News

Q&A with Tony Goodwin, Manager Customer Reference Program for BMC in England

How did you become a reference professional? Was it something that you always wanted to be?

I transitioned into this role comparatively recently after ten years in PreSales and Product Marketing roles. It was a role that I had wanted for a while, driven by three main motives:

1. Customer Touch – I enjoy the ‘real world’ customer contact that the role delivers – it is always refreshing and educational to hear customer experiences first hand. ‘Customer Touch’ also serves as a source validation of product directions and industry trends.
2. I have a Service Mentality – The opportunity to deliver a much needed service to our stakeholders [Sales, PR Teams, AR Teams and others] is satisfying.
3. An opportunity to ‘make a difference’ – I feel that customer reference programs are maturing and on a ‘power curve’ right now – driven by sales and marketing techniques that demand customer proof points. Now is a great time to be in this part of our industry.

How long have you been a reference professional and can you give us some background info on your experience?

Nearly two years – so still quite new in this area. I think my background may differ from many reference professionals – I come from a technical career path, with less track record on the marketing side. I feel this does give me a different view – and has added a much needed dimension to our team / program.

Our business is delivering Business Service Management software solutions, often involving sophisticated product requirements – my product knowledge can assist in clarifying the quite demanding reference requests that we receive from customers, prospects and also industry analysts.

Describe your daily responsibilities.

At the tactical level: fulfilling the many and varied reference requests from our stakeholders, recruiting new reference customers, keeping the production of customer artifacts moving forward [Customer Success Stories, Snapshots, Win Stories etc.] and of course keeping our reference database up to date [I use three words here: Quantity, Quality and Timeliness - our data must reflect all three].

And at the strategic level: investigating and developing virtual customer communities, developing strong interlocks with our stakeholders, rewarding our loyal reference customers, internal marketing – ensuring our stakeholders know the breadth of service we deliver – much more than case studies! And finally, thought leadership. This is where forums such as CRKSN are hugely valuable.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

There is great satisfaction in knowing when a reference our team has delivered has been influential in winning a major contract, or has resulted in a positive analyst report or press story. However, there are other rewards – recruiting a new reference creates a buzz, as does seeing one of our reference customers present at an industry event.

I was recently delighted when an introduction made via our reference program resulted in an on-going knowledge sharing relationship between two customers in UK – a true win/win outcome. Our program is called ‘Customer Connect’ – and this was a great real world endorsement of our approach.

What’s the toughest part of your job?

I would say that an obvious frustration is when we cannot furnish the ideal reference to fulfill a request. I am pleased to say that happens less often now than it did 18 months ago, due to our reference recruitment drive.

Actually the toughest part can be internal – ensuing our stakeholders properly understand the remit of our program – and also follow our processes. In business there will always be the occasional ‘fire-drill’ – but what is frustrating is when the fires are avoidable. It is tough to be asked to supply an enterprise level reference call in two days – but very tough when it is clear the request could have been foreseen and requested much earlier!

On the customer side – I am sure many people will share the frustration of how long it can take to get a customer artifact signed off and approved for publication. Often great stories sit at the ‘awaiting customer approval’ stage for ages – as the customer corporate communications [and sometimes legal] teams review and re-review the wording.

What is advice you’d give to a new reference professional?

One word – ‘RELATIONSHIPS’ – invest in building great relationships with internal stakeholders as well as the obvious need for good relationships with your reference customers. Important here is to understand the different agendas – sales teams want something very different from PR teams, and senior executives want something different again.

Do not hide behind email – get on the phone, even better, face to face, to build these relationships.

What’s your favorite movie and why?

I love film – so a great question – but please allow me more than one! If you love the cinema, I recommend Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore’s heart-warming, nostalgic look at our love affair with film. I also have Pulp Fiction and Fargo in my top ten. From older films – I always enjoy The Apartment. My number one – and I know I share this with many others – The Shawshank Redemption – quite simply superb.

I look forward to an active involvement with CRKSN – and in particular I am keen to hear from others in EMEA and APAC who work in our area. I am keen to set up some subgroups covering our geographies. Please get in touch – tony_goodwin@BMC.com

EVENTS

Official CRKSN Kick-off!

Join us on Thursday, July 30th for the CRKSN’s official kick-off. If you’re in the Seattle, WA area, join us at Projectline offices located at 562 1st. Ave. S. in Seattle. The program starts at 5:30 and will go until about 7:30. Listen to Greg Yatman, Global Customer Marketing Manager at Avanade talk about his experience integrating social media into his reference program. Free appetizers and beverages will be provided.

Another event on Thursday, July 30th will be in Boston at the Alibi Bar located within the Liberty Hotel in Beacon Hill. Join us at 6pm for a casual get together and meeting of other reference professionals.

CA Bay Area Customer Reference Forum is meeting on Thursday, July 30th at 11:30AM at Santana Row in San Jose, CA at Thea restaurant. Craig from Mainstay Partners will be our featured speaker.

The CRKSN is starting a Southeast group!  If you would like to join or want more information, please contact Molly Jones at Blackbaud (molly.jones@blackbaud.com) or 843-654-3051

If you have questions, feel free to email us at crksn@live.com.

References and Social Media

In the World of References…

Evidence of the Month

Have you run a very successful program and want to let others know what you did and how you did? If so, let us know what you did and how you did it.
This month’s highlight is an interview with Casey Hibbard of Compelling Cases and Author of “Stories That Sell”. Casey shares some best practices from 10 years of managing case studies and through research for her book.

Podcasts

Interested in hearing how other reference professionals manage their programs? Check out Eric Larson’s podcasts with reference leaders at companies such as Ford Motor Company, Comcast and Microsoft. No matter the size of your company, your budget or your program staff, something of value can be found in each one of these podcasts. Check out the list of podcasts here.

Code of Conduct

Have you checked out the official CRKSN Code of Conduct? Worried that the CRKSN will become just another group for spammers or people to vent? Read it here.

Jobs

Looking for a reference job or for someone to hire? Let us know and we can post it here.

What’s Being Said

What are we talking about at the CRKSN? Check out these hot topics and questions that members have posted. Do you have comments or a question? Let us know by posting to the LinkedIn or Facebook group or tweet us a question on Twitter.

Social Media

Customer reference professionals are seeing a growing need and therefore adoption to social media. Naturally, the CRKSN wants to be part of the movement.

What are we talking about at the CRKSN? Check out these hot topics and questions that members have posted. Do you have comments or a question? Let us know by posting to the LinkedIn or Facebook group or tweet us a question on Twitter.

Here are some of the great questions and discussions that have come in through our social networks:

• “Help! My case study got hijacked………” (Sean White, Customer Reference Marketing with Red Hat)
• Customer Reference Program Marketing Plan (Stefanie Maragna, Marketing Manager Asia Pacific at Mincom)
• Savvy B2B Marketing – Six Reasons Why Your Case Studies Need to Target a Specific Audience (savvyb2bmarketing.com posted by Anika Lehde, Co-Owner, Projectline Services, Inc.)
• Video Customer Case Studies – Empowering the Viewer (Casey Hibbard, Case Study Development, Compelling Cases, Inc.; Author of the book, “Stories That Sell”)
• What format of customer evidence do people find to be most effective? Written or video references? (@jameswbutler)
• Innovative way customer reference programs can reach unresponsive customers and help PR: http://bit.ly/85En6 (posted by @CRKSN)

Are you following us on Twitter?  More than 200 folks like @jameswbutler, @CustomerFeedbk, @StephanieTilton  and @zappos are following us.

Welcome to our new members who have joined us on LinkedIn. We’re now more than 220 members strong!

Richard Natoli, Call Center Manager at Stroll / Internet Order LLC, Greater Philadelphia Area;

Shweta Pandharipande, Assistant Manager – Client References, Sales Support at Computer Sciences Corporation, India;

Deaira Irons, PR & Marketing Specialist in Tech Industry, Greater Seattle Area;

Valerie Driessen, High Tech Marketing Services, Greater Los Angeles Area.

Our Facebook group is also going strong with more than 145 members! Here are some of them…Adam Nichols in San Francisco, James Butler in London, Ulrike Flugel in Germany, Karin Zabel in Seattle and Sara Maragos in New York.