Gaining Sales Leadership Buy-in for Reference Program Participation | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

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Gaining Sales Leadership Buy-in for Reference Program Participation | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

Emily Smith
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We've definitely experienced similar. We had success creating a form for sales people to submit when they had their own reference for a deal. We told them we didn't want to get in the way of their relationships, we just wanted to know what convos were happening so we could track it and make sure we don't burn advocates out. Since it was a pretty low lift ask, most of them were OK filling it out. Unfortunately, we also got people on board when they started to see the negative effects of their approach. They would burn customers out and wonder why they weren't answering anymore and then come to us to ask for help. It opened the door to a good convo so they understood why we were there to support their deals. Lastly, we have win slides with AE's talking about deals we set up references for and the impact it had on their deal. Seeing top sellers using our team helped encourage them to do so, too. We also have some key advocates within the sales teams who tell the new hires on their teams about us, how to work with us, etc. I get a lot of new AE's saying "Nory told me to reach out to you" and so it's been great to have key people pushing our message without us having to. Building those strong relationships has been key!
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Amy Shever
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Are incentives an option? For example, offer a gift card (the more $ the better) for the first ten sales reps who nominate an account that results in a deliverable (sales reference, case study slide, Gartner review, etc)
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Liz Pedro
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Here’s good, better, best according to Liz Pedro, 😂 . GOOD: I’ve always done references with sales quid pro quo and tried to teach sales “hey you take care of me, I take care of you.” Mafia saying I’ve been told but basically if they want references they need to give them. I have done incentives too. BETTER: About six companies ago I changed up my approach and starting sourcing references from NPS surveys. If someone was a promoter I’d consider them in my reference pipeline and qualify as time allowed or when that specific match (location, products, size, etc.) BEST: I’ve heard of companies where it’s a requirement for sales to give x number of references a quarter. I haven’t experienced that but imagine it’s so helpful!
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Stephanie Porter
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In a previous role (not most current), we made heroes out of those in sales who nominated advocates by doing some extra activities for them and their customers. Simple things like funding a go-live celebration, hosting a champagne toast for the customer to honor their team, etc. Took lots of photos and made a big deal out of it. It's the carrot approach.
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Stephanie Porter
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At another job, we took the stick approach and went to the head of North America sales, showed him the numbers of how his team used more of our time and references than any other geo yet nominated the least. He gave his team a quota of advocate nominations, which worked for a while (until he left).
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Christine Newman
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Stephanie Porter I love the celebration idea. Jennifer Eberhart you are definitely not alone. In fact, just today I came across a customer who is in our reference program being asked multiple times outside of the program in just the last few weeks to take a reference call. The thing that annoys me most is that since this customer is in the program, it’s feasible that we could unknowingly ask them to do a call too soon after a rep has asked. We also thank our advocates with nominal gifts after a call (not an incentive, we don’t mention it in the ask) and do year-end gifts for top advocates, so the customer is being deprived of benefits. I’m not totally sure what’s done it, but it seems our sales leaders have taken a renewed interest in sending requests through the reference program, so I’m hopeful. Ciana also recently shared a survey she ran so I’m planning to do something similar to uncover any pain points/friction we can mitigate.
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Liz Pedro
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Ooh another thing I should have mentioned is tell sales and sales leaders you’re all about helping them hit their quota. They are very WIIFM! Plus start sharing reference stats of how much “closed won revenue” you’ve influenced and how much “pipeline revenue” you’ve provided references for and that helps build a LOT of credibility!
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Cecilia Wainio
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Jennifer Eberhart if you're interested in workshopping - I am just building a program out for our org! Would be happy to zoom.
Gianna Scorsone
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As a former sales leader would love to offer support! “Sales will be sales” when asked to change, especially if they don’t see immediate or easy impact for them. They may understand the overarching value, but based on being busy etc, nominating and following the process haven’t been prioritized. I’d get curious- with them. Solicit feedback from (1) the biggest pain in the *sses, (2) those with high influence (3) those that follow the process now Ask why? The experience. The resistance. What would make the change easy My experience is that it’s generally a combo of some of these factors: Nominations:
too many things to think about from closing a deal handoff to trying to close their next deal
Sales are sometimes more shy or scared to probe customers then you’d imagine
They don’t think it should be there job 😡
Process:
potentially too many restrictions
Just not in the habit
they need one fast
The key is to really pinpoint the specific challenges and allow them to feel part of the solution Part of the resell in, is showing them the value- I know, most obvious statement! How?
data- and this can come in so many forms but look for stories to help paint the picture you’re trying to paint
Whisper campaign- get the people using the program to spread the word! When people are back channeling on slack, ping a rep to chime in to say to use the program- or sales leadership at that!
sell the wins! Share the success stories in public ways. Slaws love seeing their name get positive shout outs in front of their peers and leaders, create the FOMO!
Have a sales leader tag y’all in the slack deal announcement to share you were a part of it- basically normalizing that using the program is something to celebrate. Sales often feel like they’re supposed to do it all on their own
These are fee thoughts without knowing more context. Happy to have a call of it would help!
Jennifer Eberhart
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Thanks everyone, for your feedback! This is all super valuable.
Jennifer Eberhart
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Gianna Scorsone I love the thought process of asking for their challenges in order to workshop and then make them feel part of the solution. Also really love the idea of getting tagged in the Win Wire announcements - while we typically have low visibility from Sales on a lot of Slack channels, the Win Wire always gets a ton of eyes and engagement.
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