Monday, August 9, 2010

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.