#8-references
Thread
Another question, how do you handle situations where Sales pushes for multiple references at once?
My current approach is to build a list of potential customers, then:
• Reach out to the top-choice advocate first
• Give them a full business day to respond
• Follow up the next day
• If no response, move to a backup customer
This way, we don’t overwhelm advocates with duplicate asks, but Sales often wants immediate coverage. Curious how others manage this balance, do you ever reach out to multiple customers at once, or stick with sequential outreach?
@Deja Darrington do they want multiple references just to makes sure they get one good one, or b/c the prospect plans to talk to several references?
I think it's fine to reach out to advocates to confirm their willingness but give some context that "we'd of course want to make sure the prospect is serious and understand more what they want to learn via the reference call so we can match them appropriately - so we may not need you - but just wanted to check to see if you'd be willing."
that way you can have a small bench but not necessarily use a full "ask"
Also if the prospects wants to talk to multiple i'd (meaning sales) definitely do some qualification/validation w/ the prospect ("these two reference go well, i just want to make sure next step is signing the contract so we protect our customers time") and I usually do go sequentially just b/c i want to what questions/concerns remain so the 2nd reference can be more valuable rather than just giving them 2 people to check their box. and it's gotta be a pretty big/important deal to give them more than 2 references.
Note this is for more formal references (eg like late stage RFP type scenario) - not to say I wouldn't recommend they talk to our customers more informally much earlier in the sales process.
And of course use content/proof/evidence liberally and early/often to bring in that voice of customer well before a formal reference call
We have both AEs wanting to ask multiple to get one, and then also some prospects request multiple.
I like the idea of in the initial ask setting expectations that we may not need them for a reference call just in case someone else responds back sooner.
Agreed, I'd like to push back a little on multiple references per deal too because once we have that customer speak we need to give them time before asking again and we get so many references throughout the year.
Thanks for sharing!