I had a recent conversation with Sean Geehan (Geehan Group, customer advisory board experts) on the topic of how CMOs think about customer reference programs. He spoke of a disconnect between CEOs and CMOs he’s seen in the advisory board work he does, which helps explain the high turnover of CMOs. Sean pointed me to a 2011 blog post from Laura Ramos of Xerox (many will remember Laura from her days with Forrester). It was terrific, be sure to read it!
Most CEOs Think Marketers Lack Credibility
January 18th, 2012 · Best Practices, Customer Reference Programs, Program Metrics
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Persuading Sales to Nominate Customer References
January 11th, 2012 · Best Practices, Customer Reference Programs, Program User Adoption
There was a great discussion on the LinkedIn group, Customer Knowledge Sharing Network, recently. The question posed was: “How do you encourage sales reps to share information about possible reference customers?”
→ 1 CommentTags:customer reference advocates·customer reference management·customer reference nominations·customer reference program·customer reference programs·customer references
Overcoming the Top 4 Reasons Customer Reference Programs Fail – Executive Support
January 10th, 2012 · Best Practices, Customer Reference Programs
In the last post I listed what we believe to be the 4 most common reasons that customer reference programs fail. Arguably, there are many other nuanced reasons that programs don’t get sufficient support to launch, or once launched, to grow to a level that produces measurable benefits for the organization.
→ 2 CommentsTags:customer advocacy·customer advocates·customer reference managment·customer reference programs·customer references
Top 4 Reasons That Customer Reference Programs Fail
December 5th, 2011 · Customer Reference Programs
The dark side of our business is that not every customer reference program that gets launched has a story book ending. We were recently asked the question posed in the title of this post by a company that was considering making a commitment to a reference program for the 3rd time in 8 years. The two previous iterations began with a minimalist effort, then simply withered away.
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New Customer Reference Management Benchmark Report
October 31st, 2011 · Best Practices, Customer Engagement, Customer Reference Programs, Program Content, Program Metrics
It’s always great to get updated aggregate insights into the customer reference community! Our thanks to Amir Hartman (Mainstay Partners) and Abby Atkinson (Infor) for producing Measuring What Matters: Annual Customer Reference Program Benchmark Report.
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A CMO’s Take on Customer References: Social Media’s Role
October 24th, 2011 · Best Practices, Customer Reference Program Maturity Model Podcasts, Customer Reference Programs, Podcasts, Uncategorized
This is part 3 of a 3-part interview with Gina Sandon, formerly
CMO at Initiate Systems, now IBM’s Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Marketing, discusses how she and her team built a program at Initiate.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:23 — 9.5MB)
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A CMO’s Take on Customer References: Program Measurement
October 10th, 2011 · Best Practices, Customer Engagement, Customer Reference Programs, Podcasts, Social Media
This is part 2 of a 3-part interview with Gina Sandon, formerly CMO at Initiate Systems, now IBM’s Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Marketing, discusses how she and her team built a program at Initiate, and how the customer reference function differs in a $100M company versus a $100B company.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:37 — 7.9MB)
→ 1 CommentTags:CMO Club·CMO podcast·customer reference management·customer reference programs·customer references
A CMO’s Take on Customer References: Small vs. Large Company (IBM)
September 23rd, 2011 · Best Practices, Customer Engagement, Customer Reference Programs, Podcasts
This part 1 of a 3-part interview with Gina Sandon, formerly CMO at Initiate Systems, now IBM’s Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Marketing, discusses how she and her team built a program at Initiate, how the customer reference function differs in a $100M company versus a $100B company, and how she sees the function changing in the future.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:54 — 9.1MB)
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Who makes a good customer reference candidate?
September 1st, 2011 · Best Practices, Customer Engagement, Customer Reference Programs
When we’re working with a company to launch a new reference program this is an inevitable question. And it’s a good question to ask rather than assume all customers are equally good candidates for your program.
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Five Personality Traits of Sales Team Advisors for Customer Reference Programs
August 22nd, 2011 · Best Practices, Customer Reference Programs, Program User Adoption, System User Adoption
I was reading an article in the Harvard Business Review entitled “Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople” by Steve W. Martin. Steve’s research uncovered some interesting (and surprising) findings regarding traits such as Modesty, Conscientiousness, Achievement Orientation, Curiosity, Lack of Gregariousness, Lack of Discouragement, and Lack of Self-Consciousness.
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