1. Just Getting Started: Foundation, Quick Wins & Advocacy
Lauren LeRoy
Director of Customer Marketing, Kespry
March 2018
Introduction and announce that I’m speaking at a session at 2:30 on strategic reference program.

2. What is a Successful Advocacy Program?
Build a pool of customer contacts and customer assets to fill reference needs for sales, marketing & executive leadership.
Starting a reference or advocacy program – level set. Day 1. Agree on expectations.

3. Goals Short term: Long term: Inventory of what already exists
Repeatable process to collect fresh references
Communicate customer stories and deliver assets
Long term:
Robust library of reference customers – build a grid
Strong relationships with go-to customers
Self-service system
Goals – long term and short term
Inventory – next slide
Process – talk about current work with NPS
Communicate stories and assets – talk to sales
Grid – add example later in the deck
relationships

4. Getting Started – Taking Inventory
Where to find customer advocates:
Customer Case Studies
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
Past Event & Webinar Speakers
Past Press Interviews
Analyst Surveys
Online Reviews
Advisory Boards
Community
User Groups
Slack Channel Mentions
Ask Sales
Getting started – audience participation here.
References scattered – how to collect what already exists – NPS (Net Promoter Score - remember comment on approaching customers who want to be references) or CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), past speakers, past webinars, past analyst surveys, ask sales,
Image: tornado or funnel with words
User Groups
Advisory Boards
Community
Slack Channel Mentions
Ask Sales
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
Past Event & Webinar Speakers
Past Press Interviews
Analyst Surveys

5. Quick Wins Ask sales: Upcycle existing content What do you use today?
What have you used at past companies?
What assets and content do you need to be successful?
Upcycle existing content
Quick Wins
Reuse as much content as possible. If the reference job was only partly done before you were hired, there is probably opportunity to reuse materials. For example – use webinars to create case studies. Use case studies to create slides. Talk to the sales team about the assets that they find helpful. Create a format and a template and start writing – if you are new to a company, that’s also a fantastic way to learn the products and the customers.
Image: Content types
Webinars or Presentations
Case Studies
Blog Posts
Slides
Quotes

6. Webinars or Presentations
Reusing Content
Webinars or Presentations
Case Studies
Blog Posts
Slides
Quotes
Example of reusing content – and why I am not a graphic designer.

7. Reference Grid
Determine attributes and develop references to fill those needs
Industry x Department
Product x Geography
Feature x Company Size
Banking
Travel
Industrial
Software
Finance
Customer 1
Marketing
Customer 2
Operations
Customer 3
Human Resources
Grid example – identify and fill the gaps.

8. Selling Customer Advocacy
Customers want to be advocates
Social media and self-promotion changed individual motivation
Consider your customer’s motivation
Change how you invite
It’s an offer, not a favor.

9. Systems and Scalability
Use the appropriate tool for the job
Get buy in from management across org
Make sure that the system works with current business processes
or have a plan to change the processes to work with your system
Resources - a system only works if you have people to manage it
Adoption & Education – only effective if the team uses it
Systems and Scalability
Thinking forward – how I think forward to set up a program. Use the appropriate tools for the job. Think about scalability for the future and the features that you need right now. There are many excellent tools and systems to apply for different (and some overlapping) needs. Don’t put in too much infrastructure that you don’t need and don’t have time to manage, but think about growth. Not a 1-size-fits-all approach to tools and systems. Share story about IBM system, Alteryx interview and needing a system and how that is different than current job. Tips: 1. Set up Salesforce with actions and yes/no/blank – ‘no’ is different from ‘blank’. 2. Get buy in and make sure that the system you set up works with current business process, or have a plan to change the process to work with your system and 3. Educate – the system only works if you can manage it and if the team will use it.
Image: SFDC screenshot
Consider Current Infrastructure for Long Term Success

10. Simple Contact Tracking
Tip: Track customer participation data: yes/no/’null’
because ‘no’ is different than ‘unknown’

11. Questions?

12. 5 Actions for Success
Take Inventory – find out what you are starting with
Establish relationships to get introductions for new reference customers
Quick Wins – reuse content to deliver assets for sales & marketing
Customer Motivation – change the way that you invite customers
Systems – implement the right system and processes for your infrastructure and culture for today and planning ahead

13. Thank You! Lauren LeRoy *lauren.leroy@gmail.com