http://www.dancewithstrangers.com/2009/09/23/customer-reference-program-best-practices-b2b-marketing/ Random Thoughts Brought To You Randomly Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:43:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.dancewithstrangers.com/2009/09/23/customer-reference-program-best-practices-b2b-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-1964 Brian Callahan Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:03:39 +0000 http://www.dancewithstrangers.com/?p=1466#comment-1964 David - I fully agree. There must be a tight working relationship with the sales organization. They help create the pipeline of new references, but they also are the primary consumers, so it is important to have their buy in and support. I think that having people who can help tell the stories (and write them) as well as manage scheduling and traffic is critical to make sure initiatives move forward. David – I fully agree. There must be a tight working relationship with the sales organization. They help create the pipeline of new references, but they also are the primary consumers, so it is important to have their buy in and support. I think that having people who can help tell the stories (and write them) as well as manage scheduling and traffic is critical to make sure initiatives move forward.

]]> http://www.dancewithstrangers.com/2009/09/23/customer-reference-program-best-practices-b2b-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-1963 David Sroka Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:26:24 +0000 http://www.dancewithstrangers.com/?p=1466#comment-1963 All good points Brian. I'd add that even thought 80+% of the programs surveyed annually for the Customer Reference Forum call Marketing home, the most successful programs behave like sales. By that I mean that they embed themselves in the sales organization (attend weekly calls/meetings, events), co-locate among salespeople, and adopt salespeak (e.g., customer recruiting has "quotas"). Marketing professionals can learn attributes that remove the "us vs. them" stigma that often exists. Hiring former field marketing or salespeople for the reference program gives the program a tremendous head start. All good points Brian. I’d add that even thought 80+% of the programs surveyed annually for the Customer Reference Forum call Marketing home, the most successful programs behave like sales. By that I mean that they embed themselves in the sales organization (attend weekly calls/meetings, events), co-locate among salespeople, and adopt salespeak (e.g., customer recruiting has “quotas”). Marketing professionals can learn attributes that remove the “us vs. them” stigma that often exists. Hiring former field marketing or salespeople for the reference program gives the program a tremendous head start.

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