Engaging Mid-Market and Enterprise Advocates in Reference Programs

Kathleen Connelly · 2025-08-01 23:02:29.478398+00

hey everyone! our team is looking for ways to better engage *silver/gold (mid-market/enterprise) advocates* in our reference program. Right now, we have plenty of *small customers (bronze/iron)* who join our community, often motivated by incentives, but they don’t have a dedicated CSM or AM. Our goal is to *bring in more larger clients* so we can track their participation, preferences, and any reference requests involving them. *does anyone have experience or ideas on how to effectively engage mid-market and enterprise customers in a reference program*? here's what we've tried: • blanket invites to our program (deeto) through various channels (newsletters, in-app messages, emails) • Competition for CSMs do we need to change strategy? benefits? share your hacks, wins, or even fails! :pray::blush: tia!

Engaging Mid-Market and Enterprise Advocates in Reference Programs | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

9 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Emily Smith
·
I think it also depends on the types of incentives you're offering! Some will resonate for ENT/MM the same way they do for SMB, but a lot will not. I know our ENT customers find more value in our 1:1 product conversations, Product Feedback sessions, and executive engagement opportunities than our webinars/community/rewards program etc. We've had success doing cold calling sprints to the customers outlining the benefits of the programs. We've also seen success inviting them to a couple of our sessions prior to them joining to give them insight into the program. Meeting them onsite at our field events and user conference has also proved successful. CSM contests haven't worked as well for us on the ENT side. Lastly, we're really fortunate to have execs who understand the value of the program and they speak about it with ENT customers and encourage them to join which supports our recruitment efforts.
❤️2
Emily Smith
·
We also have started toying with the idea of incentivizing our current members if they refer someone to our program who's a fit for our ENT customers when they're networking
Alexie Glover
·
I love the play of using your conference or other relevant events as a carrot for getting folks to join a program. CSMs and AEs will often ask for discounted/free tickets or access to speaking opps for their key customers and we provide those perks only to members of the program. It's not specific to the activity (ie. could be sales references, analyst reports, case studies, etc.) but as long as they're doing something with our program they are eligible for the discounts/freebies. This has helped incentivize account teams because they don't want to say no to their customers!
❤️1
👆1
Liz Pedro
·
One thing I typically do is find out which customers are Fortune 500/Global 2000. Then I target those. You can also get a list of your largest customers and target them starting with the largest. These things take time but provide huge benefits.
Liz Pedro
·
Also if your company has an NPS survey get the survey respondents who are promoters and target the largest customer from that list. I’ve held plenty of contests with CSMs and Sales but these targeted approach’s have more success.
👍1
Gabrielle Herrera
·
I think SPIFFs can certainly help but I would focus more on CSM enablement first.
Alan Manosca
·
One thing I’ve done internally is set a shared goal with the CSMs to make X% of our customers as referenceable. To support, you can create some type of process for them to nominate customers who they think would be a great reference, which would give you a pool of customers to follow up on. Additionally, it would be beneficial to target those who give you high net promoter scores or who have high product usage data as those are the people who already recognize the value of your company.
❤️1
Liz Pedro
·
Love this Alan Manosca !
Kathleen Connelly
·
huge thank you to everyone who took the time to share your experiences! this was exactly the kind of insight i was hoping for 🙂 truly appreciate your input. I love the idea of cold calling sprints -- as a former salesperson, i do understand the value of connecting with someone over the phone vs. email! HUGE! Tailoring incentives for ENT/MM customers -- moving with the understanding that they value executive engagement, and product feedback sessions -- it would be GREAT to get our ELT to promote this program. Using events as a recruiting tool -- while our events are mainly virtual, we have our first Executive Summit coming up and are working with the customer marketing team to incorporate customer advocacy. it would be great to incorporate recruitment into our reference program here. Creating shared goals with CSMs -- we've already run a $1000 contest with CSMs which wasn't super fruitful. We got a good # of references but were hoping for more. They have been enabled, however, with slides in QBRs and email signatures! We are wary of setting goals with them, however, for obvious reasons Targeting Fortune 500/Global 2000 customers -- great rec to segment this audience. thank you ALL for your recs and experience! I value this community so so so much and hope i can return the favor soon. 🙂

Emily Smith
·
I think it also depends on the types of incentives you're offering! Some will resonate for ENT/MM the same way they do for SMB, but a lot will not. I know our ENT customers find more value in our 1:1 product conversations, Product Feedback sessions, and executive engagement opportunities than our webinars/community/rewards program etc. We've had success doing cold calling sprints to the customers outlining the benefits of the programs. We've also seen success inviting them to a couple of our sessions prior to them joining to give them insight into the program. Meeting them onsite at our field events and user conference has also proved successful. CSM contests haven't worked as well for us on the ENT side. Lastly, we're really fortunate to have execs who understand the value of the program and they speak about it with ENT customers and encourage them to join which supports our recruitment efforts.
❤️2
Emily Smith
·
We also have started toying with the idea of incentivizing our current members if they refer someone to our program who's a fit for our ENT customers when they're networking
Alexie Glover
·
I love the play of using your conference or other relevant events as a carrot for getting folks to join a program. CSMs and AEs will often ask for discounted/free tickets or access to speaking opps for their key customers and we provide those perks only to members of the program. It's not specific to the activity (ie. could be sales references, analyst reports, case studies, etc.) but as long as they're doing something with our program they are eligible for the discounts/freebies. This has helped incentivize account teams because they don't want to say no to their customers!
❤️1
👆1
Liz Pedro
·
One thing I typically do is find out which customers are Fortune 500/Global 2000. Then I target those. You can also get a list of your largest customers and target them starting with the largest. These things take time but provide huge benefits.
Liz Pedro
·
Also if your company has an NPS survey get the survey respondents who are promoters and target the largest customer from that list. I’ve held plenty of contests with CSMs and Sales but these targeted approach’s have more success.
👍1
Gabrielle Herrera
·
I think SPIFFs can certainly help but I would focus more on CSM enablement first.
Alan Manosca
·
One thing I’ve done internally is set a shared goal with the CSMs to make X% of our customers as referenceable. To support, you can create some type of process for them to nominate customers who they think would be a great reference, which would give you a pool of customers to follow up on. Additionally, it would be beneficial to target those who give you high net promoter scores or who have high product usage data as those are the people who already recognize the value of your company.
❤️1
Liz Pedro
·
Love this Alan Manosca !
Kathleen Connelly
·
huge thank you to everyone who took the time to share your experiences! this was exactly the kind of insight i was hoping for 🙂 truly appreciate your input. I love the idea of cold calling sprints -- as a former salesperson, i do understand the value of connecting with someone over the phone vs. email! HUGE! Tailoring incentives for ENT/MM customers -- moving with the understanding that they value executive engagement, and product feedback sessions -- it would be GREAT to get our ELT to promote this program. Using events as a recruiting tool -- while our events are mainly virtual, we have our first Executive Summit coming up and are working with the customer marketing team to incorporate customer advocacy. it would be great to incorporate recruitment into our reference program here. Creating shared goals with CSMs -- we've already run a $1000 contest with CSMs which wasn't super fruitful. We got a good # of references but were hoping for more. They have been enabled, however, with slides in QBRs and email signatures! We are wary of setting goals with them, however, for obvious reasons Targeting Fortune 500/Global 2000 customers -- great rec to segment this audience. thank you ALL for your recs and experience! I value this community so so so much and hope i can return the favor soon. 🙂