Emily Coleman

#jobs - April 08, 2025 at 12:57 AM

Not affiliated with the company, but my partner works here if you want details on this role. It's full time remote. https://flexerasoftware.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FlexeraSoftware/job/Senior-Customer-Advocacy-Manager_15495-1

#open-share - April 02, 2025 at 05:28 PM

@Joel Primack I think the key phrase here is "sounding like." Empire building 101 is making it seem like their idea. 😉

#general - April 02, 2025 at 05:26 PM

This is kind of relevant to your post, @Ciana Abdollahian, but I'm meeting with our regional sales directors this week, and in a conversation with one of them where I was asking how I could show up better for his team, he said, "I don't think I've ever had someone in marketing come to me and ask what they could do for sellers. What usually happens is they come to us with what they've made and want us to use, but it's rare that someone asks what we need."

Activities like this survey you posted about are the kind of stuff we should be doing more to increase adoption. Love it!

#general - March 31, 2025 at 04:20 PM

I really like having someone ask for a random pitch during the day. That's a great idea. Thank you @Jeanne Talbot!

#jobs - March 21, 2025 at 04:15 PM

I've got a former coworker whose company was just acquired by PE, and she's sensing a layoff on the horizon. If you're looking for a content marketing lead (director-level), please let me know, and I can make a connection for you. She also has a lot of strong public sector experience.

#general - March 20, 2025 at 10:36 PM

I got invited by our sales enablement team to be part of an in-person new hire sales bootcamp.

My session is about customer proof points, and I'm aiming to showcase testimonials, positive outcomes, and customer success stories and how they should use them.

This is supposed to be interactive. No death by PowerPoint.

Any of you built something like this that you'd be willing to share? I've got some ideas, but I'm also scouting for inspiration.

#open-share - March 19, 2025 at 05:53 PM

I totally agree that stock images in case studies are awful. However, from working with engineers and developers, I have to say that some of the headshots and photos they send me are atrocious.

One time I got a headshot from a VP of Engineering that was a picture of her on her couch with her husband and she just cropped him out.

#general - March 12, 2025 at 03:57 PM

@Vera Flores I'd love to join and learn! I'm sure there are things that I don't know yet. But, our model has been live for a couple of days and it's actually working pretty well!

#general - March 11, 2025 at 10:09 PM

Cool! Let me get some more experience with this thing under my belt and then I can put something together to show you all how it works!

#general - March 11, 2025 at 08:42 PM

I've been building a Gong smart tracker to identify customer advocacy moments in our calls, and it's kind of a cool process to build and train the model. Is this something you all would be interested in learning more about?

#general - March 07, 2025 at 05:57 PM

<@U08E9JC8TB4> yeah, let me track ours down! I'm new to my current role, so a lot of the case studies I've done so far already had signed agreements. I just realized I haven't even looked at what our agreement says.

#general - March 06, 2025 at 05:03 PM

@Rebecca Grossman in the account view in Gong for a specific account, there's an "Ask anything" function where you can give a genAI prompt and it will answer it for you!

#general - March 05, 2025 at 04:39 PM

This is the prompt. I modified it from one that @Angela Ferrante shared in a CMA Weekly call months ago. 🙂

```Review the activity with our team at LaunchDarkly and the customer to assess their potential as an advocate and for a case study. Specifically, please evaluate:

Case Study Readiness: Based on the calls, does the customer demonstrate enough positive sentiment, tangible outcomes, and value from using LaunchDarkly to justify creating a case study? Please highlight any specific results or success metrics that support this.

Advocacy Readiness: What is the overall sentiment of the customer? Would you recommend proceeding with an advocacy ask (e.g., requesting a reference or case study participation) or waiting? Please provide the key reasons for your recommendation.

Potential Quotes or Stakeholder Identification: Were there any standout statements or quotes from the customer that could be used in a case study or advocacy material? Additionally, are there specific stakeholders (by name or role) who seemed most engaged or positive and could represent the customer in an advocacy activity?

Your response should be a brief, one-sentence summary for each section, with specific examples or data points where possible. For section 3, please provide any notable quotes or names of key stakeholders.```

#general - March 05, 2025 at 01:30 AM

I have an prompt I just copy and paste into the account overview genAI tool that searches for positive sentiment, quotable moments, and any proof of value conversations they might have had.

#general - March 05, 2025 at 12:53 AM

I use our closed won interviews as a starting point for further research. I'll review their Gong calls, CSM notes, and anything else we already have. Then, I'll connect with the account owner if it seems like there's a good story there. I leave the vendor out of it, because their remit is a totally different objective.

Sidenote, I also use the closed lost data to identify where we have gaps in our customer proof points so I know where to focus time and energy on collecting new content and enabling the field to use it.

#jobs - February 21, 2025 at 10:44 PM

Wow, @Bria Jones, I'm so sorry! You definitely didn't deserve that.

#general - February 21, 2025 at 10:19 PM

Such a great session, Kevin. Thanks for sharing with us!

#general - February 21, 2025 at 04:30 PM

@Vera Flores this is a really cool idea!

#general - February 21, 2025 at 04:29 AM

@Lauren Locke-Paddon this is the example I saw! Thanks for mentioning it.

#general - February 20, 2025 at 11:15 PM

I feel like I saw something somewhere recently about advocacy activities that were focused on building stickiness and advocacy within existing accounts, but I have no idea where.

We've got a Fortune 100 customer with an internal champion who is super enthusiastic about our product. He's a design partner for our new product offerings, and he's interested in doing some kind of advocacy stuff with us, but there's some hesitancy (rightly so, probably) about going through internal approvals. What he really wants is to get more teams using our product and to share the things his team has done more widely.

I am meeting with him on Monday, and I want to come with some ideas on how we can help build materials for him to share and use with other teams, like a short video, an internal-only case study, or templates for his how-to docs. Is there something I'm missing that would also be useful?

#general - February 20, 2025 at 09:52 PM

@Daniel Palay no worries. That's where I was last week. It's a lot.

#general - February 20, 2025 at 05:21 PM

@Sarah Miller I really like that idea. I always love gassing up customers.

#general - February 19, 2025 at 07:49 PM

@Jennifer Lyons we are developing new integrated campaign frameworks and content assets to go along with that, and my vision is that if there's some kind of advocacy content used in those assets, I could measure influence.

Example:
We create a blog post featuring practitioner perspectives on why they won't go back to the old way of deploying software. In this blog post, we use customer examples and direct customer quotes. The CTA at the bottom of the post has a free trial sign up. We promote this on LinkedIn and our customer newsletter.

If I know we've used customer quotes/proof in this piece, I'd like to understand how it performs against other assets.

• Higher view count
• Reduced bounce rate
• Increased trial sign-ups
• Increased social engagement (click-through, comments, likes, shares)
It doesn't necessarily need to be attributed back to the specific piece of content. I'd be okay with the general question of "did this asset include customer advocacy content y/n?"

#general - February 19, 2025 at 07:40 PM

@Joel Primack we are getting ready to launch our new Highspot library to sales in a week or two, so that's something I'm really excited to see some results with.

#general - February 19, 2025 at 05:23 PM

SFDC is our CRM. We don't have a dedicated advocacy platform yet. In the interim, we're using a combination of spreadsheets and SFDC reports.

#general - February 19, 2025 at 04:40 PM

I'm looking for someone I can have a nitty-gritty, brass tacks, ropes, [insert other idiom/phrase] discussion with about attributing customer advocacy content in marketing campaigns specifically. I have a kind of vision for how I'd like it to work, but marketing operations is just not my area of expertise. Our MOps team is open to helping me make the attribution happen, but we're all a little unsure on how to actually execute it using our existing stack. If you're willing to have a call with me and my MOps colleague, I'd love to know what the actual workflow looks like (is it SFDC custom objects, UTM parameter tags, spreadsheets, or something else?).

#jobs - February 12, 2025 at 05:39 PM

I interviewed with them several years ago. I got through 4-5 interview cycles before they sent me a rejection email. There were a couple of people who I really liked and connected with. But, I interviewed with a director/VP level who told me at the beginning of the interview they were really busy and basically not to waste their time. When the recruiter emailed to tell me I was out of consideration, I replied back and said the feeling was mutual.

#open-share - February 10, 2025 at 06:02 PM

@Kevin Lau I'm crossing my fingers you're going to address how you've built your attribution and influence in this series!

#general - February 07, 2025 at 07:18 PM

@Jeanne Talbot yeah, I had reps and PMMs trying to use quotes from about that far back, too. It's wild.

#general - February 07, 2025 at 07:16 PM

@Dan Kalmar in my previous role, I was never able to get a customer to agree to a refreshed case study. Either they didn't respond, they had been acquired by another company and that company didn't want to participate, the customer churned, or the internal champion had moved on, so the relationship wasn't as strong. I haven't tried asking for a refresh at the company I'm with now, so that experience may be totally different.

#open-share - February 07, 2025 at 05:23 PM

I feel like if I can get to a point where I can report on ROI for customer advocacy content, it will be my crowning career achievement. I'd really love to get away from metrics that are just publish X case studies per quarter.

#general - February 07, 2025 at 05:21 PM

I'm working on a project to audit our existing case studies and redo our customer/case study page on the website. I am curious how you all decided when/if to deprecate case studies. Here's what I've come up with so far, but I'd love to know how others have approached this.
• Remove case studies and quotes 3 years post publication
◦ Still considering whether we just take them down or ask the customer if they'd be willing to refresh. Asking for a refresh on a case study hasn't been very successful for me in the past.
◦ Consider leaving up case studies post 3 years if they still have strategic value (logo, valuable industry, still used frequently, etc.)
• Remove case studies and quotes if the customer churns
◦ Do not automatically remove a case study if the person quoted leaves the company UNLESS requested by the customer

#jobs - February 05, 2025 at 09:14 PM

This is definitely true. During my job search, I had to compromise on title and instead focus on a wage I was comfortable with.

#jobs - February 05, 2025 at 09:10 PM

Surprised is probably the wrong word here. More like dismayed. 🙃

#jobs - February 05, 2025 at 09:08 PM

Not calling out any individual job post here, but I am surprised to see experience requirements of 5+ years, and responsibilities that are really broad in scope (manage references, create case studies, run CABs/executive programs, and drive review campaigns) for roles that don't have a senior title.

#general - February 04, 2025 at 04:52 PM

You can ask to anonymize the case study (many public sector prospects and customers understand this and don't mind reading them anyway). You can also ask if you can at least use the quotes they provided anonymously or internally only.

Also, I agree with Shannon that it's better to get to no upfront before the case study interview happens or it's drafted. We require a signed release agreement for case studies upfront for this reason.

#general - February 03, 2025 at 05:23 PM

We did a joint blog post with Ally bank at the end of last year that was really successful. We collaborated on two separate blog posts that went live on the same day along with social promotion. You can check those out here:
• https://launchdarkly.com/blog/moderinizing-software-delivery-ally-financial/
• https://www.ally.com/tech/release-modernization-how-we-got-our-weekends-back-one-feature-at-a-time

#general - January 30, 2025 at 05:48 PM

@Mary Green (Owner CMAweekly) can you add me to this channel, too?

#discussions - December 16, 2024 at 06:13 PM

I'd also love to know if you all connected or if I can join the discussion. I'm considering doing this as well.

#jobs - December 12, 2024 at 06:08 PM

I will say though, that I generally apply for hybrid roles anyway just to see if they'll make an exception for remote work. The role I took at LaunchDarkly was listed as hybrid/on-site and they hired me remote anyway.

#jobs - December 12, 2024 at 06:07 PM

@Jennifer Lyons, they will likely choose someone in the ATX area who can be hybrid. I was remote because I was part of an office location that was closed during the pandemic.

#jobs - December 11, 2024 at 01:44 AM

The role I vacated at SolarWinds is open! https://jobs.solarwinds.com/job-detail/?gh_jid=4499693005

If you're interested in this job, feel free to connect with me and I'm happy to give you some interview prep!

#discussions - November 19, 2024 at 05:44 PM

At my last company, we didn't really do logo rights. We had a policy of using any customer logos unless they told us not to. At my current company, those things are in the contract. They are frequently stricken out, and eventually I'll tackle how to better educate reps to try to keep more of those terms into the contracts. I think the question about agreements is largely driven by legal and how conservative they want to be. The legal teams I've worked with have liked an agreement for each activity, unless they're kind of linked together. But, we don't need an agreement for everything. For instance, with quotes and testimonials, I prefer to just work with documented agreements like an email or recording or something.

I want to make this process easier, so I'm feeling out the possibility of using basically checkbox forms for consent, but that's a work in progress.

#general - November 19, 2024 at 05:40 PM

@Shelly Ryder do you know why? What I like to do is just set up calls with reps and ask them a bunch of discovery questions about what they know about finding and using customer evidence, what they don't know but wish they did, what's stopping them from using the current system, etc.

#general - November 19, 2024 at 04:34 PM

The thing you need to figure out is where are sales and CSMs most of the time? Salesforce, or some other tool? Then, once you know that, you need to figure out how to get your stuff in there in a place where they would naturally look. I'm working on trying to take it to the next step by proactively serving up content based on their open opportunities or upcoming check-in calls.

#general - November 19, 2024 at 04:31 PM

I'm happy to be a mentor. I have 7 years of experience in customer marketing/advocacy and I've done about everything--ABM, lifecycle, all the advocacy programs, sales enablement, etc. Some of the things I'm good at are design-centered thinking and strategy (basically, how do you identify the problems you need to solve so you can come up with a better solution the first time), tying advocacy programs to revenue, and getting executive buy-in for your programs. You can connect with me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyecoleman/)

#general - November 13, 2024 at 05:44 PM

@Amy I've used UserEvidence previously as well, and I've liked it for that reason. It becomes a little trickier when we're using existing recordings from Gong and other sources when they haven't expressly given permission for the recording to be used that way. Even though we would definitely ask for permission prior to publishing the testimonial.

#general - November 08, 2024 at 08:14 PM

I use UserEvidence, and found it to be really powerful for this kind of thing. Especially when it comes to collecting ROI specifically.

#general - November 07, 2024 at 06:38 PM

Just to be clear, I understand the approval process, but it's not me I have to convince, it's the lawyers. Especially when we're dealing with security/privacy sensitive customers in developers/engineers.

#general - November 07, 2024 at 06:35 PM

Right, I explained the approval process for customers but legal has a concern that even the act of going to a customer and surfacing a quote from a Gong call to ask for approval could have unintended consequences and put off customers because they may feel like they didn't consent to have these calls reviewed for marketing purposes.