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Taking a Master Planning Approach to YOUR Customer Advocate Program
- 1. Taking a Master Planning Approach to YOUR Customer Advocate Program How to win support and influence executives
- 2. KATIE LOCKETT CUSTOMER REFERENCE MANAGER, LEXMARK
- 3. Program Planning – Where are you trying to take this? Reference Programs 2018 3 Content Networking & EventsField Relationships Reporting Reference Requests Working with Creative Teams Program Promotion Sales Training Evaluating Recruitment Reference Management System Working within Marketing & Sales
- 4. 4 What is the view?
- 7. What is a Maturity Model? 7 ma·tu·ri·ty mod·el noun Based on the assumption of predictable improvement and patterns of good practice, maturity models basically represent theories about how organizational capabilities evolve in a stage-by-stage manner along an anticipated, desired, or “logical” maturation path. Stage based evolution, logical relationships, stages, levels, continuous improvement – advancing – levels
- 8. Establishes a baseline for the program Gives focus to short-term needs and long-term goals Builds credibility with leadership & stakeholders Assist during budget requests Headcount requests Support of change management Builds confidence when working with customers Have a program they are proud to join Helps to establish value Why use a Maturity Model? 8
- 9. Evaluating a Reference Program Maturity Model Evaluations 9
- 10. Evaluating a Reference Program Maturity Model Evaluations 10
- 11. How To: Self-Assessment Maturity Model Evaluations 11
- 12. How to use the Maturity Model 12
- 13. Customer Reference Program 2017 Q1-Q2 Goals
- 14. Executive/Company goals Alignment = Relevancy Most obvious pain points Obstacles Budgetary Political Organizational Bandwidth How To: Prioritize Goals Essential Considerations 14
- 15. How does your company plan to grow? How do your stakeholders plan to support the goals? How do advocates factor into those plans? Are you involved in the right conversations? Consider how to report on program contributions How To: Align with CxO Goals 15 CEO Sales PR Advocate Program Marketing
- 16. How to present the Maturity Model Maturity Model Evaluations 16
- 17. Program Recommendations 17 Dedicated resource per Geo to apply best practices and program process from NA model Evaluate needs and develop reference program structure Roll out reference process and drive program adoption Manage data integrity and promote use of reference tool Fulfill reference needs in Geo and act as POC for requests from other Geos Recruit new references and develop content WIN MORE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MAKE MORE MONEY
- 18. 18
- 19. Check back on those categories Quarterly Check Points Project Planning Goal Settings Evaluations Performance Reviews Job growth Revisit your maturity model 19
Editor's Notes
- Taking a Master Planning Approach to Your Customer Advocate Program: How to win support and influence executives
- When I told my kids I was coming to San Francisco to speak in front of a group of people my daughter immediately asked if I was going to be on Full House and my son immediately asked if I was going to be on YouTube! I won’t tell you what I told them – but if there happens to be an incredibly gifted graphic designer in the group that could maybe superimpose me in front of the Pink Ladies while wearing a youtube t-shirt – that would be great. Who am I? What is my experience, what have I seen, why am I qualified on this topic? I have been working closely with reference programs for about 10 years both in a program support role, and as a customer reference manager. I’ve seen programs that are content centric v. advocate centric v. sales motivated v. marketing motivated and a hybrid of all. I have had the benefit of riding shot gun observing the behaviors of programs and how they affect sales, marketing and most important of all- their customers. When I was presented with the opportunity to run my own reference program I think I literally jumped at the chance to do this. I saw this as a great opportunity to curate all the experiences that I had in a support role and to now run a successful program. But once I stepped into the role I was faced with the daunting question of – where. To. Begin? What I want to do today is take you through the journey I took to plan my reference program’s goals which really gave me and my leadership the vision to what this reference program is going to be.
- We all have about a million things on our plate. We all know this role can be chaotic – we serve marketing, sales, and customers directly. It can be difficult to focus your attend on one thing for too long. You could be working on content and marketing projects and that can all be derailed when references are requested for a large opportunity. I understand your position – it can be days of chaos, many demands, and this is a solo operation. So in a role where the only constant is change how do you begin to move things forward and have a voice?
- The first thing I did was I really wanted to get a sense for what the view of this role was/is. and I would advise doing is to get your bearings. Possibly you are new to this role – or you’ve been doing this for a long time – it can be a challenging step to take – no one really wants the ugly truth. However, it really is crucial to understanding how the business views your program. How does the business view your program? How does leadership see the program? Do you agree with them? Do you want to change their mind? *For me – when I came into this role there was a lot of change within the business. I really wanted to rebrand the program – I was new to role, new to the business and I wanted to prove that I knew what to do and how to realign the program with company strategic initiatives.
- What are the goals for each department? What is seen as a success? You really have to take the time to talk with your leadership, your peers in marketing, sales. To understand how they see the program really helps you gain support and shape your goals both short and long term. Also, get them thinking about you! Maybe they haven’t worked with the program before but I bet they’ve used references – so let’s get them familiar with you! Get to know your sales team and leadership!
- Take the information you gathered from your discovery meetings and start to think about where this program is going and where it needs to go. How are you going to get to where you are trying to go? Everyone has a vision – How do you begin to prioritize?
- I started researching maturity models and found some heavy stuff. Ugh that sounds like a lot of math. But once you break it down it starts to sound like the best challenge ever! Once you have a goal set in place growing your program to the next level should be in your sights. So I decided to not only evaluate but challenge myself to level up this program.
- Why did I use this? Maybe you are new to this role? Maybe you will be looking to move to another company one day? Budget requests Headcount requests This tool is a key to achieving your program goals. It gives you the tools to assess what your short term needs are and what your long term goals are going to be.
- This is the maturity model I used to evaluate my organization’s reference program. The categories on the left represent all aspects of a robust reference program. I believe that when you are first evaluating your program you really need to take each category into account as they are all very important to gaining a holistic view of our program. The header to each column represents the 4 levels of evolution you would move through. Let’s take a closer look at that process.
- Let’s pull out information systems as an example to step through. Each category has a brief description of what you could expect to correlate to this topic. Next, you will need to use the information you’ve gathered from your exploratory meetings in conjunction with your experiences and opinions to evaluate which level you are at. Examining the levels even closer…
- As an example, let’s say that for the Field Relationship program element you assessed your program to be at Level II. NOTE: Not all bullet descriptions may perfectly match your environment. Closest wins. The goal is to evolved to Level III and ultimately to Level IV Looking at the descriptions for Level III and IV, what is achievable (why and why not)? What is short-term and what will take 6-12 months? What are the priorities given current pain points, budget, politics, bandwidth, etc.?
- Once you have moved through the evaluations you will use that information to create goals.
- Once you have your levels you can take your categories and create goals.
- Wise to understand environmental dynamics To get exec support you must show how the program supports their goals. ALIGN! Be sure to address the pain points that a majority of stakeholders identify/discuss There can be many different obstacles: budgetary, political, organizational. Strategize about which ones are immovable, and how to address those that aren’t. Lastly, program manager/team bandwidth must be considered in order to avoid over commitment/under-delivery
- How are you going help them be successful? How do you support their goals ? Every company has one main goal: growth How is your company planning to grow? How can advocates support the tactics (Sales, PR, social media, events, AR, etc.) that support growth goals? How will you be aware of new tactics and be able to respond? You must be involved in strategy conversations so you know what’s coming and when. Critical for CxO support, you must be able to show program contributions (reports, dashboards)
- From time to time you may be presented with the opportunity to present your program to leadership or to the business as it relates to a particular goal or initiative. What you can do is pull back out the model to help you evaluate yourself What are the areas that your leadership needs to hear about? Focus on those first. For me I was asked to evaluate how the global reference program health was. It was apparent that the company’s strategic initiative included global business. I knew I would not be able to have a lengthy conversation with my leadership team and present deep evaluations of each category. Therefore I selected topics that I knew would resonate and could be actionable. I made my evaluations of each geography. This helped to shape my recommendations.
- Katie – global program manager running and focusing on NA and best practices Need resource in each area that can follow program framework and procedures Drive adoption of tool and process, get new references, track and report them
- Phase 2, what’s next?
- How do you communicate your accomplishments in the context of company goals to the right people. -using the relationships and requests you learned in your discovery
- Continue to use your original maturity model categories to plan your year. Don’t get stuck unprepared.
- Big picture, long term, what is the global view of this program? Thing long term, think big picture, don’t get caught focusing on the minor details for too long.