Program

Featured Presentations
Other Topics + Tools You Can Use
Schedule

Featured Presentations

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Keynote 1: Creating Customer Evangelists
by Jackie Huba, co-author of "Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force"

There is increasing evidence that companies with the most customer evangelists have the highest r evenue growth rates, making word of mouth the valuable new currency in today's marketing-saturated world. Customer evangelists are loyal customers who love your products and services so much they voluntarily spread the word. Jackie will show you how to embrace and leverage these special customers who have become de facto members of your company's marketing team.

Called the "new mantra for entrepreneurial success" by the New York Times and "an absorbing read" by Harvard Business School," Jackie's book "Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force," has been featured in the Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, Fast Company, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Boston Herald, Inc. magazine and other publications. She and co-author Ben McConnel have helped Disney, Microsoft, Whirlpool, Cisco, and an array of small and medium businesses around the country create their own brand of customer evangelists.

Presentation: It's Time to Get Serious About "Net Promoters"
by Coleen Kaiser, Vice President, Customer Value and Reference Services at SAP AG

"Net promoters." Remember that phrase. It is now the dividing line between those customer reference programs that will make a major, strategic impact on their businesses, and those that won't.

Two years ago, Coleen and SAP's senior management embraced the concept of "net promoters" - which was developed by Bain Consulting's Frederick Reichheld - with dramatic results. References are now making a clear impact on SAP sales and market share, and reference metrics will soon be used by senior management to help assess overall firm performance. In other words, senior executives at SAP see the link between a vibrant customer reference program and firm performance. Such results - and respect - attract resources. Coleen's corporate reference staff at SAP has expanded nearly 10-fold and the number of SAP references has more than tripled. Coleen will have very concrete tips on how your program can gain such resources, respect and results at your firm.

Case Study: How SAS Europe Turns Customers into Sales People
by Mary Beth Robinson, Reference Program Manager at SAS Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA)

Famous as a perennial member of Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" as well as for its fiercely loyal customers, SAS is developing legendary status in the world of technology s imilar to Southwest Airlines. Mary Beth, who's been with SAS for five years and initiated the SAS EMEA Reference Program in October 2003, will show how SAS turns its yearly customer conference into a powerful sales event. SAS customer references not only attract prospects to the conference, but also enhance and confirm SAS' sales messages through their presentations. One-on-one meetings arranged by Mary Beth's team have proven to be deal-clinchers. She'll show how she and her team set up this program, how they get the most from it, and the impact it's having on SAS sales -- the marketing director, for example, boasts that the conference paid for itself in the first 20 minutes!

Keynote 2: How "Ruthless" is Your Customer Reference Program?
Amir Hartman, CEO, Mainstay Partners and author, "Ruthless Execution: What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit The Wall"

Those of us who work in marketing sometimes get a little fuzzy about the value we bring to our firms. Amir Hartman will give us a refreshing and useful dose of reality. Amir brings three great things to the discussion: (1) He's brilliant: he's on the faculties of both Columbia's Graduate School of Business and Berkeley's Haas School of Business, quoted frequently in major publications su ch as CIO magazine, a widely read author and frequent speaker at forums of senior executives. (2) He can run a business: he built and sold his previous firm, Sai International, to Cisco and is now the Founder and Managing Director of Mainstay Partners, which provides strategic services to companies like HP, Honeywell, Oracle, and Office Depot. (3) He works in our space: as part of its services, Mainstay Partners works directly with customer reference programs. He understands our issues, and the potential of what we do.

For those who want to know how to persuade decision makers - within your customer's organization, or within your own organization - Amir is your man. He'll discuss the keys to what customers want from their technology partners and how an effective reference program can change the game. Topics addressed will include:

• How do you ensure that your customer reference program is driving business-relevant results?
• How do you measure success of your customer reference program?
• How do you best get senior leadership support for your efforts?

Presentation: How To Do More With Your Existing CRM Software
by Margaret Molloy, Senior Director, Americas Marketing, Siebel Systems

Your CRM system -- whether a multi-million dollar platform or a relatively modest, hosted solution -- has more capabilities than you realize. Why spend more for what you can already do, if you just knew how? And who better to show you than the person who runs the America's reference program for Siebel Systems, one of the world's premier CRM providers? Margaret's presentation will apply to all levels of CRM reference programs, from small and medium businesses to enterprises.

Presentation: Reference Management: The Cornerstone of a Customer Relationship Growth Strategy
by Steve Hurley, Vice President, Learning & Performance Excellence, ITSMA

Customer reference programs continue to grow in importance, because increasingly skeptical buyers demand proof of value that only references can provide. New research at ITSMA is showing that reference programs can generate even greater value by driving relationships within key accounts. In particular, your reference program can provide the gateway to a continuous dialogue with key clients, and thus serve as the cornerstone within your organization for total relationship management.

Steve will provide updated ITSMA research on how customers choose technology vendors, and how a reference program can be leveraged to drive deeper relationships within key accounts. We will talk about how client reference management can and should graduate from a tactical program to a critically important strategic program that man ages a company1s greatest assets - its customers and clients.

Presentation: References on a Shoestring; How to Stretch Scarce Budget Dollars
by Tami Andrews, Customer Marketing Programs Manager, NetIQ

One of the most experienced professionals in the field, Tami helped build the extensive reference program for multi-billion dollar HP, and for the last two years has been building the reference program for NetIQ, a $260 million systems and security-solutions provider. One thing she's learned is how to stretch a dollar. She'll share some of her secrets with you.

These are just a few of the presentations you'll be hearing and participating in.

Other Topics + Tools You Can Use

As usual, we'll emphasize presentations by leaders in this field who run some of the most respected reference programs. They'll address many other critical, nuts and bolts challenges facing CR managers, including:

• Gaining executive support for your reference program
• Making the business case / establishing ROI for a reference program
• Getting customers to participate in the reference program
• Leveraging relationships with customer references (such as through advisory councils and user groups)
• Getting customers to disclose ROI
• Avoiding reference burnout
• Integrating with Sales
• Gaining internal Support
• Finding good vendor support
• Day-to-day program management issues
• Creating compelling collateral that helps sales process

Schedule

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