Maximizing Your Best Customers

I have a customer in my customer reference program who is a dream. We'll call him Keith and he is just great for so many reasons. Most of all, he has learned how being a great customer reference can be a win-win for his company and him. When I first met him at a user conference, he was just your average Joe happy customer. In a year, he has become my favorite customer advocate. He started with doing a fabulous case study and moved on to do a great press article for us for which he was recognized at a company event! Next year, he will even do a customer success video testimonial and has some great opportunities to participate in upcoming customer events .

Not all your customers will say no to opportunities and probably one of the biggest lessons I have learned in the customer reference business is that to expect the best from customers not the worst. Managing a customer reference program is so similar to being in sales that it makes me chuckle sometimes. I have a reference pipeline, my target 50 success stories each year, my target 100 references each year etc. And just like in sales, if you have a positive mental attitude it makes a big difference in your success.

One huge success I just found out about tonight was a new Analyst ROI study that just got wrapped up. It took a few months but there were 15 customers interviewed for this who shared their return on investment numbers and the paper turned out just fabulous! These customers all had great stories and wanted to share their experiences. Here's the IDC report

That's just one reason I love my job so much but honestly to have a job where the customers loves your products so much is fun, really fun!