Blog Center

I discuss a couple of our newest presenters, Julie Tung, VP of Global Customer Programs at Oracle, and Tami Andrews, WW Customer Reference Program Manager, Dell. Julie will show how Oracles attracts key customer executives into its reference prrogram with a compelling value propositions. And Tami will be leading our... read more →

An interview with Diane Davidson, Manager, Customer Success Programs, Collaboration Software Group, WebEx, Cisco Systems   Below is a preview of the workshop that Diane will be presenting at the 2010 Customer Reference Forum, March 2-3 in Santa Clara, CA on the Nuts and Bolts of Using Video to Create Compelling... read more →

While 2009 was a challenging year - there were still many great ideas out there in the world of Customer Reference Management. I've compiled a list of nine great ones that were presented at the 2009 Customer Reference Forum and the 2009 Summit on Customer Engagement. 2009's Nine Best Ideas... read more →

An interview with Kathryn PooleManager, Customer Reference Program and Communications, Red Hat, and Lorie Loe, President & Chief Content Strategist, Eccolo Media A Preview of their breakout session at the2010 Customer Reference Forum, Collateral that Sells. LEE: Kathryn and Lorie, please tell us a bit about your customer reference program... read more →

Laura is at the forefront on the issue of how the rise of social media is changing, and will continue to change, B2B sales, marketing, and branding realities. Her take is that social media--far from being a threat due to increasing loss of control of the conversation--presents a great opportunity... read more →

Here are several things that customer reference managers--and anyone else for that matter--can STOP doing in 2010, adopted from one of my favorite thought leaders on personal mastery, Alan Weiss of Summit Consulting. Here's his podcast on the subject: THINGS TO STOP DOING - Thinking you're alone. You're not. There... read more →

Here are some responses we got from our Customer Reference Forum LinkedIn community of reference pracitioners (with slight editing, and names of companies left out). This is a private community of more than 250 reference practitioners--if you're interested in joining, please drop me a note. REFERENCE MANAGERS' GOALS FOR 2010... read more →

What are you planning for next year? This is the month to get serious about setting the stage to build and improve your customer reference program. Effective goal setting is critical to hitting the ground running and making it a great year. Here are some tips for you. QUESTIONS TO... read more →

This just in as we add to our lineup for the March Customer Reference Forum. With the rise of social media--and the decline of attention spans!--video is becoming an increasingly important tool for disseminating customer content.  Diane Davidson with Cisco WebEx will lead a workshop on showing how to make... read more →

Ever wonder how your reference collateral is actually perceived, and used, by the technology purchasers you want to target?  How is this dynamic changing with the rise of social networking? From written case studies to customer testimonial podcasts and videos, reference collateral is a major expense and is undergoing serious... read more →