Customer advocates

A customer advocacy program gives customers clear ways to help and earns their willingness to keep helping. Build it around what a prospect needs to see or hear, and choose advocates whose experience makes that work credible. Referred customers were 10.7 times more likely to become successful advocates than customers acquired through other channels.¹ Many organizations repeatedly rely on the same small group of enthusiastic advocates.² Create a path from the customer experience to a specific request, then match that request to the customer who can carry it well.

Set the job

Start by defining what you need a customer to do. A clear job makes the invitation easier and gives you a way to judge fit.

Define advocate responsibilities before you search for advocates.³ Ask directly: "Would you be willing to act as a reference, and in which of the following ways (e.g., reference calls, guest blogging, site visits, advisory boards, and so on) would you be willing to participate?".⁴

Use the answer to separate activities. One customer may accept a reference call but decline a site visit, while another may prefer to share a written story. Record the formats each customer accepts and the experience they can speak about.

Find the customers

Search through the people closest to the customer relationship, then reach out directly where that path leaves gaps. Use relationship owners and direct customer outreach to identify and engage candidates.⁵ Whoever owns the relationship often starts promoting the advocacy program.⁶

Use satisfaction as a filter. Satisfied customers should be your starting pool because they already perform many of the behaviors you want from an advocate.⁷ Customers with negative experiences should receive help from customer success before they are considered for an advocacy program.⁸ Positive product experiences and successful outcomes make customers more likely to agree to join.⁹

Look for a clear change in the customer's story. Improvement over the prior provider is one advocate signal.¹⁰ A personal relationship with the account team is another.¹¹ Customers who attend local events are useful candidates because they generally like the company.¹²

Move on when you can name the customer's experience, the format they will accept, and the kind of prospect who would learn from it.

Ask for participation

Make the invitation personal and specific. The customer should know what you are asking for, who will hear from them, and how much control they have over the request.

The person running the relationship, whether a CSM, account manager, or AE, can ask the customer directly.¹³ The invitation can happen during a catch-up call, a site visit, or personal outreach.¹⁴

Ask permission to use the customer as a referral.¹⁵ For introductions, ask, "Who are you talking to that could benefit from this same value?".¹⁶ Keep the referral request separate from other forms of participation so the customer can choose a useful way to help.

Give case studies the same care. The customer should see the story as an account of their progress and experience. The request becomes easier when the customer has a clear role in the story and the prospect can see why that experience applies to them.

Match the advocate to the moment

Match the customer to the evaluation, the problem, and the proof the prospect needs.

Before offering someone as a reference, assess whether they appear to be an advocate.¹⁷ Connect prospects with customers who have run similar evaluations and often use the same technology stack.¹⁸

Previous customers can also become deal accelerators. Ask about their product experience, then invite them into the conversation or ask them to share feedback with the decision maker when that experience was positive.¹⁹ Use video testimonials or arrange conversations with CROs and vice presidents of sales as reference options.²⁰

Move on when the match is clear enough that the customer can answer the prospect's likely questions without being coached through every sentence.

Keep the program healthy

Participation lasts when the relationship continues after the request. Give advocates a direct route to help and make their involvement useful to both sides.

Customer reference program managers should ideally develop direct relationships with customer advocates.²¹ They can also act as internal advocates when a reference customer needs help reaching the right person or resolving an issue.²²

Track what happens after each participation. A customer's second referral is the point at which a regular customer starts to look like a repeat advocate.²³ Keep direct reference calls in the program, then add other ways for advocates to share their experience with multiple prospective customers.²⁴

Build toward enough high-quality advocates across each product and segment to influence win rates.²⁵ Keep finding new people instead of treating a small group as permanent program inventory.

What not to do

The program loses trust when participation is treated as an entitlement or when every request is forced through the same channel. Keep the boundaries clear.

• Earn case studies through the customer experience rather than buying them.²⁶
• Contract language should not be treated as a requirement for case study participation because it has no teeth.²⁷
• Position the customer as the hero to produce more agreement to participate in case studies.²⁸
• Create your own references instead of using generic customer success round robin references.²⁹

Keep a live record of accepted formats, customer stories, and the next suitable prospect. Use the match when the deal needs proof, and care for the relationship so the customer can choose to help again.