How can you convince a customer to engage in the Reference Program? I have often had this conversation with sales and they ask – what are you going to give my customer in return? I think the answer is ‘it depends’… First I ask the sales guy a question ‘did you give this customer a discount in order to close the deal?’ It doesn’t take a genius to work out the answer to that one! It always good to try to re-educate the field to ensure that there’s a caveat in place when they have the discount conversation – that way your reference funnel starts off in a healthy state.
The answer also depends on what type of reference you need – if it’s a short term need it’s easier to give a training or consultancy day(s) in return for a quote or case study. It also depends on who your customer is – if you engage with a team leader or techie within your customer base they may respond to the offer of a corporate gift whereas a Director or C-Level contact is much less likely to.
I had a conversation in the village pub at the weekend with my neighbour Simon who is in sales and was complaining that his marketing organisation just does not know his customers – Simon sells direct to farmers so it seems that the issues are the same in every industry! Simon makes a key point, by taking the time to speak to our customers and understand their organisational objectives we have a much better chance to engage with them long-term.
Customer communities are an ideal way of learning more about your customer base and enable your organisation to develop deeper relationships – thus making it easier to approach those customers with reference requests. With social media being the hot topic of the moment it’s becoming easier to create these communities online – the challenge is keeping the customers engaged!
How have you achieved success with your customers? How does your organisation manage customer communities or user groups?
Sarah Burrows is a seasoned marketing professional who over the last 7 years has specialised in Customer Reference Programs. Her experience spans from starting them from scratch through to managing regional and global programs. She now uses her expertise to help organisations set up new reference programs or optimise existing ones.