When to NOT Use a Customer Reference

One of your biggest responsibilities as a customer reference manager is to get customer references so are there times you'd actually NOT use a customer reference? Most definitely. Here are some I've come across in my career:

• Customer has negative experience/unresolved issue - The best customer reference is one whose customer experience has been delightful from a to z. It's not a good time if the customer has a contract issue, unresolved support issue, have issues with their sales rep etc. If your company hasn't been responsive to them, it's obviously not the best time to use them as a reference. Hopefully your company has implemented Salesforce or another CRM so you can review customer records to stay up on their satisfaction levels. Another way to stay informed is your customer surveys. Sometimes customers will only share their unhappiness via surveys so if you company has them, try to get your hands on the results and see how satisfied your customers are or if there are red flags you need to be aware of.
• You haven't checked in with them for a while - Once a customer says they will be a reference, they are always a reference right? Wrong! You should check back with them every six months or so to make sure they are still a good reference. This is also a good opportunity to check if they are using new products/solutions or have a new success that would be good to capture. At some companies they check with the customer every time before giving out the customer as a sales reference.
• You haven't checked with the customer yourself - A mistake I made as a reference manager was trusting a sales manager that the customer was ready to be a reference. Because I trusted the sales manager, I reached out to the customer and asked them what reference activities they wanted to participate in. Big mistake. Not only were they not ready to a reference but they were pretty unhappy with the company for a few reasons. Imagine if I would have given that customer to a prospect to be a sales reference. Bottom line is ALWAYS check with the customer first before giving them out as a reference.
• The customer is hesitant - Sometimes customers have a hard time saying no and so they'll say yes with some hesitation. Make sure to listen closely to any clues that it's not a good time for them. It's better to not use a reference than use one that gives a bad reference and you lose a $200k deal.
• It's a bad time for the customer - Recently I was working with a customer whose company was going through a rough patch. He mentioned they were having layoffs coming up. Although we really needed the reference, out of respect to him I backed off and told him to let me know when things had cooled down a little. Be sensitive to your customer's lives. They will really appreciate it!

Give your Website a Customer Facelift

Today I want to talk about a powerful tool that most companies are NOT using to their full advantage. It's sharing your customer successes on your company website. Try this. Go to your company's website and pretend you are a customer or prospect. How prevalent are customer successes on your main website and as you drill down into your website?

Here are some ways that you can give your website a customer facelift:

• Customer Success Focus - On your company home page how many examples of customer success are there? Are there customer video testimonials on your main page? How about customer quotes? Make sure that on your website, it's easy to see that your customers are having positive experiences. Your company's number one goal is to hit more revenue and in this economy you need to make your company stand out against your competitors. Sharing your customer successes is one way you can do this.
• Customer drop-down list or section - Make it easy for customers to find 'their' tools. This can include your video testimonials, success stories, community, reference program, ROI tools, etc. This also helps your prospects find out what they need to know to make buying decisions. "Research shows the number one thing that influences a customer to buy is a customer reference (2.5 more times likely to buy when company can articulate message with a customer reference). References validate the message a company is saying about their product/solution and references reduce risks." (Richard Fouts, Gartner Analyst) From personal experience it's not just customer references that help close deals but the sharing of customer success.
  
• Customer quotes - In a perfect world, every single company web page would have a 'powerful' customer quote. What do I mean by powerful? I mean a quote that has real metrics around the improvement a customer has seen from implementing your product. For example "I saved $410,000 in just one year by implementing product x". Gather up your powerful customer quotes and put them to good use on your website. One place this works really well is on your product/solution pages/ For years companies have put the benefits of why a prospect should buy their product on these pages, but put some customer success quotes on these pages that point to a success story and then you are taking it to a whole new level of marketing!

These are just a few ideas but hopefully it gets you to take a look at your company website and think how you can use your customer's to sell your story. Nothing can tell your company story as well as your customer advocates can.

Reference Programs and a Positive Attitude

Yesterday in a job interview I was asked if this is a career I want to stay in. Yes, yes and yes! Although I must say it can be quite challenging being a customer reference manager, I love it! I think one thing that helps me do so well as a reference manager is my positive attitude. Here are some common myths about reference programs and some suggestions on how a positive attitude can help you overcome them:

• "No one wants to be a customer reference" - Of course they do! There are companies with thousands of references. When I was at LANDesk about 15% of our customers were customer references. All you have to do is ask and remember there are different types of references so if your customer says no to a video or case study ask them if they will be a sales or analyst reference. ALSO try to find out what your customers goals are for the year. Once you know their goals you can position your reference program to help them achieve them!
• "No one wants to do a video testimonial" - Are you kidding me? There are tens of thousands of customer videos on the Internet these days. For kicks and giggles I went to YouTube and there are 178,000 "video testimonials" and that's just on YouTube! All you have to do is find the right customers (happy customers who have a story to share) and ask them! If they say no, then there are plenty of others to ask. Leverage your sales reps relationships with them and have the sales rep ask them to do a video. Of course it helps too if you have great products!
• "Fortune 500 customers never do references" Wanna bet? One of my favorite things to do when a Fortune 500 customer or their rep says no is go search for all the case studies and videos the company has done! They do them, maybe not as much as other customers but they do them! One of the ways to get them to do a reference is if your product has saved them a lot of money and time and your customer advocate is willing to go to bat for you!
• "I can't get any of my customers to do press" - Then you haven't asked the right customers or asked them the right way. Customers do press ALL the time whether it's a press release for your company, interviews with press etc. Find your customer advocates and then work with their PR or communications group to do something together.

The bottom line is you need to believe that your customers are willing to do these things and keep a positive attitude! You will get a no sometimes and you will get so many requests from people that it's overwhelming but never give up. Your role at the company is one of the most important as the customer successes you discover and share can impact revenue like no other marketing material. Good luck and keep smiling!

Reference Program Tools for Sales

One of the traps you can fall into as a reference manager is to spend all your time doing tactical tasks (fulfilling references, handling reference requests from public relations and analyst relations, etc) and not being strategic. To be a great reference manager you need to spend time being both tactical and strategic. Some examples of being strategic include developing your customer reference plan, setting customer reference program goals, strategizing how you can help other teams at your company, setting goals around your company's yearly objectives, and developing your customer references for your newer products/solutions.

The teams you can help most as a customer reference manager are your sales teams. Customer references are a very powerful tool to not only help close sales but also to help arm your sales reps with customer successes to generate interest with prospects, promote selling new products to current customers and to use in competitive situations. Here are some of the favorites I have developed and/or used.

• Customer Success Examples - This is a document that lists customer successes by industry and includes the company name, the original pains, the products/solutions they've implemented and their successes. The best successes are specific metrics like how much they saved in dollars/ time/headcount, productivity increases, ROI, etc. These are very powerful tools for sales, inside sales and others to learn customer successes they can use when they talk with customers and prospects.
• Customer Success Slides - These slides take some time but are really worth it. They are similar to the success examples but it is one customer success per one Powerpoint slide. On this slide you can include the customer logo, customer profile (revenue, number of employees, industry), then you list the customer pain, the products/solutions they've implemented and their successes. These are helpful for sales to have background on your customer successes but also because they can use the slides for presentations they give to customers.
• Customer References by Industry and Geography- This are simply Powerpoint Slides which list your customer references by industry and geography which again helps your sales teams know customer references and also customer names they can drop during conversations with customers.

Repurposing Customer Reference Material

Here's a scenario. One of your customer's has agreed to be a customer reference. In February you ask him for some quotes. In March you ask him to be in a press release. Then you go back to him in June and ask him to help you do a case study. And then in August you go back to him to ask him to do a video testimonial. Well in the course of seven months you have bothered your customer four times and taken up an incredible amount of his valuable time. There has to be a better way right?

One way to do this is to re-purpose your customer reference materials. Right now I am working with a client who is developing customer video testimonials and is very smart about it. They asked extra questions at the video shoot and then they had the video transcribed. All that it required of the customer is a two hour video shoot and from that we can get a video, quotes, and their story for a potential case study and press release.

Another example of this is if your customer does a webinar for you. Make sure to get their presentation and also transcribe the webinar and voila you have the material to need to write up a case study and quotes for various marketing materials. Of course, you should go back to your customer to ask them if you can use their comments for quotes and a case study.

I think some customers say no to helping with customer references because they are worried about how much time it will take. They already have a full-time job and it isn't their responsibility to help you with yours. Make it easy on them. Try some of these ideas out and come up with some of your own. Let's make life easier on our reference customers. I promise they'll love you for it!

Success Tip: LinkedIn Groups

One of the most valuable resources I have found as a customer reference professional is networking. Whether it's going to the Customer Reference Forum conference or staying connected on the various reference LinkedIn groups, networking has proven to be one of my favorite things about our customer reference community. Here are some of my favorite ways to stay connected with the community!

LinkedIn Groups

• Customer Reference Forum - Started by Bill Lee,(Customer Reference Forum), this group includes 360 reference professionals that provide information, advice, and tools to help each other.
• Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network
- The Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network (CRKSN) is a community for marketing professionals who work on customer references, customer evidence, customer testimonials.
• Customer Reference Professionals - Another group of reference professionals
• Success-Story Marketing - This group isn't for reference professionals specifically but for those who work with success stories. It was started by one of my favorite success story writers, Casey Hibbard, who wrote "Stories that Sell".

Customer References for Analysts

Definition:
1. The Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) is a proprietary research tool developed by Gartner Inc., a US based research and advisory firm. According to Gartner, the Magic Quadrant aims to provide a qualitative analysis into a market and its direction, maturity and participants, thus possibly enabling a company to be a stronger competitor for that market.
2. A customer reference request that can make your heart rate speed up and cause panic.

Alright to be honest it's not that bad but there are some things you should know about this type of request. First of all, let me say I've only done analyst requests for Gartner so that is what my experiences are based on. I have helped with at least ten Magic Quadrants while I've been a customer reference manager. The most important thing is to provide the best customer references you have. The analyst will interview your customer and then will base a lot of his/her decision where to place your company in the Magic Quadrant on your customer's feedback, so take your time to qualify your customers to make sure you are providing the best references you have!

Second, if you are prepared this won't be too stressful. All you have to provide Gartner is a list of usually 10-12 of your top customers they can interview. Depending on the analyst, you usually will need to provide some customers in the following categories: enterprise, medium and smaller business. Hopefully by now, you've been building up your reference list and you can pull out your handy dandy database or spreadsheet and look at who you have for your analyst references. Depending on what analyst you will be working with on the Quadrant you may have to provide information about your customers like number of employees, offices worldwide, etc. What I have found useful is to whip up aan online survey you customers can fill out in a few minutes to provide this information. This has been very effective.

Third, while this is an important request it can also be easier to fulfill than others. 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. This is where you can finally use your big-name Fortune 100 customers who can't help with any other reference requests such as press and other public-facing activities.

Customer Reference Program Metrics

As you build or expand your customer reference program, one thing you definitely want to capture are metrics. This is going to be an important component of your program to show productivity and also help demonstrate the return on investment of your program. There are many metrics you can track but here are some of the most popular metrics used:

• Number of requests over time (by type, region and product)


• Percentage fulfilled and average time to fulfill them


• Source of requests (Sales, PR, AR, etc)


• Value and percentage of deals that closed which included reference activity. You can also track the value of RFPs for which you provide references


• Coverage gaps closed (by reference type, content type, region and product)


• Number of case studies, videos, references you have in your program

For more information on Customer Reference Program metrics check out the following:

• Examples of typical reports and metrics for a CRP Management Dashboard are available at Customer Reference Program.org


• Also there is a Metrics SIG (Special Interest Group) that's part of the Customer Reference Forum. In this newsletter article, Bill Lee talks with a Customer Reference Program Manager about metrics. Read more


• Podcasts by Customer Reference Insights which cover metrics and other topics

By using metrics with your program you can take it to a whole new level. Abby Atkinson, from Infor, was not only able to justify her program but add new headcount based on metrics that she tracked! With metrics she proved time she was saving sales reps, deals she was influencing and more. She shared her insights at a Customer Reference Forum last year and it was incredibly insightful to see what she was able to do just by capturing metrics.

What's in it for Customers?

As you recruit customers for your customer reference program you will often be asked by customers "What's in it for me"? In an earlier post I said I am not a big fan of reward programs for customer reference programs however over the years I have learned there are other benefits which customers really value. Here are some I have used:

• Participation in your company's Customer Advisory Board
• Getting individual and/or organizational recognition for their product leadership
• Opportunities to network with peers
• Spotlighting their company and IT department successes
• Access to product roadmap and opportunities to provide input on product development
• Access to executives and product teams
• Early adopter and beta program opportunities
• Press, speaking and video testimonial opportunities

One of the most valuable benefits is the opportunity to participate in your Customer's Advisory Board (CAB). At one company we had two CABs, one for executives and one for for senior technical management. Customers who helped us with reference requests were asked to participate with customers who helped us with all the levels (sales, press, analyst, success stories and videos) being given top priority. If your company doesn't have a customer advisory board, I recommend you look into it as it's very beneficial to your customers and your company. For additional information on Customer Advisory Boards, check out Customer Advisory Board org.

Another opportunity we provided reference customers was the opportunity to provide input into the product roadmap and development. At LANDesk, I had great relationships with the product managers and often when they needed input on product development or roadmap, we would whip up a survey and send it to the reference customers. This was a very powerful win-win for the customers and the company. The reference customers loved giving input and of course the product managers loved getting valuable feedback from our customer advocates.

On opportunities to network with peers, this also worked well when I worked at LANDesk. I often had reference customers ask me to introduce them to other reference customers in their industry to get their input on IT direction and strategy. They really valued that I was able to introduce them to their peers in the same industry, same size company and with the same IT challenges.

These are just a few ideas but hopefully it gets your started thinking about how you can provide value to your customers with your reference program. One of the greatest things about Customer Reference Programs is there really isn't a right or wrong way ro run your program. You can be innovative as you build your program and always be on the lookout for more ways to serve your customers!

Executive Support for your Program

An important component of your customer reference program is executive support. Whether you are just getting started or already have a program, having an executive sponsor is a must have for your program. Every now and then there's the executive who understands the value of reference programs and gives you the support you need including headcount, budget and internal support. Here are some tips to help you find and work with your executive sponsor.

First, secure your executive sponsor. There is a difference between your manager who supports your program and an executive sponsor with the political power you need to help your program truly be successful. To start with identify the executive you would like to support your program. Typically it's an executive in sales or marketing but it can be anyone whom 'gets it'. Next make an appointment with them to talk to them about what you need for your customer reference program. Don't forget to involve your manager in the strategizing on who to target and definitely include them in the appointment! Present to the executive your vision or your reference program with a few details and then ask the executive if they are willing to be your executive sponsor. Once they say yes, include them in your customer reference plan. Once you've developed your plan and list them as the executive sponsor, you are much more likely to get the inter-departmental support you need to help your program. If the executive says no, find out what it would take to get them to sponsor you. They might just want you to develop your strategic vision more or something simple.

Second, there are many ways to get help from your executive sponsor. They can help you get the cooperation you need internally. It's much more effective to build the relationships you need across the company with their endorsement that trying to do it on your own as a maverick on a mission. They can also help you with headcount and budget as they will have the power to get these things for you.

Third make sure to keep them in the loop. Always keep them updated on how the program is developing. One easy way to do this is have a Powerpoint slide that lists your target metrics (number of references, success stories, videos etc) and how you are doing against them. Be sure to also include any big successes you've accomplished in your program such as new sales tools you've developed, press coverage etc.

Your executive sponsor is your advocate and influencer. If you find the right one, they will be selling your program for you whenever they get the opportunity. One warning is that the support usually wears off after a while. It's normal that they will move on to other priorities and passions so once you have support act quickly and take advantage of the timing. If they really back on their support after a while, considering finding another executive sponsor.

Finding and Recruiting References

One of the biggest challenges for customer reference managers is finding and recruiting customers. If you are lucky enough to work for a large company like EMC, Microsoft, Intel, HP and Oracle your job will be easier because customers WANT to be part of your reference program! In fact EMC has an awesome reference program called Studio E. On their Studio E website customers sign THEMSELVES up to be a reference. The EMC reference team then calls them and finds out what level they want to be, gets more details, etc.

For the rest of us who work for smaller companies it's a different process. We have to first find potential references. What I usually do when I start with a reference program is build a target reference list which I call my "reference pipeline". When building your 'reference pipeline' be sure to include a wide variety of customers in different geographies, industries, products, new products, and company size. This is important to ensuring your reference program helps your company's strategic long-term direction.

In my reference pipeline, I try to have at least 100 target references. I find these by talking to the internal teams that work with customers (sales, inside sales, support, consulting etc), reviewing forums for customers 'advocates', attending sales meetings/calls, reviewing sales systems for long-time big name customers, working with product management and reviewing customer surveys for happy customers. Hopefully your company has a Net Promoter® survey or at least includes these questions in your customer surveys to identify the customers with the highest satisfaction and willingness to recommend! These are just a few ideas to identify references, but what I love about being a reference manager is that I can be creative in finding customer references!

Recruiting reference customers is one of my favorite things to do. I think it's my sales background but I love asking customers if they will join a reference program! I have call and e-mail scripts but I usually try to change it up a little every time to see which ways work best. It's seriously like closing a sale. The worst they can say is 'no' and that causes me no physical pain. If they say maybe, ask when you can check back and if there's anything you can do to get them to say yes. Even if they say no, qualify that more. Is it a HARD no or a soft no? If it's soft no, ask if you can check back in 3-6 months or if there's anything you can do to help out. Whatever their response is make sure to track it so you can follow up if needed. I highly suggest though that you always work with sales to ask customers. Sometimes they want to ask the customers themselves, be on a call with you or will let you go directly to the customer. But never go around your sales reps. It's very disrespectful and won't build you any points with them if you know what I mean!

For more on this topic, I recommend an article by Joshua Horwitz of Boulder Logic "To Grow Your Customer References, Get Support from Those That Know Them Best" . He expands more on working with key people internally who have trust relationships with customers to help you get references.

Success Tip - Building Relationships

One of the biggest tips I have for making a customer reference program successful is to build relationships. This is usually the difference between a good and a great customer reference program. Along with this from my experience the most successful reference managers are those that are great at building relationships.

The most important person you'll be building relationships with are your customers. Do you have the ability to get along with everyone regardless of their age, education, job title, industry, background, culture, etc. It's really important to have this skill as customers can tell if you genuinely like them or not. Also if you have a strong relationship with them, you'll be looking for opportunities how to help them be successful by promoting their successes. It goes back to the win-win relationship I keep talking about in my blog.

But even before you can get customer references you need to have strong relationships with your internal customers primarily sales employees! Sales reps and management usually have unique personalities. They are very passionate, driven, no nonsense, quota driven people and I LOVE working with them! To be successful you'll have to understand them and then build relationships with them. Again genuine relationships are helpful as a sales rep can smell a faker a mile away.

You'll also need strong relationships with others in your company including marketing, support, consulting, product management, executives etc. There is absolutely NO way to build a reference program without help from others. So what are you waiting for? Pick three people you want to build a stronger relationship with and get started today!

Tips for a Successful Video Testimonial

One of the most effective customer reference program tools are video testimonials. These are amazing tools which can be used for many purposes including putting on your website, using at tradeshows/events, sharing with internal employees, for sales reps to use on sales calls, lead generation activities, customer newsletters, put in on YouTube, etc. Video testimonials are so effective because people trust the authentic voice of a customer and because we like to buy products and services that know has worked for someone else. Another reason people like videos are because we are a generation that likes things quicker. Why read a customer success story that takes 5-10 minutes when we could watch a two minute video?

Here are some tips I've learned in my five years of working with video testimonials.

• Hands down my favorite tip is to repurpose the content from your videos. Get all the footage from the filmmaker, have someone transcribe and then use that content for a success story, press release, pitch for press articles, use in collateral etc. It's amazing how much you can get more bang for your buck AND save your customer from having to tell the same story over and over again!
• Always try to get the highest level employee possible for your video. If your contact at the company is a database manager, try to see if you can get his boss or even the CIO in the video. That adds so much more credibility when you have senior management in the video.
• Ensure that the video being shot matches what you need as a marketing team. BEFORE you even ask a customer to do a video, are they the right customer to do a video? For example, are they a good size company, big-name company, in an industry your company is targeting, is their story interesting, are they using a new product etc? Make sure you qualify those things before the video and then make sure to have the customer point these things out in the video.
• Filming customers at events can save a lot of money and time! I really like filming at customer sites too but if you have a customer event coming up, see if you can get some customer advocates to be videotaped at events. At LANDesk, I got seven customer video testimonials in one afternoon!
• Shop around to get the best quality and price for vendors. I have paid as little as $2,000 and as much as $50,000 and while there was some difference between these two, it wasn’t a $48,000 difference.
• DO NOT do just a talking head video. Look for opportunities to get a customer demoing how they use the software, film a team meeting in a conference room, show their data center, show people talking at their desks, whiteboarding something at a board, etc. Make sure to film the office including their logo, awards they've won, agents in their call center, whatever you can. Definitely get some b-roll outside including the building, the campus, company sign etc. If you get a great filmmaker they'll already be doing these things but stay on top of it so you get the video you want and are paying for.
• Always send someone from your company to supervise the video shoot including making sure your customer is treated like gold, ensure everything runs smoothly, pick the filming locations, ask the questions, ask follow-up questions, handle issues that come up, etc. In my book this is a necessity.
• Make your video testimonial compelling! Make sure the customer talks about return on investment including dollars/time/headcount saved, impact your product/solution has had on their company, the results they've seen etc. Without this your video is just a video. With stats, metrics, powerful statements then you have a video testimonial.
• Help your customers! Send them materials to help them prepare for the video shoot. I've put together a video guideline sheet that is two pages of tips to help your customer be comfortable (what to wear, what to expect, how to prepare etc). It's a great document that customers love!
• Last but not least, always give your customers the questions beforehand, so they can think about their answers BEFORE the shoot. They'll appreciate your thoughtfulness and they won't be as nervous!

More Customer Reference Programs!

Since I started working with reference programs five years ago I have wondered why every company doesn't have a reference program? From my research most software companies have a reference program and some hardware companies do but I would think every company would need one! I mean in theory every company has customers, every company has sales people and every company wants to increase their sales. Am I missing something? Here are a few reasons why I think EVERY company needs one!

First it's a small investment that can reap huge rewards! You hire one marketing person and they alone can increase your revenue, company brand, sales effectiveness, press coverage etc! Sure if you want to go big, you can spend more on your program including videos, success stories, etc but honestly just having sales references alone that impact your company at least 10x what it will cost you to hire that one employee.

Second, I honestly think a customer reference program could benefit any company. I mean think about it. Financial Services need customer references to help in their marketing efforts. Healthcare and Biotechnology is another industry that would benefit from reference programs! Think about it. These tried and true concepts of customer references apply to any company, any size and any industry. It's been really fun for me to see other companies attending the Customer Reference Forum and I we see even more in the future!

Third, it can really help build your employee morale. Sure it's great to provide pizza every now and then to build up your employee's morale but sharing customer successes internally is a huge morale booster! For example, if you have research and development and there are engineers who are developing your product, wouldn't it help those engineers to know that the products they are developing work and work well? Share those successes internally and you'll see how much of an impact it has!

Success Tip - Communication

One of the biggest things that can help your Customer Reference Program be a success is communication. Whether you are just building your program or already have a program in place communication can be a real game changer. There's no right or wrong answer but I will say the more creative and proactive you are with communicating your program the more positive results you will see (customer reference program acceptance, number of references, success stories, video testimonials etc).

An example of this is internal communication. Do you look for every opportunity to communicate (aka sell) your program internally including employee newsletters, corporate intranet, sales conferences etc? Does every new sales employee get an overview on your reference program and how you two can work together to benefit the company? Have you provided sales tools to help the sales teams be successful including a presentation for them to talk about your program, customer success examples, customer success slides, etc? Have you reached out to other departments (Consulting, Services, Support, Sales etc) to find out about customer advocates they are aware of and to make sure they are briefed on your reference program?

How well are you doing on communicating your program externally? On your main company website is it easy to find out about your customer successes and information on your reference program? In every customer newsletter you should make sure it includes a customer success and a link to your program to learn more. Are you working with your lead generation marketing team to leverage the customer success tools you have including videos and success stories? Do you go to customer/user conferences to meet customers and promote your program?

Challenge - Fortune 500 References

One of the biggest challenges we face as a Customer Reference Manager is getting Fortune 500 customers to be references. Many of them will do sales and analyst references but when it comes to doing anything public (case study, video testimonial, press interviews, press releases etc.) they don't like to say yes. In fact a lot of these companies have corporate policies saying their employees cannot participate in any of these and they can lose their job if they do.

So should you give up and not even try? Not at all. Even if there's a one percent chance you could REALLY impact your company's sales, would you do it? It isn't easy but you can get Fortune 500 references and here are some tips that can help you:

• Go for the highest levels possible in the organization (CIO, VPs etc) and position it as a win-win opportunity for them. Find out what their goals are for the year and see if you can help (Example - Getting more recognition for their IT success). One thing that really works is have your senior executive (CMO) ask their senior executive (CMO/CIO). It's amazing how powerful this approach is!
• Leverage the sales reps'/manager's relationship with the customer and have the sales rep ask them
• Only ask for one request at a time rather than asking for everything (Video, case study, speaking opportunity etc.). Shoot for activites that benefit the customer. For example, one I had a Vice-President of IT at a Fortune 100 company speak on a Radio Talk Show for CIOs. Her goal was to become a CIO and this helped position her as a thought leader with an audience that could help her career.
• Keep your ears open. A few times after big wins (fixing a technical problem, save the company a ton of money, time etc) I have reached out to the customer to see if they would do something for us. This has worked more than a few times!
• Persistence and ask periodically. Sometimes company policies change or they get a new legal/executive/communications team that isn't as strict.
• Last but not least it takes time. In fact probably weeks or even months longer than if you just ask a small to medium business but honestly it's so worth it. Some of my biggest wins as a Reference Manager were when I was able to get Fortune 500 customers to help with reference activities!

For more on this topic, Bill Lee, of the Customer Reference Forum shares some thoughts in his June 2010 newsletter.

Challenge - Asking for the Reference

Being a Customer Reference Manager is like being a sales person in quite a few ways. One example of this is how you have to sell your program internally and to customers. Another example of this, and one of the most challenging, is asking your customers to be references. This is challenging for some because we are marketing type people not sales. Luckily I spent 12 years in call centers including doing some inside sales so for me it's pretty easy. Here are some tips I've picked up along the way.

First, do your research before-hand. Know everything you can about the customer including order history, environment, current situation, company (revenue, number of employees, industry etc), what products they are using, etc. I believe the more you know about them the more successful you'll be in getting the reference. Plus the more you know, the more confident you'll be in going for the reference (very similar to closing a sale!).

Second, just go for it. I know that asking customers to be a reference is just not comfortable for some of us. It might be out of our comfort zone to ask others to do anything but the only way you'll know if a customer will be a reference is to ask. Know upfront there will be some that will say no. And guess what. That's ok. Richard Fouts at Gartner estimates that you can 'close' fifty percent of your reference pipeline. If a customer says "no", it's just them saying "no" and typically it's not even a reflection on you or the company. They just don't want to for whatever reason. I remember a few years asking one customer and he said no. I took it a little personally and the later found out his mother was really ill and he wanted more time to spend with her.

Third, realize it will benefit the customers too. Customers, especially those who thought leaders, want to share their positive experiences and successes with others. In fact, there are some waiting right now for you to pick up the phone and call them. Ok maybe not but hopefully you get the point.

Here are some other tips:

• Develop call scripts
• Ask sales for help. If you don't know the customer well enough, ask the sales rep to do a intro call for you.
• SELL the customers on the value of the program. Remember win-win!
• Track the response, whether it's yes/no/later. If it's a later, get a month when you can check back. Also if you feel comfortable ask what you can do to get them to say yes. Sometimes it's something simple, like get them a price quote.

Being a Reference Manager - Pros and Cons

Someone recently asked me why I am a Customer Reference Manager. The answer was easy - It's my passion and I feel lucky to have found a career I love! I have never had a job where I can impact a company as much as I can as a Customer Reference Manager. I can help sales in many ways including helping them close deals faster, answering their RFPs on time, give their customers recognition for being thought leaders, give them sales tools they love and so much more. I can help them
PR team have better press releases by including customer quotes and giving them customer advocates who are willing to do press interviews. I can help marketing by developing some of the most downloaded assets on the websites - video testimonials and case studies. I can help executives by giving them customer stories to share with analysts, with the press and internally. I can help employee morale by sharing how real-life customers are using the product and having great success with it.

There are of course challenges being a Customer Reference Manager. I heard once that the average time someone stays in this role is one year. I don't know if that's true but I have to wonder when I go to the Customer Reference Forum and people have switched companies and there are a lot of new faces. One year isn't long for a job but this isn't an ordinary job! The challenges include: stress of getting requests 24 x 7 x 365, pressure to find happy customers with minimal help from others, balancing your time between strategic and tactical, the ability to balance projects without dropping the ball EVER, a think skin to handle when you get told no by customers, sales skills to sell customers on why they should be references and internally to sell your program, and so much more... However even these things are fun for me. They are challenges that can be solved especially someone with passion, a positive attitude, enthusiam and some Chutzpah!

Reference Programs - Luxury or Necessity?

Over the past few weeks some friends have commented that Customer Reference Programs are a luxury for companies. Really? They are a luxury? I disagree for many reasons. First, if your company is truly customer-focused you will have increased sales, customer satisfaction and employee morale. Some companies in fact, see customer reference programs as so valuable that they have built an entire organization around customer references and feedback. Oracle has a team of over 100 people in their "Customer Focus" organization and they would agree it's been wildly successful. At the Customer Reference Forum earlier this year, I got to hear Julie Tung talk about their Customer Focus organization and programs. Here's a recap of her presentation. One of my favorite books, Discipline of Market Leaders talks about this quite a bit. They say "Making the improvement of the chosen value to customers the focus of the entire company will result in corresponding shareholder value". Another author says "Between 85% and 95% of senior business leaders believe that the next competitive differentiator is Customer Experience. Implementing a comprehensive Customer Focus Strategy will give you a unique competitive advantage." (Ray Miller - That's Customer Focus)

Second, research has shown that companies who have an established reference program can decrease the length of the sales cycle and increase the efficiency of employees. Just the other day, Gartner Analyst Richard Fouts gave these two points:

• The sales cycle used to be 12 months now it’s 15 months (increase by 20%)and customer references help shorten the sales cycle. Customer references are more important than ever to help shorten the sales cycle and have huge impact on revenue.
• #1 thing that influences a customer to buy is a customer reference (2.5 more times likely to buy when company can articulate message with a customer reference). References validate the message a company is saying about their product/solution and references reduce risks. (Gartner survey - Richard Fouts)

Third, never underestimate the power of a passionate customer reference program manager. If you get the right person in this type of role they don't just impact your reference program but can help transform your company to be more customer focused and roll out more customer programs and initiatives (customer welcome programs, customer surveys, communication etc).

Please discuss.

Before You Start - Customer Love

One of the most important things you need before you start your program is make sure you have the right attitude toward customers. The best customer reference programs are when a companies and customers work together for a win/win relationship. If you are building a reference program just to get what you need from customers, you are missing out on a great opportunity build some amazing relationships with your most valuable asset - your customers. There are many things you can do to build the right kind of relationship with your customers.

First, make sure your program is going to track reference activities so you don't overuse customers. Your customers have a full-time job at 'their' company. Anything they do to help you is taking them away from their job, their family and their lives. Be respectful of their time making sure you do everything you can to take up as little of their time as possible. It takes a lot of work to get a reference and the quickest way to lose a reference is to overuse them. By tracking reference activities and customer asks, you can spread the requests among all your references.

Second, as you develop your program make sure to build into your processes the need to be respectful of customers. You should be always courteous to your customers in your e-mails, phone calls etc. One example of this is timing. If you PR team gives you a week to get a customer quote, then immediately start reaching out to customers to ask them for quotes. It takes time to get things approved on their end and so build that into your process. In my book, it's very disrespectful to go to a customer and ask them to give you a quote in a day. Sometimes I know it happens that way, but when possible reach out early.

Third, stay in touch with your customers. Periodically reach out to them to make sure they are still happy references and especially to make sure to thank them for their help with reference activities. If they are unhappy with another department, make sure to forward on their concerns and follow-up. This is what makes a customer for life.

Before You Start - Customer Incentives

One of the most controversial topics in the Customer Reference Program world is the customer incentives. On yesterday's Gartner call Richard Fouts said that 90% of customers are willing to be references without any sort of incentive. This just validates what I strongly recommend to others. When I first started customer referencing five years ago I researched this topic quite heavily and solicited feedback from others. Here are some reasons why I chose to not have an official incentive program for reference customers.

First, customers themselves say it isn't necessary. If 90% of customers say they are willing to be a reference without an incentive, why would we incent them? I'm not saying I haven't ever incented them, I just have never had an official rewards program. Second, I want genuine customer advocates to be part of my reference program. I don't want to buy their loyalty or incent them for doing something they want to do anyway. Third, I have always been a one person show at my companies and it takes time to administer a reference reward program. For me, I would much rather spend my time on more strategic tasks.

What I suggest instead is providing customer value to customers who participate in your reference programs. This can include access to executives, input into your product roadmap, invitation to participate in customer advisory boards, promoting them as a thought leader in case studies and in press, opportunities to speak at conferences, and others along these lines. One example of this was the beta program at LANDesk Software. When I got an e-mail from the beta manager about a new beta coming up, I would send an e-mail out to the reference customers giving them first dibs on being part of the beta.

One last suggestion is that you have to make a shift mentally from "I'm bugging our customers" to I am providing value to my customers. Develop a win-win relationship between you and your customers and not only will you have a succesful reference program but this will impact your sales revenue as well. Good luck to you as you build your program and Happy Referencing!

Gartner Webinar Recap - "How to Manage a Successful Customer Reference Program"

Today I had the opportunity to listen to a great Gartner webinar presented by Richard Fouts (Gartner Analyst) and Linda Welch (Global Marketing Director at Unisys). It was a great seminar which covered a lot of important principles for companies building or expanding their Customer Reference Programs. Here are some key takeaways and I'll post a link to the Gartner site where you can hear a replay and maybe even download the slide.

• The sales cycle used to be 12 months now it’s 15 months (increase by 20%)and customer references help shorten the sales cycle. Customer references are more important than ever to help shorten the sales cycle and have huge impact on revenue.


• #1 thing that influences a customer to buy is a customer reference (2.5 more times likely to buy when company can articulate message with a customer reference). References validate the message a company is saying about their product/solution and references reduce risks. (Gartner survey - Richard Fouts)


• There is a lot of research that shows how impactful references can be. For example last year CIO Insight said that consumers buy 25% faster when provided references


• Manage the program just like you manage your sales pipeline. I've been preaching this for years and I'm so pleased to hear someone else share this philosophy. Richard estimates you can close about 50% of references in your pipeline.


• Over 90% of customers will be references without financial compensation. Offer incentives like advance notice of product development roadmaps, tradeshows and publicity, co-marketing campaigns, free attendance at your events, and speaking opportunities.


• Providers are leaving a lot of ROI on the table by limiting references to sales opportunities.

View the recorded webinar

Before You Start - Develop Your Vision

An important part of a customer reference program is your program vision. This is important for many reasons including selling your vision to executives to get your program approved/get headcount/get budget, to help find your executive sponsor, to sell your program to sales employees and other stakeholders in your company, and so much more! A quote I heard many years ago that I love is "Shoot for the moon and you'll land in the stars". If your vision of your reference program is to provide references to sales, then that's what you will get. If your vision is to develop a program that impacts a company's revenue, builds your brand and improves employee morale, then that's what you will get!

Here are some things to consider as you develop your program vision. First of all, develop your program overview and set some objectives. The next step is to evaluate your needs and current program (if applicable). Next develop your future vision or what you want your program to be. This can include metrics, success criteria, program scope, phased rollouts, target goals, etc. This can be a great opportunity for you to create the program you want and to create it how you want it.