One of the most exciting developments in the reference community this year has been the exchange of ideas and information between its members. At the March Customer Reference Forum in San Francisco, some 100 reference professionals spent a very intense half day addressing three critical issues in reference management: Measuring the value of a reference program; gaining executive support; and recruiting customers. (Warning: shameless advertising! To read more about the report and purchase it, please
click here.)
What does this mean to the average reference professional toiling away in the trenches? A growing network of your peers — many of them with exceptional experience and talent — are there to help make your job easier and you more effective.
Now, I’m delighted to say that a group of reference professionals in the Bay Area are continuing this effort. Kudos to BEA’s Amy Shever for putting them together. She and several other people hatched the idea in San Francisco and they hope to run with this concept by holding periodic meetings to support each other and exchange information on “what works.” I’m proud that such a great idea flowed from one of our events, and was delighted to help the organizing effort by putting the word out.
And now they’d like to share the main ideas that emerged from their first meeting with the entire reference community — four important trends they’ve noticed in their companies:
By the way, their next meeting will be held June 21st, 9am-11am at BEA. And if you’re interested in starting such a group in your area, please let me know and I’ll pass the word.
1. Executive Perception: the increasing importance of reference programs. The companies represented at the meeting have invested a great deal of resources (people and $$) into building a customer reference program. They recognize the value that reference teams serve by engaging and managing customers to participate in critical sales and marketing events. Each company represented at the meeting views their program as a valuable and strategic competitive tool.
2. Working with Sales: A trend toward compensating sales teams. The most effective programs include a process for compensating the sales teams for their efforts to recruit and sign customers up as references. One company includes the process as an optional commissioned item. Their results include well over 2000 customers signed up in the past two years.
3. Case Studies: A trend toward quality (and away from quantity). Content and reference deliverables was another hot topic of discussion; many organizations are moving to case studies that are more comprehensive and that include ROI data (quality vs quantity). Some companies are now using outside vendors to produce ROI studies as customers are more likely to provide the ROI data to a third party. Customers also finding value in these ROI studies and using them to their own benefit.
4. Enticing customers: fewer rewards, more value. Companies are moving away from reference programs with tangible benefits (i.e. user group passes, reward/points programs) for customers participating in a reference program. Companies try to communicate value to each customer by providing access to execs, allowing them to influence roadmap, communicate with peers in their industry.
