2008 Forum
Featured Presentations
Check back with us as we continue to add information about presentations from other top programs.
Keynote
Uncovering the Hidden Impact of Customer Referrals on Profitability
by Prof. V. Kumar, ING Chair Professor in Marketing, and Executive Director, ING Center for Financial Services, School of Business, University of Connecticut, and Chairman & CEO , IMC International
Many firms use the familiar metric, CLV (Customer Lifetime Value), to identify and cultivate their "best" customers. But CLV focuses on purchase behavior of a single customer, while ignoring something with potentially much greater value – referral behavior. With the explosion of interest in word of mouth marketing and customer references, Prof. Kumar and his team have developed the concept of Customer Referral Value (CRV) and researched the hidden role CRV can play in a firm's overall profitability, which can be substantial. Their important and sometimes surprising findings include:
- A customer's referral value or CRV can dwarf their ordinary purchase value, which justifies expending substantially more budget on developing such customers.
- Contrary to conventional wisdom, your best referral customers are NOT necessarily your biggest or most strategic purchasers. Encouraging such customers to reference might be a waste of money.
- Taking into account both CLV and CRV can dramatically improve the ROI of firm marketing campaigns, generate higher profits, and accelerate new customer growth.
Prof. Kumar's research has appeared in several articles in Harvard Business Review and other prestigious marketing journals. His presentation will provide you with considerable economic justification, as well as more finely honed methodologies, for identifying and cultivating referral customers.
For more about Prof. Kumar (who goes by "VK"), please click here.
 
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Case Study from Microsoft:
Using Podcasts and Social Media to Market and Enhance a Reference Program
by Paolo Tosolini, New Media Business Manager, Microsoft, and Eric Larson, Senior Marketing Consultant, Projectline Services, Inc.
Paolo, with support from Eric, will show how Microsoft is creating communities inside Microsoft to exchange information using podcasts along with web conferences and a 'YouTube-like' enterprise application specific to Microsoft. Its new internal corporate initiative - called Academy Mobile - markets case studies and references directly to sales and other internal stakeholders, provides them with RSS capability to receive targeted, automatic updates, and provides a way for sales people with simple recording devices to upload new reference audio / video for immediate access to the entire community. Paolo and Eric will also discuss metrics being used to judge the effectiveness of the program and lessons learned in rolling out this internal initiative world-wide.
For more about paolo and Eric, please click here.
Case Study on Metrics:
How Intel's Reference Program Gained a Seat at Sales and Marketing's Executive Table
by Rhett Livengood, Director, Enterprise Customer Programs, Intel Corporation
Any sales person knows how critical references are to the sales process. And
any reference professional knows how critical sales is to recruiting
references. So why is it so difficult to consummate such a "marriage made in
heaven?" Rhett will report on Intel's recently completed 18 month trial that
has cracked the code on just how to do so. In the process, Intel's new
metrics regime has addressed key related issues, such as: How do you report
metrics that Sales and Marketing executives understand, respect, and want
more of? How do you develop and implement operational metrics to manage a
worldwide reference team and integrate different business divisions and
international geographies? How do you position your Customer Reference
Program as an increasingly essential strategic activity? He'll describe how
you create these metrics – and win the cooperation of sales in the reference
process – with minimal headcount and cost.
For more about Rhett, please click here.
Case Study on Integrating with Sales:
Why the SAS Reference Program is Considered Essential to the Sales Process
by Christine Carmichael, SAS Institute
We're sorry but Christine has had to cancel her presentation due to unforeseen circumstances.
For more about Christine, please click here.
Engaging Customers Online: How Oracle is Embracing the New Channel for Customer Collaboration
by Dian Thompson, Sr. Director, Global Customer Programs, Oracle
Senior Executives everywhere are challenging Customer Reference Programs to lower costs and make increasing use of the new tools of social media. This means leveraging web 2.0 applications to get customers talking to each other, to keep them talking to each other, and to get Sales networking with each other about references. As one of our Advisory Board members put it, "The luxury of having reference managers fulfill all reference requests is
becoming a thing of the past. We have to get innovative about enabling Sales
and customers to locate references without our help."
Dian's presentation will provide plenty of rich ideas for you. She'll describe how Oracle is engaging its key customers using social media tools such as discussion forums, wikis, online communities, RSS feeds, and the like. And she'll give an important, big picture overview of how Oracle provides value to its key customers with its respected customer engagement programs, such as advisory boards, forums, councils, user groups and others. Key takeaways? You'll gain a clearer understanding of what social media tools work with which customers, how to deliver a better value proposition to your key customer references, how to facilitate ongoing dialogue with and between customers, how to build websites that executives will use, and more.
For more about Dian, please click here.
Deep Dive Breakout:
How SAP is Developing a "Right Reference at the Right Time" Reference Management System
by Scott Acheson, Senior Manager, Global Marketing, SAP
One of the world's most respected Customer Reference Programs has been taking on this challenge: Connecting prospects with the right reference at the right time during the sales-cycle. It's a critical differentiator between great reference programs and the also rans. As Scott explains, "Effective reference management is essential to SAP success due to the complexity of the enterprise software selection process that our sales people must deal with. Our goal has been to create a best-in-class reference management system (RMS) built completely within our own CRM system."
The new system -- called RMS@SAP -- supplies a complete 360° view of SAP's reference customers, using an intuitive interface that replaced the existing system in February 2007. Among other benefits, RMS@SAP offers collateral and sales references in one database, improved search functionality for quickly locating the right reference information, and easier initiation of reference activities.
For more about Scott, please
click here.
Deep Dive Breakout:
Been There, Done That: What Really Matters in Reference Management
by Wayne S. Fenstermacher, Sr. Mgr., Client Reference Management, Unisys Corp.
Reference managers deal with a constant stream of new initiatives, Incessant demands, and new tools. Trying to keep up with them all can be exhausting and degrading, if not destructive, to an effective program. Wayne, who's been managing references at Unisys for eight years, has seen it all.
He'll talk about what's really important to reference management, and what's not. He'll provide powerful insights on critical, enduring issues, such as:
- how his team helped get reference support into the yearly MBOs for sales;
- how to create a better experience for customer- and client-references;
- how to create better documentation both for sales people who have references and
those who want them;
and more.
And he'll discuss candidly the pitfalls of transforming a legacy client reference program into one that has support from a worldwide sales force as well as executive buy-in.
For more about Wayne, please click here.
From 0 to 60: How Qwest Launched a High impact Reference Program in Less than a Year
by Tom Robson, Marketing Manager, "Voice of the Customer" Reference Program, Qwest Communications
Do you currently keep track of your reference customers on an excel spreadsheet? Do your sales executives keep their best reference customers a highly classified secret? Are you concerned that your top reference customers are experiencing "reference burn-out?" Have you finally come to the realization that you really don't have a "reference program" at all compared to other companies? If you've answered yes or maybe to any of the above questions - then this session track is for you! Tom will share his insights on how Qwest quickly crafted a plan to move from reference chaos to a formal reference program.
Qwest has built and launched a reference program that has been overwhelmingly embraced by critical stakeholders; Sales, PR, Product Management, Analyst Relations, Senior Executives and Marketing. All the typical reference program start-up issues and questions will be discussed in an effort to help you get your Reference Program up and running.
For more about Tom, please click here.