PHASE 10: ADVOCATE MARKETING
Listen to and harness positive feedback from your current customers to promote success stories to your prospects.
You Buyers scour personal social networks and industry experts to educate themselves early in the buying cycle. As a result, they are connecting with sales teams much later in the decision-making process. Because peer-influence is so powerful, your company needs to identify and utilize your brand champions. Advocate marketing formalizes an approach to highlight the customer success stories. Ultimately, this enables you to build a network of advocates that moves far beyond traditional reference programs.
RAPID DIAGNOSTIC
1. You know what information your buyers want from you at each phase of their decision-making process.
2. You know the programs you need to implement to generate referrals. (social selling, referrals, off-line prospecting, etc.)
3. You have a definition of what a true customer advocate is.
4. You have identified and contacted the customers that speak highly of your products and they are willing to advocate for your brand.
5. You currently have a program in place that gives incentives to customers to become advocates.
6. You currently have a customer referral incentive program and reinforce its utilization.
7. Your prospects value insights from their peers and respond positively to warm referrals.
8. You actively monitor social media and other venues for comments and discussions about your company.
9. You have a method to measure social reach and have made it a regular part of your research cadence.
10. You have selected advocates to become part of a group of advisors to help market and sell your solutions more effectively.
DELIVERABLES
• Reference Programs
• Referral Programs
• Online Communities
• Rewards/Loyalty Programs