One of the first things you'll need to do when setting up your customer reference program is to identify which customers will do which reference activities. Most people when they think of references think of sales references but there are other reference activites that you will probably need to ask your customers to do.
First, yes there are sales references. A sales reference is when a customer speaks to customers or prospects by phone or e-mail about their experiences with deployment, wins and ROI results. Typically they ask want to speak to a customer who has similar environment (industry, size, problems, etc) so knowing this information about your references is important! Most customers can do sales references without having to get approval from corporate or their management. The only limitation on this is that some large companies have a policy that their employees can only give references to 'existing' customers and not prospects.
Second, you have analyst references. The reason I list this next is because again most customers can do these without getting corporate or management approval, as it's a confidential reference and the company's name will never be used. Note that this reference is only applicable if your company is involved with analysts, such as being included in a Gartner Magic Quadrant. If you have been asked by Gartner (or another analyst) to give references, then you will need to be sure to provide the best references you have. Depending on which analyst you are working with, they might ask for a variety of references such as some enterprise, mid-size and smaller companies. The analyst will base a lot of his/her decision where to place your company in the Magic Quadrant on your customer's feedback, so again take your time to make sure you are providing the best references you have!
Third, you have press references including a quote for a press release, interview for a magazine or a customer success the PR agency will pitch to the press. These are a bit trickier as typically a customer will need to get approval from corporate or management so they don't jeopardize their job. Note on this one is DO NOT assume a customer can't do it until you ask them. I had one customer who let us pitch his story to the press and when a feature article ran in a prominent health magazine he was called up at a company meeting by his senior management and he got a standing ovation! Few tips on this include: Give your customer enough time to get approvals, qualify customers as they join your reference program so you know BEFORE you get a press request who your options are and if possible give your customer a quote to approve. The last one is my favorite as it really works. If you ask a customer for a quote, typically they just don't know what to say and it can be overwhelming to some. However if you give them a quote, they will approve it, ask for changes or come up with a new one but somehow giving them a quote is a motivator.
Fourth, you have a written success story. These are pretty straight forward but here are some tips I've learned in five years of working with success stories. Always try to find out up front if there's approval they will need to get the story published. There is nothing more frustrating than working on a success story and paying for one to get written and then the customer says it can't be published. Also make it easier on the customer. I ask them if they want to fill out a questionnaire vie email or if they want me to do a phone interview with them. The easier you make it on them, the smoother the process with go. Customers are busy and they are doing you a favor so always be respectful of their time. Another tip is to really focus on the ROI results. To me if you don't have ROI information such as how much time/dollars saved, productivity improvements etc then you don't have a story. Make sure to always leverage the success story everywhere you can - the web, collateral, newsletters etc. Finally, if you Twitter and/or Facebook, make sure to announce the availability of a new success story!
Fifth, you have a video testimonial which is a valuable sales and marketing tool! These can be used on your website, at events, in newsletters, on sales visits, etc. One of my favorite things to do with these is transcribe them and then use their story to start writing a success story, quotes to use in collateral etc. Again it's important to ask up front who needs to approve these to get them published and go through the approval process before you start. These videos can be expensive and you are wasting precious marketing dollars if you don't get these approved first. Some other tips: film customers at events when possible as this will save you money and time and a lot of customers don't have to get approvals like they would if you film onsite, shop around for vendors as prices can vary from $5k to $50k a video, when possible have a company representative at the video shoot for many reasons and provide your customer a video guidelines document to help them out as most are not professional actors.
PS - There are many other activities such as customer speaker opportunities, site visits etc and we'll talk about those in future posts!
