My last two posts Do You Have a Customer Reference Program? and Conducting a Reference Assessment will help you determine if you have a reactive or proactive approach to managing your references. In my view references and a reference program should be a key strategic differentiator and program in your business.

If you don’t have a reference program in place this post will outline the steps you can take to kick start your program.

Plan of Action: Building Your Reference Program Foundation

Once you have assessed your current references it’s time to put in place a formal program. Follow these steps:

• First, you need to define who is responsible for the success of this program. My recommendation is that this should be led by marketing but in collaboration with sales, customer service and support from at least one key executive. This program cannot be a one person pet shop project.
• Next, take the information you gathered from conversations, insights and documents during the reference assessment phase. Review the reference accounts list you created and make sure that, without any doubt, that those clients are still willing to act as references. My advice is to contact the client and verify this.

  During this call you, confirm their contact details, the manner in which they’d like to be confirmed as a reference and how often they would be willing to act as one. This should be done on a regular basis, maybe every quarter.

  But why all this work?

  • First, the contact may be leaving the company. If so, you need a new reference contact for your records.
  • Second, business relationships have their ups and downs, so sometimes a reference may be unwilling to act as one until some things are smoothened out. This is when you add that reference to the “do not call” list until things improve.
  • And finally, what is the downside to talking with your client? They will appreciate you checking with them and may be meaning to chat with you about a new project.

  The Outcome

  By now you should have a good handle on what references are current, who’s ok to contact and how often. You’ll have the proper contact name, title and conditions in which they are willing to act as a reference (how often, whether they need to be asked first or not etc.).

  In a later post I’ll talk about how you can use things like Listening Tours, Linkedin, Special Events and formal referencing tools to simplify running your reference program.

  Mi6 can help

  Your company and your brand are built based on your reputation which depends on people saying good things about your work. This comes in the form of unsolicited referrals, word of mouth and formal references. References can evolve into public testimonials, case studies and success stories. A reference program acts as a foundation that makes this happen. Mi6 offers Customer Reference Development & Marketing programs. Feel free to connect with us if you’d like to discuss how we can help.

  Related Posts

  Do You Have a Reference Program?
  Conducting a Reference Assessment

  About the Author

  Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing agency and network dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the new Hi-tech “unassociation” Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist

Purchasing a technology “solution” is known to be a high risk investment decision. The buyers goal is to pick the solution provider that offers the best value, expertise and experience. During the buying process, there is a good chance they will ask for references. This helps them confirm which company is the better and safer choice.

Reputations, especially in B2B, are built on trust. Trust is earned through doing good work and producing results. Successful projects need to be tracked, recorded and reference-able. So, it’s important that a reference program is in place and managed.

In the first post of our Reference Program Series: Do You Have a Reference Program? we covered the key challenges you may face, if you have an adhoc reference process in place. This post, hopefully, can help you determine how mature the reference process is in your company.

The Reference Assessment

Whether you have a reference program in place or not, a reference assessment is something you should conduct regularly. It will tell you how many real reference-able accounts you have, whether a reference process exists and how references are managed. It helps you discover if you have a strong reference base of accounts or not. References that will help you be successful.

How Many References Do You Have?

This is the first question you need to answer. Take a snapshot of what’s happening now. Have conversations with key stakeholders involved in marketing, selling, implementing and supporting what you sell. Many of these people are involved in the proposal development process.

Here’s how to take a snapshot:

• Find or create a list of current references. You need to know how many accounts are reference-able and who the key contacts are in each. You need to know who is willing to act as a reference now.
• Find out how references make it into a proposal. What’s the process look like? Is there a process at all? How do you know if references have been contacted or not? Do you have a mechanism to control how and when references are contacted by the prospective buyer?
• Review 10-15 proposals that were sent to prospective clients over the past 30 days. Make sure there is a good mix of proposals – wins, losses and still being considered. Review the accounts and contacts that were included in the proposals. Find out how these references were chosen. Ask how easy it was to get the references.
• Find out how many reference customers have gone “on the record”. Who has provided a public testimonial? Have any of them been featured in a case study?

Are They the Right References?

There are three types of accounts that are important from a reference perspective. Existing clients, past clients and prospective clients. You need to make sure that you have enough existing and past clients that are willing to act as references. But, those references also need to be ones that prospectives clients want to talk with and can relate to. This is where account mapping helps.

Here’s what to do:

• Take a look at your current list of clients. How many of them are on your reference account list you put together in your snapshot? Beware of overused and outdated references. They should be current.
• Take a look at your prospective accounts. Are your references from the same industries? Were the projects you implemented similar in nature? Are they companies of a similar size? They should be relevant.

The Outcome

After completing this assessment you should have:

• An idea of how the reference process works and how it is managed.
• The number and types of accounts currently being used as references.
• A list of “on the record” accounts who have provided testimonials and been featured in success stories.
• Uncovered issues such as out of date and overused references.
• Discovered prospective reference accounts.
• Identify potential reference gaps between prospective clients and your reference accounts pool.
• Confirmed whether you have an adhoc reference request process in place or not.

Mi6 can help

Your company and your brand are built based on your reputation which depends on people saying good things about your work. This comes in the form of unsolicited referrals, word of mouth and formal references. References can evolve into public testimonials, case studies and success stories. A reference program acts as a foundation that makes this happen. Mi6 offers Customer Reference Development & Marketing programs. Feel free to connect with us if you’d like to discuss how we can help.

Related Posts

Do You Have a Reference Program?

About the Author

Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing agency and network dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the new Hi-tech “unassociation” Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist

Today, I’m launching a new blog series on the topic of Marketing Integration. This is my first post which introduces our B2B marketing integration (MI) framework [Updated: Aug 14, 2011].

Before reading any further you may want to check out an earlier post entitled “What Is Marketing“. In this post I propose that marketing should be a strategic and tactical discipline in every B2B company.

Marketing should be viewed as a key function that is to be performed by each and every individual in the company. I’m not talking about bad marketing but productive marketing. Marketing that makes a difference for you, your business and your customers. Here’s one tip on how to do that with your special events.

This framework can hopefully assist you and your team as you evolve into a marketing driven organization.

What is a framework?

Frameworks are tools and reference models professionals use in order help set direction, make priorities, complete projects and tasks (among other things).

They can be used in your business:

• To measure innovation
• For Product Marketing and Management
• To manage a project
• To help run financial organizations within a government
• To market your company

However, the trick is making it so frameworks are easy to remember and use and drive results in your business.

The MI6 B2B marketing integration framework?

For the past 25 years I’ve been marketing to create, service and keep customers. During this time I’ve developed a B2B marketing framework which is at the core of the Mi6 offering. The “mi” in the name/logo of the company stands for “marketing integration” and the 6 represents the key spokes that make the marketing integration flywheel move.

This framework continues to evolve, as it should!. Here is our most recent version:

The B2B Marketing Integration Framework (Creative Commons 3.0 License Deed)

Here’s the Breakdown for Each

What do you think of this framework? Is there something to add to make it better? Does it seem too theoretical and not practical enough for today’s results based marketer? Feel free to add your thoughts, ideas and insights below to make this framework better and actionable. Feel free to leave a comment below and add to the conversation.

Related Posts

Building Your B2B Brand
The Keys to a Successful Event
What is Marketing?

Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing and business development agency dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the Hi-tech community Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist.

Don’t be led to think that branding and advertising are the same thing. Branding isn’t about what you say it’s about what people think and feel about you, your people, your product and your company.

Whether you sell to consumers or to businesses the most important “brand attribute” is your reputation. I’m amazed at how companies pick mascots, have stupid characters, use silly slogans that don’t tie back to the companies value proposition/customer experience.

Let’s take a look at examples from each extreme.

Pets.com

During the .com/.bomb craze we all had more money then sense and branding meant superbowl ads, “eyeballs”, and business plans on PowerPoint. So, let’s benefit from hindsight shall we?

What does this sock have anything to do with the benefit of shopping online at Pets.com? Nothing! The fact that they couldn’t come up with something that represented the value/benefit of shopping online should have been the first sign that Pets.com was doomed!

Red Bull

Drink a few of these puppies (pun intended) and your heart beat is racing! Whether you agree with taking external stimulants to increase energy or not, Red Bull gets it from a branding perspective.

They sponsor sports performers including drag racers, F1 drivers and daredevils. These “hero endorsements” (a term coined by my 10 year old daughter) represent people at the razors edge of speed, performance and exhilaration. I sure hope nobody overdoses on this stuff though!

Tylenol

Years ago some idiot decided to poison some Tylenol tablets in a US city. What did Tylenol do? They pulled every bottle off the shelves across North America (maybe globally). Tylenol then began producing tamper proof packaging. To this day I trust Tylenol.

Here’s What A B2B Brand Is All About

“Branding” is not a fad and not something you do with a creative director at an ad agency. It is a sum of all the experiences and interactions your customer has with you! Here are some things to think about as you build your “brand” (reputation):

• What is it that your company or product does for your customer?
• How do customers feel and think when they use your product or service?
• What do they experience when working with your professional services organization?
• What is unique about your service experience over your competition? Do your customers view it as unique?
• What is it like for your customers to conduct business with your company?
• What do your sales and services people think are the most important things we should do for our customers?

If you can’t answer these questions, find out!

Here’s Where You Can Start

Build your reputation and your brand will look after itself. How do you do this? The key building blocks to building your reputation are the following:

• A customer reference program – a formal corporate program that tracks customer satisfaction and builds a pool of reference accounts that will endorse your company.
• Word of Mouth – buyers of B2B products and services seek advice from people they know and trust. Your reference program will help create word of mouth but you’ll need to think about how you can also get unbiased mindshare from industry leaders.
• Thought Leadership – producing value add content and experiences that position you as an expert in your field.
• Feedback loops – talk to your customers, talk to your sales reps and talk to the founder of your company…regularly. Learn what is working well and what isn’t. Find out why.

Building your reputation occurs one day at a time and it depends on customer interaction, input and doing the right things to help your customers be successful. That’s what you advertise.

Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing and business development agency dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the Hi-tech community Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist.

It boggles my mind that marketing is seen as a “nice to have” or “other duty as required” in some small to medium sized companies. It confuses me that organizations see marketing as separate and distinct from sales. I cringe when I hear the term “marketing fluff”. Great marketing and sales work together in order to establish a positive perception about your company and its product, creates demand and generates revenue. It’s that simple.

The Marketing Mix

During college, I learned about the 4 Ps of marketing also known as “the marketing mix”. While some may argue that this framework is outdated please bear with me for a moment.

The 4 Ps of marketing are: product, price, promotion and place/distribution.

• Products – are the goods, services and solutions you offer for purchase. These tend to fill a need, solve a problem and provide improvement to a situation in your customers job or business
• Price – is what it costs your customer to buy your offering. Not to be confused with the value it delivers
• Promotion – consists of all direct and indirect communications made to show, prove value, build relationships, and and yup sell your product
• Place – is how, where and who delivers your product to the end customer

Maybe this is outdated, but if you were to think about your company and what it sells, these four things must be in place for you to generate revenue. You need to have an offering (product), you need to charge for it and make a profit (price), your customers and prospects need to know about it and buy it (promotion) and it has to be delivered profitably to the location that it will be used/consumed (place).

So where does sales fit into this mix? Sales is considered direct promotion which is a component of the marketing mix. If you’re a systems integrator you may wonder where does professional services fit into the mix? Or, where does my unified communications practice fit in the mix? The answer: product, pricing, place AND promotion.

So where I’m I heading with this?

I’m not saying that marketing should run your company and oversee sales, product management and your professional services group. What I am saying is that marketing is what each person and group in your company must do. That marketing is not a department or something your President’s receptionist does part time. Your company must market itself constantly and thoughtfully.

Consider this quote from the late Management Consultant and Visionary Peter Drucker.

“There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create and keep customers. Therefore the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Summary

Marketing your company is the responsibility of each individual in your company. Marketing can be the overarching umbrella that keeps everyone aligned and focused on your core purpose: to create and keep customers. I’d suggest you do these three things:

• Define what marketing means and should do in your organization. Use Drucker’s definition above or take a look at these marketing definitions from key marketing leaders compliments of Kent Huffman
• Use frameworks like the 4Ps and 4Rs of marketing to help keep you focused
• Making marketing a core focus of each person in your organization

Related posts

• Us marketers have created a monster
• The 4Rs of B2B marketing

Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing and business development agency dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the Hi-tech community Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist.

In my 14 years working in the technology industry I’ve witnessed unnecessary stress and chaos in producing proposals, especially when it comes to references. Most request for proposals require references. In fact, in some cases the proposal will ask for industry specific references for projects similar in size and scope, within the last 12 months.

Does this Sound Familiar?

Imagine a scenario where your company has 10 proposals due by Friday and each requires 3 references (could be as many as 30 references). Each reference must include the company name, a description of the project and the key individual that can be contacted.

In my experience one of three things would happen:

• References from an older proposal would be reused
• Sales reps would use their own accounts as references
• An email would be sent out to everyone asking for references

Let’s look at the risk for each of these options:

• Reuse of references from older proposals can be risky. Is the reference still current? Is the contact still there? Are they still willing to be a reference? Is the relationship currently strained? Are they being put forward as a reference too often?
• Reps using their own accounts may lead to reference hoarding. The company, along with the other reps, will never know or be able to use them.
• Usually sending out an email is a last minute plea for references forcing people to do unnatural acts.

Thirty References by Friday?!

In my scenario above you could need as many as 30 references by Friday. Now, using the approach above, you could have:

• Proposals with old outdated references, which would reflect poorly on your organization.
• Used a great reference too many times, potentially straining the relationship.
• Not have enough relevant references.

Mi6 Can Help

Your company and your brand are built based on your reputation which depends on people saying good things about your work. This comes in the form of unsolicited referrals, word of mouth and formal references. References can evolve into public testimonials, case studies and success stories. A reference program acts as a foundation that makes this happen. Mi6 offers Customer Reference Development & Marketing programs. Feel free to connect with us if you’d like to discuss how we can help.

Chris Herbert is the founder of Mi6. Mi6 is a B2B (Business to Business) marketing and business development agency dedicated to helping companies build their brands and develop commercial relationships. He is the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and the Hi-tech community Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist.