“To follow up to your previous answers on references, what is your recommendation for building a reference account program?” Marketing Manager
MM, my reference posts have stirred a lot of additional questions on creating, enhancing, and now managing references. Your question is a great progression to the previous posts on references. As with most of my responses, the answer will vary depending on your organization, products, services, industry, cogs, and competition. I will first assume you do not have a program because you said ‘building’, if you already have a reference program and are looking to enhance yours, I would evaluate where you are based on the questions below.
I would first determine who your ideal reference is: Industry leader? CEO? Analyst? Fortune 500 company? Start up? Specific industry(s)? Using all of your services? Using specific services? Do you have multiple ideal references? Other?
Next determine what type of reference you require: Do you need phone references? Do you need on-site references? Do you need case studies? Do you need speakers? Other?
After you have decided the who and what, next is how many and where: Do you need 5 quality references? Are you a large company and need 100? Do you need national references? Do you need locally? By industry? My comment here is more is not always better, you may have a smaller number of references so you can spend more time, resources, and dollar with focused efforts to cultivate quality references versus diluting yourself with more references then you can handle.
Next look internally on how you are going to manage the reference program. If you are a larger company and serious about references, you need to dedicate staff to the program. If you are a smaller company and don’t have the luxury of dedicating fulltime staff you need an executive sponsor and I would recommend the CEO, that is how import references are. Then commit the part-time resources to manage the program. Reference selling is my favorite way of selling.
Once you have answered the questions above, do a gap analysis. Are you good shape with the references you have today and you just need a program? Do you need to recruit references first? Do you need to enhance the references you have today?
Assuming you have reference accounts, what does the program look like? In true partnerships, there will need to be commitments for both you and your clients. Determine both sides in advance so you can present the plan to your accounts, so they can determine if they want to join the program. On vendor side you could commit to: meeting with them annually or semi-annually, product discounts, free consulting or service hours, input on product development, open channel to your senior management, etc. On the client side: attend your annually meeting (this can go either way on who pays their travel expenses); how many site visits, calls, presentations; buying additional products or services; dedicating resources, etc. Put together your time line to execution, name, and launch the program.
Good Reference Program Building and let us know how it goes! Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give MM additional information on ‘References Programs’ and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun P.
MM, my reference posts have stirred a lot of additional questions on creating, enhancing, and now managing references. Your question is a great progression to the previous posts on references. As with most of my responses, the answer will vary depending on your organization, products, services, industry, cogs, and competition. I will first assume you do not have a program because you said ‘building’, if you already have a reference program and are looking to enhance yours, I would evaluate where you are based on the questions below.
I would first determine who your ideal reference is: Industry leader? CEO? Analyst? Fortune 500 company? Start up? Specific industry(s)? Using all of your services? Using specific services? Do you have multiple ideal references? Other?
Next determine what type of reference you require: Do you need phone references? Do you need on-site references? Do you need case studies? Do you need speakers? Other?
After you have decided the who and what, next is how many and where: Do you need 5 quality references? Are you a large company and need 100? Do you need national references? Do you need locally? By industry? My comment here is more is not always better, you may have a smaller number of references so you can spend more time, resources, and dollar with focused efforts to cultivate quality references versus diluting yourself with more references then you can handle.
Next look internally on how you are going to manage the reference program. If you are a larger company and serious about references, you need to dedicate staff to the program. If you are a smaller company and don’t have the luxury of dedicating fulltime staff you need an executive sponsor and I would recommend the CEO, that is how import references are. Then commit the part-time resources to manage the program. Reference selling is my favorite way of selling.
Once you have answered the questions above, do a gap analysis. Are you good shape with the references you have today and you just need a program? Do you need to recruit references first? Do you need to enhance the references you have today?
Assuming you have reference accounts, what does the program look like? In true partnerships, there will need to be commitments for both you and your clients. Determine both sides in advance so you can present the plan to your accounts, so they can determine if they want to join the program. On vendor side you could commit to: meeting with them annually or semi-annually, product discounts, free consulting or service hours, input on product development, open channel to your senior management, etc. On the client side: attend your annually meeting (this can go either way on who pays their travel expenses); how many site visits, calls, presentations; buying additional products or services; dedicating resources, etc. Put together your time line to execution, name, and launch the program.
Good Reference Program Building and let us know how it goes! Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give MM additional information on ‘References Programs’ and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun P.
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