Buyers know how hard it is to produce the results they’re after. That’s why they’re always interested in talking with folks who are succeeding where they, themselves, are struggling. There’s an enormously important role for customer references in getting buyers engaged in such conversations.
They prove you produce desirable outcomes. They let your customers describe the business value of being one of your customers. As a result, such references commonly yield conversations that are normally hard to earn. They’re door opening. In situations where doors don’t normally open.
Consider 1st conversation yields, for instance. The norm, today, is only 2-4% of buyers will agree to have an initial chat with a seller. Customer references can provoke higher 1st conversation yields. It’s especially true when you invite conversations just using customer references. It fosters conversations about business results. At a time when that’s the kind of conversation buyers are most looking to have. It’s why customer references, used cleverly, can yield 1st conversations at a clip far beyond today’s brutal norms. Discover this, from your own practices, and you can get 1st conversation yields 5-10x higher than normal, as the data above illustrate.
