#8-references

Ours is very similar to this with a couple of tweaks that I think have changed the game.
For #3 - If they are in our advocacy program, we don't have to reach out to CSMs anymore. We get enough facetime with them that they know us, they expect us to ask them to be a reference, and if the answer is no because they're not happy, they're honest with us. We only ask if it's okay to reach out if we happen to be asking someone not in our program - which is rare.

For #5 - I set up a google sheet that auto sends my email templates through Zapier - that way I don't have to manually fill in an email template - it just does it for me

For #6 - Whomever requested the reference in the first place is CCed on our emails and once a customer accepts, we say thank you and then the requestor does the connecting. We actually ask them to help coordinate an actual date/time so that the call actually happens. If the customer/prospect are left to do it themselves it tends to not happen.

Hi Rose, your process is pretty typical in a more "managed" reference program - at least in my experience. You can use a software or set up the settings in SlapFive to be more of an automated "unmanaged" program where sales essentially self-serves but I know in this scenario, then reference mgrs struggle to close the loop and ensure the reps mark that the call happened, etc. You probably know all of this already but my point is to basically say you're not alone 🙂 Personally, while it's never fun to be in more of a service role, I always get a lot of satisfaction from providing a great reference call and being a part of the deal. But it's definitely time consuming. IDK if this will help or if you've already tried something like this. But in my last company, I got a LOT of pushback about the reference program from our 1500 person sales team - some account execs were grateful for the help and easily understood the value and how they could help. Others, it was like pulling teeth and they really didn't trust me / marketing in general right off that bat. I went on a pretty long road show where I met with every single regional leadership team (so the regional VP and their District Managers) calls and presented a deck that explained everything customer marketing is responsible for and then showed examples of how we make our customers look good (basically the WIFM for the customers who participate in advocacy) and then gently reminded them that reference burnout was real and our pool of references was only as good as what they were giving to us - like hello this is a synergistic type of relationship 😉 I got the VPs to basically have their AEs fill out a nomination spreadsheet over the course of a month and then they got to brag to their leaders about how they were working with marketing to provide reference nominations - it totally fueled a good number of customer stories, speakers, webinar folks, etc for the year and really helped us all work together better. I provided leaders w/ updates on what we'd done w/ their nominations so it didn't just seem like all their trust in nominating went into a vacuum. Sorry for this long story book but anyway, maybe it could help. If not you, someone else who is struggling w/ getting buy in from sales. I ended up building a lot of good relationships w/ them and then I tripled the number of reference requests so they started working w/ us versus coveting their "back-pocket" references.

great idea; the ratio should be 1:1 😂

A lot of times I will surface requests in our community groups and newsletters to get volunteers. It is helpful when they self-nominate and has introduced me to references who are extremely solid I hadn't selected in the past! It's also quick and our sales team loves knowing they've specifically volunteered/signed up for this request based on their expertise. I've created some campaigns in the past encouraging participation (12 days of Torch was one I did) and some of the most frequent participants were people I'd never personally worked with since our advocate network is so large and helped create a great relationship for future ref usage.

Totally agree! Sales and Marketing are insatiable!

I didn't realize Champion could manage references. That's great.

I think Amanda's frustration has more to do with sales references being a hungry machine—that always needs to be fed with new advocates and compelling stories to encourage sales to ask after those advocates—versus a tracking issue. With a tool like Champion, I'm confident that Amanda's reference tracking is probably quite sophisticated!

One play I like to try is mining win reports to determine which new customers are likely to address similar pain points to my most sought after advocates. I also like to try to "carrot" these new references with higher value opportunities like speaking opps to get their story out there in a broad form before asking for them to dig into 1:1s.

yes we track references already @Sarah McCoy

How do you keep the reference pool fresh, @Sarah McCoy? Continuous recruitment?

@Amanda Peacock I highly recommend tracking references by the advocate taking them so you don't end up with them saying no to everything eventually because they're so burned out by the requests. That's just my 2 cents and lesson I've learned. I've also been scolded by account managers or partners for going back to the same person repeatedly. I guess where I am going w/ this is don't be afraid to say no and keep your reference pool fresh. Hard to do depending on the company and dynamics of your customer base....

Yeah, that's tough though @Amanda Peacock maybe it's something you schedule yourself to do once a month - send new reference options to the sales team? Or even promote new reference options on the form?

Oh you are good @Emily Smith congrats on having some OOO time.

So sorry for the drag here! Was OOO, thanks for getting it started, Mary!

Yeah I actually sometimes will use Champion to see if there is a similar customer to the one they put down - I think it just goes back to people lean toward what they know so I need to highlight more customers for them

That's frustrating. Everyone wants to get a Google, Apple, Meta, reference. How do you currently deal with that? I'd assume I'd have to ignore it for the most part or when I offer suggestions back to them, I'd add a note that says XYZ company isn't available to be a reference for this deal.

being a team of one and references are only a small part of my job but still they're super important. additionally, i have a 'preferred customer' section on the request form and people always put the same customer 🫠

Hi @channel I'd love to know what you are all working on. I know you have references programs.

But, what's one challenge you are facing in your reference program today?

This is a small group, let's dig deep.

@Emily Smith welcome to the References channel. I'll share in general and ask people to join.