Sarah McCoy's Profile
Sarah McCoy
Recent Messages
#jobs - March 06, 2025 at 05:47 PM
Not affiliated, but another Community role - at ServiceNow:
#general - March 06, 2025 at 05:37 PM
(Oh and we settled for some pretty big GOV customers to do anonymous case studies - no one's favorite, but Gov prospects totally get it, of course.)
#general - March 06, 2025 at 05:36 PM
I have experience with this and I'll just say it's a challenge no matter what! But totally agree that Daniel's ideas are spot on. I've been fortunate to work for companies where Pub Sector is a big priority so they actually have an event similar to the main US event but its a Gov version so it was a lot easier to convince them to speak and be engaged. Def speaking is a great way to build the relationship and eventually get permission for a case study, video, etc. At the end of the day, some just won't be able to get permission, but we had a lot of success w/ SLED because of relationships and having advocates who had enough clout within their org they could get it through. They really saw us as a technology partner, not just a vendor, which made all the difference.
#8-references - March 05, 2025 at 04:37 PM
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.
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:57 PM
oh awesome, thank you, Mary. I'll check it out. It's been over a year since I had a demo so I couldn't remember.
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:39 PM
Totally agree! Sales and Marketing are insatiable!
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:38 PM
I didn't realize Champion could manage references. That's great.
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:23 PM
You need to help suss out any potential "gotchas" that could come up on a reference call and totally kill the deal... beforehand!
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:23 PM
And also taking the time to find out some use case details about the newer customers you're proposing. The reason folks want to use the same 5 advocates all of the time is maybe you have case studies or video testimonials on them so everyone is comfortable with their "story" and what they'd say on a reference call. They need to have the same kind of trust in that net-new reference you're suggesting so you just have to find ways to get them comfortable. Sometimes it's having a prep call with the new reference customer and the account managers. OR having a CSM / AM vouch for the customer via email.
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:21 PM
Yep! Hopefully you have levers you can pull from (NPS promoters, CSAT, a CSM/Account Manager database so you know who your potential targets are). I'm often in situations where I'm being asked for SUPER specific use cases or integrations, so in theory I can keep the pool fresh that way. BUT, sometimes you have a limited number to choose from until that handful of customers with that specific use case grows.... I think building as much of a relationship with the customers you're using as possible is the best approach - so they feel like partners and VIPs vs. customers we're asking to do us favors all of the time. Reminding them that they're the expert. Sending thank you notes or swag (whatever you can afford / have the ability to do).
#8-references - March 04, 2025 at 06:14 PM
@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....
#general - November 01, 2024 at 06:06 PM
@Melissa DiBernardo
#general - November 01, 2024 at 03:30 PM
Does anyone remember a post recently where the poster provided a very long list of advocacy metrics to track?
Or am I taking crazy pills 💊 !?
#general - October 30, 2024 at 12:45 AM
A little late to respond I suppose, and you’ve probably already arrived at this conclusion on your own, but I would suggest looking at a couple of examples of recent stories you’ve created and working backwards about how long it took you to get through the story development from start to finish and note the differences. For example, if someone is requesting a reference for a product that hasn’t even launched yet and there’s no beta (personal favorite 😏 ) vs a reference that squarely lines up with a popular use case/solution etc (bread & butter). Maybe create some tiering based on business segments, solutions, and types of requests.
Another idea is to ask requesters to show what the business impact is so you can help prioritize and have a sanity check. If your team is hyper focused on 3specific products or company goals, for example, creat SLAs for requests that are in line with them and an explanation for timeframes for requests outside of those.
I love working cross functionally - it’s one of the best parts about advocacy but it’s easy to get drained by the volume and urgency!
#general - October 29, 2024 at 05:58 PM
Lotus Pictures based in NY
In Las Vegas Five Six Productions
#general - October 02, 2024 at 02:32 AM
Same, I’ve done it and I know we were tracking before and after but to be honest our editorial team was responsible for tracking metrics and it was so long ago I can’t recall the impact. But it was totally worth it! The field really appreciated it because it made the stories so much more easy to digest and you didn’t necessarily have to read the entire story to get the idea of how much the solutions made a difference for that customer.
#discussions - October 02, 2024 at 02:11 AM
Yes! Sent you a message. Happy to chat
#general - April 25, 2024 at 05:03 PM
Hi Aylin, I think the problem with global advocacy managers is that they’re all very busy 😂 but I’m happy to chat with you and maybe see if I know some folks more senior than I who would be open to a call.
#general - April 25, 2024 at 05:01 PM
We typically play company B-roll and create videos with the winners so that takes time and planning and they have to be notified in advance to ensure time for feedback etc
#general - April 25, 2024 at 05:00 PM
The past two companies I’ve worked for do let the winners know in advance. We typically created some type of content with nominated customers - like before the event to hype the program up and then created lots of content with the winners. We asked the nominees or finalists if they’d be interested in sharing their stories as well so it was helpful across the board in terms of content generation.
#jobs - April 05, 2024 at 04:48 PM
@Kathryn Maynard
#random - March 19, 2024 at 08:57 PM
@Heather Elliott not quick necessarily but a Reference Roundtable / Birds of a Feather discussion with a happy reference customer where you invite the most promising leads your sales team has. It moves more quickly if you have a “perfect fit” advocate on deck who would be willing to be the expert customer reference on the call.
Another option is if your Field Marketing/PMM/BU has a webinar idea where customer mktg supplies a couple of customers for a panel discussion. Again, it helps to have a couple of die hard advocates, approved for external marketing engagement who would be ready to go.
Those ☝️ have metrics that are easier to track as well to show impact.
#jobs - March 12, 2024 at 08:22 PM
Ok great! I’ll check it out and apply. Thank you so much!
#jobs - March 08, 2024 at 06:10 PM
Hi Dean, is this an in-person, hybrid, or remote role?
#welcome - February 28, 2024 at 03:58 PM
Happy to chat about SlapFive!
#jobs - February 16, 2024 at 03:09 PM
I've been wondering the same thing! They've reached out to me in the past w/ open roles, but I got rejected when I applied recently and I was a little confused by it. Would love to work there as I've been following their trajectory for several years now and have a few former coworkers who love working there.
#announcements - February 06, 2024 at 05:01 PM
I totally agree w/ the folks above - and would add - industry standard (depending on your industry, of course) is that case studies over 2 years old should at least be considered for removal (we've done annual audits of all case studies in my previous jobs). BUT we often kept older case studies IF (the customer hadn't fully churned of course) it was an industry or solution we didn't have a lot of customer proof for OR if the logo was too valuable to remove (i.e. enterprise logos that are generally difficult to obtain). If a case study was older and we still had a good relationship with the customer, and the bandwidth / case study is deemed valuable, we'd sometimes do a super light refresh to it so the product terms were up-to-date, etc. and make sure it was on the latest case study template, etc. Hope that helps. I know SlapFive has an automated a reminder to audit content on x date that you specify which is super handy.
#jobs - February 06, 2024 at 04:53 PM
Whoops, never mind, I missed the part about being based in India. Apologies!
#announcements - January 19, 2024 at 07:10 PM
Hey @Justine Winkler I'm not 100% sure of what the needs are for an Exec Sponsorship program to be able to speak about whether or not BriefingSource would be a great fit and I also wasn't an admin of the tool. If you have the time, maybe check them out?
#jobs - January 04, 2024 at 02:24 PM
One of my dream companies but sadly my state is excluded from this remote role 😞