. Her post is a great reminder to us to appreciate all our customers, big and small. The little guy is often over looked but may actually have a larger impact than we think. Read on to see why.

Ask a sales person who their most important customer is and I bet 9 times out of 10 they’ll say company X because they’ve spent $2M with the company. Ask the CFO, and he/she will probably tell you the same thing. In fact, ask almost anyone in your company and they’ll agree. The most important customer is the one that spends the most amount of money. In a few cases, you might get the response of the most important customer is the highest ranking company on the Fortune list.

Do you agree? What makes the most important customer for you, the reference professional? Is it the largest spending customer? Is it best known brand name? I think it can be, but it’s absolutely not the final determinant. As a reference professional you know that there’s a lot more to a powerful customer than a big P.O. or a brand name. Right? Gosh, I hope so.

I think that the most important customer is going to be the one with the largest sphere of influence. It’s going to be the person who has the most impact on the future success of your business, not the business that has already happened – ie. the purchase order. Does “word of mouth” ring a bell?

I spend quite a bit of time interviewing customers for press release, case studies and general reference requests. I ask the customer how they first found out about my company. Sometimes it’s through a reseller, other times they had worked with my company’s products at a previous company and there are those that found out about us through word of mouth.

I have found that it’s sometimes the “little” guy that has more pull than the larger customers when it comes to their peers. Sometimes it’s the VP at a small company that is the president of the local network security group and therefore he has a lot of say and pull in what his members hear. More than likely he also has a large amount of influence because people look up to him and will ask questions of him when one of the members is looking for a new network security solution. Maybe it’s the medium sized business contact that is willing to talk to ten prospects a quarter and tell them how great your servers are or is willing to speak at conferences on your behalf. These are the guys you can’t shrug off. They have a sphere of influence that is real.

Just because a customer is a Fortune 10 company doesn’t mean that they are the most valuable asset to your company. If they aren’t willing to let the world know that they are using your products, then they might not be as strong as a force as the smaller guy who’s not ranked on Fortune’s list.

However, don’t be misled and think that just because one of your customers has 10,000 followers on Twitter or 6,000 friends on Facebook that they’re influential. Know the power of their influence by asking them.

Maeve Naughton has been focused on customer references for more than a decade and has been responsible for creating and managing programs within technology companies. She has worked with small customers up to Fortune 50 customers for media and marketing opportunities such as press releases and case studies, as well as sales and analyst references. She currently is on the board of the Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network. Read more of Maeve’s thoughts at Customer Reference Programs.

Leave a Comment » | Customer References | Tagged: Customer References, Customers | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz

Reference Success | Boulder Logic

Finding New Customer References

Know your Customer, Know Yourself

Look Forward by Looking Back to Your Most Loyal

Guest Post: Building an Advocate Army

Get the Most Mileage out of Your Customer References

Getting the Most Out of Your Customer References

Guest Post: Think Small

More Asking Customers For Quotes…

Guest Post: Is Your Largest Customer Your Most Important One?

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