Constantly Updating Customer References: Your B2B Brand Champions Make a Difference

Imagine the following scenario: You perform a cold call and get a customer interested in your product. In turn, they ask to speak to a customer that is able to provide a reliable reference on just how solid your product offering is. You give that customer your best reference. You provide them with a name, a phone number and some background information about how long this individual has been using your product. Unfortunately, on your follow up call, you learn that your reference no longer works there and the individual who replaced him ended up giving your product a less than stellar review. Now, the order is most certainly lost.

Using Loyal Customers to Build Your Business

Does this aforementioned scenario sound all too familiar? If it does, then you need to do something about it right now. I’ve experienced this firsthand. I once worked for a company where I spent the majority of my first couple of months cold-calling. I had some solid success and was able to initiate interest with multiple new prospects. Unfortunately, I was new. As such, I had to rely upon the references that were given to me, references that I was assured were solid.

Every time I got a customer interested in our product, I immediately followed up by giving that customer one of our “guaranteed” references. Of course, when I did do my follow up call with that new prospect, I would find that either the reference didn’t work there anymore, had moved up into their organization and wasn’t available, or worse, that the reference had actually switched to our competition.

 

The above table and video is taken from: B2B Brand Champions: Five Strategies to Using Your Best Customers to Grow Market Share 

Now, you’re probably wondering how all of this is possible. After all, how could any company have a list of customer references that are outdated? Well, it happens all the time. In fact, the problem isn’t just that these references are outdated. Instead, the problem is that nobody bothers to build upon the list. They stop calling their best customers and in turn, they stop doing what they need to in order to keep them happy.

Sometimes, it’s merely a question of staying in touch. Yet, in other instances, it involves understanding why these customers agreed to be your reference in the first place. In the end, it all comes down to your company’s brand champions.

Every Company Has a Brand – No Matter What the Market

One of the biggest misconceptions about brand management is that only consumer-related companies have a brand. As such, the idea is that branding doesn’t apply to industrial finished goods. Somehow, a company’s brand isn’t important in a business-to-business marketplace. However, this simply isn’t the case.

Every company has a brand. Every company has customers that will never buy from the competition – no matter how good the offer is. These are your brand champions, your most loyal customers and the ones that hold the keys to growing sales and bringing on new customers. However, you can’t simply create a single list of these customer references. You can’t just do a one-time review. Instead, you have to cultivate these relationships. You have to know why they are loyal, why they will never buy from your competition and why they agree to be your reference when they would never even consider doing it for your competition.

 

You can learn more about the strategies in the above video by going to: Building a Loyal Customer Base: Management and Strategies to a Better Market Position

You must continually revisit your customer reference list. First, compile a list of your brand champions. Which customers purchase the most often and why? Look at your most loyal customers.

Second, have your salespeople contact each of these customers in their appropriate territory. Have them confirm if the customers would want to be a reference in the future and how they would like the process to proceed.

Third, come up with a process for using customer references. If it means using references outside of a given territory, country, state, or province where the new prospect is located, then so be it. Your salespeople must understand how and when to use these references. Finally, make sure each salesperson calls a reference before using them. It's about setting up that all-important call in order to close new business. 

To learn more about finding and keeping your best customers, please go to: Sample Back-End Rebate Excel Sheet for Customer Retention