Following are results and pics from the first Customer Reference Forum ever held in Europe, on October 23 and 24 in London. Many of the world's leading global firms attended, including SAP, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, IBM, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Business Objects, Lucent Technologies, SAS, Hyperion and other major firms.
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– Senior executives, in their gut, understand the importance of references.
– That gut feel is backed by a growing body of research showing that companies who cultivate the most references reap the largest rewards in terms of market share, growth and profitability. Cultivating and deploying references are not tactical have-to's, but strategic musts.
– Those two facts can make it easier for you to get the headcount and budget you need to run a proper reference program.
Here's just a sampling:
– Get Serious About Getting Sales Onboard.
Don't depend on cajolery to get the support you need from sales. Get to sales management and have clear reference support objectives placed in sales people's KPIs. Why should they? Because forward thinking firms like SAP and others are doing just that.
– An Overlooked Source of Great References.
For a new and improved supply of references, check your customer sat surveys and find out which customers replied "9" or "10" to the Net Promoter question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend us to a colleague?" Surely you already have those customers in tow, right? Guess again. One major firm checked and found they had only 30% of their most enthusiastic references in the fold! Now they have 80%+.
– Don't Assume Sales People Know What to Do With References.
You're really landing great references and getting great stories and testimonials from them. Think sales will know what to do with them? Think again. Very often they don't know the tools you so lovingly created even exist, and if they do, they don't necessarily know how or when to deploy them. Find out how your best sales people do so, then teach it to the rest. It will improve your results, your relationships with sales, and your standing in the company.