{"id":125,"date":"2009-03-05T19:30:59","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T02:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.showcasemarketing.com\/ideablog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2022-12-28T02:04:02","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T10:04:02","slug":"winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.showcasemarketing.com\/ideablog\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning Customer Reference Programs in the Internet Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Virtually everyone can agree that customer references are critical tools for B2B sales efforts. In my career I\u2019ve headed up numerous customer reference programs, interviewed a number of heroes at customer sites and written a lot of success stories. The sales team could never get enough customer stories.<\/p>\n<p>Did these programs drive sales results? Yes. Were they what the prospective customer wanted? No.<\/p>\n<p>The plain fact is that prospective customers want to hear directly from current customers\u2026without any vendor involvement, filtering, positioning or influence. None. Nada. This is simply because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>End users generally trust each other<\/li>\n<li>Customers are far less trusting of vendors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Can you earn a prospective customer\u2019s trust while you are selling? Of course.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t change their preference for communicating directly with each other. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.showcasemarketing.com\/ideablog\/social-networks-for-business-starting-strategy-and-tactics\/\">social networks<\/a> and other Web tools, it has never been easier to bypass the vendor when checking references.<\/p>\n<h2>Try Peer-to-Peer Customer Reference Programs<\/h2>\n<p>Peer to peer conversations between prospects and customers isn\u2019t a problem to solve but a fact to accommodate. Below are best practices for leveraging your installed base to create a winning customer reference program:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Keep publishing success stories on your web site.<\/strong> They are extremely useful for establishing the facts around the business you serve and problems you solve. Accept the limitations of written endorsements and do more.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Embrace transparency.<\/strong> Enable customers and prospects to share their experiences. Affinity groups on social network sites like LinkedIn are a start, but public forums and wikis running on your web site are better for customers, prospects and your brand.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t fret a few negative reviews. <\/strong>Everyone knows that your company and product aren\u2019t perfect. Negative reviews give your prospects a chance to see how your business relates to customers. You may also use the <a href=\"https:\/\/delighted.com\/free-customer-survey\">Delighted<\/a> platform if you want to create free customer surveys.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep things lively. <\/strong>Nobody likes to show up to a dead party. Assign a community leader who contributes authoritatively and consistently, and who inspires reciprocity from your customers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Achieve critical mass.<\/strong> You want to get to the point where there are enough customer \u201cambassadors\u201d who can and will respond on your behalf.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Points 3, 4 and 5 are very important as a whole. The biggest negative for any peer-based customer reference program is indifference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virtually everyone can agree that customer references are critical tools for B2B sales efforts. In my career I\u2019ve headed up numerous customer reference programs, interviewed a number of heroes at customer sites and written a lot of success stories. The sales team could never get enough customer stories. Did these programs drive sales results? Yes. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,3],"tags":[37,36],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-persuasion","category-sales","category-web","tag-innovation","tag-marketing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Winning Customer Reference Programs in the Internet Age<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Customer reference programs are valuable to sales teams and prospective customers. Learn the 5 practices that efficiently connect prospects and customers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.showcasemarketing.com\/ideablog\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winning Customer Reference Programs in the Internet Age\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Customer reference programs are valuable to sales teams and prospective customers. Learn the 5 practices that efficiently connect prospects and customers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.showcasemarketing.com\/ideablog\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bill Freedman&#039;s Soon to be a Major Trend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-06T02:30:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-28T10:04:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.showcasemarketing.com\/ideablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/freedman-social_1200x628.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Freedman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@freedman1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@freedman1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Freedman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Freedman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/41f9dd00ef8489bb4a0ed92d8d94a291\"},\"headline\":\"Winning Customer Reference Programs in the Internet Age\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-06T02:30:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-28T10:04:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ca1625573d9ad9edcde2af04f6862aa\"},\"keywords\":[\"innovation\",\"marketing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Bill Freedman\",\"Sales\",\"Web\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/winning-customer-reference-programs-in-the-internet-age\\\/\",\"name\":\"Winning Customer Reference Programs in the Internet Age\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.showcasemarketing.com\\\/ideablog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-06T02:30:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-28T10:04:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"Customer reference programs are valuable to sales teams and prospective customers. 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