Tools You Can Use

Tips on improving your customer reference program. To subscribe to our newsletter Reference Point, click here.

Articles:

Success stories: the top 5 mistakes even great companies make. Article presents research on success stories from 25 top technology firms, plus tips on avoiding common mistakes that even the great companies make.

Estimating ROI from a marketing collateral program (such as success stories). Click here for the article. Click here for an Excel based ROI calculator.

Everything marcom writers should know about sales. Advice on creating "sales ready" success stories or other collateral. Click here for the article.

Recent Newsletters

June Issue
Tips on Getting Customers to Disclose ROI
Article urges you to challenge the notion that customer references won't disclose this information -- after all, they're going public with the fact that they use your solution, and how they're using it. This article provides several tips, based on my own experience, in getting customers to "give it up."
Bonus: A Platform for Getting Customers to Take Reference Calls 24x7 -- and Like It

July Issue
The One Number That Drives Growth -- Customer References
July's featured article turns from tactical issues to broader strategy. What are new ways in which Customer Reference programs can add value to their companies? We look at one new way in which Customer Reference programs can do so and this one is potentially a biggie. Plus it is based on relatively recent research you should know about, on the (often untapped) importance of customer references to a firm.

August Issue
Persuading Customers to Become References
August's featured article examines the best ways to persuade a customer to become a reference. You start, of course, by providing great products, services and solutions. That said, even happy customers may require a touch of the persuasive arts to sign up for your program. People persuasion is actually a subject of serious scientific study -- the most famous expert in the field is behavioral psychologist Robert Cialdini. August's featured article presents six tips from Cialdini's extensive research that will help improve your odds the next time you pop the big question to a customer: "Will you be my reference?" Indeed, if you have an extensive pipeline of potential customer references, it's a very good bet that these techniques will measurably improve your "close rates."

September Issue
Tips on Getting Sales People to Support Your Customer Reference Program
In September's issue, we interviewed Barbara Khait, Director of the Client Reference Program at Lucent. We continued the discussion she began in her well- received Web briefing hosted by ITSMA in August on Building an Effective Client Reference Program. Barbara's presentation sparked a great deal of interest - clearly customer reference professionals want to communicate with each other! Here we focus on one topic that seemed to generate a particularly large amount of interest: how to get sales people participating enthusiastically in your CR program.

October Issue
Making the Business Case for Your Customer Reference Program
In October's issue, we reviewed a report from ITSMA (The IT Services Marketing Association) called "Best Practices in Reference Management: Presenting Evidence of Value Delivered," by Naomi Steinberg and Steve Hurley. One of my favorite things about this organization is that it performs very good research and it shows in this report. The report provides useful insights on building and improving Customer Reference programs and is especially useful if you need guidance in justifying budget dollars for your program.