Maria Galindo created a highly successful customer advocacy program at Apptio that generated a "movement" of passionate customer advocates. She achieved this by focusing on making an emotional connection with customers and giving them opportunities to build their social capital and tell their stories. Her program included initiatives like customer onboarding, networking opportunities, and amplifying customer stories across multiple channels. It resulted in an 86% onboarding rate for advocates and generated a wealth of positive customer content that helped grow Apptio's business.

1. State of the Profession Series
Case studies from the world’s top customer advocacy
and engagement programs, showing how to grow the
business in today’s buyer-empowered world.
FromAskingforCustomerReferencesto
CreatingaMovement
By Maria Galindo,
Customer Advocacy Manager,
Apptio, Inc.

2. 1
Maria took a start-up's customer reference program to a new
level: instead of developing passive references, Apptio's
customer advocates are creating a social movement in the
market place. "We wanted our customers to be like Alumni at
Stanford University," says Maria. "They don't have to be urged to
advocate, they're so proud of their affiliation that they just do it."
Increasingly, Apptio's customers are also "just doing it."
To achieve this, Maria and her team focused on connecting with customers on an
emotional level—instead of asking customers to advocate as a favor, she's helping
them build social capital, the raw material for creating movements in your market
place. You'll learn how she did so with initiatives like Apptio's "Hero Stories Program"
that turns customers into thought leaders. And a non-profit partnership that affords
customers exclusive networking opportunities not found anywhere else in the
industry. "We're offering customers the chance to tell their stories in their own way,
and to be involved in something they believe in," says Maria.
The resulting program boasts an 86% onboarding rate for invited advocates, and
churns out a wealth of passionate-customer content including video testimonials,
public relations opportunities, campaign enablement and in-person events.

3. 2
FromAskingforCustomerReferencestoCreatingaMovement
For years, CIOs have had limited choices of systems that help them manage their
IT business in a way that adds the most value to their companies. That’s where
we come in. Apptio Technology Business Management (TBM) is an integrated
suite of SaaS applications that combine analytics, industry data and processes
for managing the business of IT. Our solutions are similar in this respect to what
Salesforce.com delivers for salespeople and Marketo generates for CMOs.
The concept has caught on. In the last six years, we’ve experienced double-digit
growth. We have more than 180 customers, one-third of which are Fortune
100 companies. It sounds like a small pool from which to draw references.
But, as you’ll see, it’s large enough for us to create what we call, “a movement.”
Something that we define as a collection of impassioned customer advocates
who have joined us in our mutual mission to profoundly improve the value that
IT organizations deliver. That’s a goal bigger than ourselves. And it’s a very
powerful motivator in creating a movement.
What follows is a discussion of our customer reference program system. It’s
made up of six elements and I’ll talk about each in turn. But first, I want to point
out the role that customer emotions play in creating a movement.
Movementsarebasedonanemotionalconnection
For you to create a customer advocacy movement, you have to make an
emotional connection with your customers. People will forget what you say.
They’ll forget what you did. But they will never forget how you make them feel.
So you have to spend time really uncovering what
their agenda is. What are their ambitions? And how
can they benefit from what you’re helping them
do? At its core, this is a proactive mindset. So we’ve
developed a model of work around that which
promotes proactive interactions with our customers.
For example, we are very proactive in onboarding our
customers and making them feel part of something
bigger. That in turn, fuels the growth of our program.
We incorporate proactive elements into each of
our six Reference Management components,
(see Figure 1 on the right.)
Activate
Movement
Align to your
Business
Goals
Establish
Your
Currency
Remember to
Multiply
Operationalize
and Measure
Turn It Around
Spend Time
Where It
Matters
Figure 1: Appito’s Reference
Management System.

4. 3
Component#1:Alignyourreferenceprogramwithyourbusinessgoals
By aligning your program’s activities with your executives’ goals, you establish
a proactive foundation from the very beginning. You don’t have to worry about
being whipsawed about by having to change things up constantly. You also get
the nod from your executive team, who will feel like you are on the same page
as them.
The alignment process means detailing what your goals are. And creating
reference, campaign, product and marketing activities to support them. At
Apptio, we look at what the company is doing over the next year. That includes
the product releases, the industry verticals that we need to support and the
adoption hallmarks among other things. This process helps us prioritize which
stories to capture. So when the time comes, we’ll be able to provide fully-trained,
onboarded, movement-committed customers.
I also take the time to identify who our stakeholders are. I’m a one person team,
so having support from our product marketing and management organizations,
from our customer success organization and so on is critical. I’ll need their
cooperation to make my initiatives a success. So I have to know who my
stakeholders are to help me sell my program to those people. For the reasons
I cited, this is equally as important as selling your program to your customers.
Component#2:Spendyourtimeonwhatmatters
None of us have enough time to do everything. Customer reference teams are
typically small and we could spend our entire days reacting to the demands of
others. Therefore, we have to make choices about how we spend our time.
For example, I’ve found that ensuring a smooth and pleasant onboarding
process for new customers makes them feel good about us. So every quarter
I create a report of all the new customers and add them to the process. Figure
2 below illustrates how we’ve streamlined our activities to focus on the ones
that matter.
Account
Closed
1
Identify
Stakeholders
Send
Welcome
Package
Schedule
Onboarding
Call
Onboard
and
Initiate
2 3 4 5
Figure 2: Streamlining processes to complete only value-add activities.

5. 4
I want to talk a bit about the third step, Send a Welcome Package. Recall
that we want to create an emotional connection with our customers to drive
a movement—not just run a reference program.
So what matters in the branded Package that they receive is a reinforcement of
that idea. The theme of the copy is that “You didn’t just buy Apptio, you joined
a movement to transform IT.” That’s an example of how we use language to
trigger a feeling of belonging with us, along with a commitment to join us in
transforming the IT field.
All our collateral supports this goal. For example, the Welcome
Package includes:
• A welcome letter that describes what the movement is about. I introduce
myself add my picture and hand sign it. So they feel like a real person is
talking to them.
• A brochure describing our reference program’s features, benefits, and the
process for them to take advantage of various opportunities.
• A couple of case studies that we use as an invitation to say, “Hey, these are
other people that have shared their stories to help people like you learn about
us and be more successful. Learn from their experience. And be inspired to
follow their example by sharing your story when you’re ready.”
Conceptually, our collateral asks our new customers to remember what it was
like in the early stages of the buying cycle. Like how they needed to connect
with other people to talk about their challenges and our solutions.
What we want is for them to recall how it felt to be helped by some of Apptio’s
“movement” customers. And then we ask them to be that resource to others in
their industry. And in so doing, to contribute to the IT community.
Naturally, we reinforce the two-way nature of the “movement” relationship. Not
only will our prospect learn a lot from our movement customer, our advocate
will also learn something valuable from the prospect. Putting the interaction in
this collegial context reinforces the feeling of being part of something bigger.
A feeling that they’re part of the Apptio community which is dedicated to making
IT more effective everywhere.
We use the onboarding call (step 5) to reinforce these themes. As well as to
smoothly kick off our business relationship.

6. 5
Component#3:Establishyoursocialcurrency
In order to build your movement, you need to go beyond getting customers to
grudgingly agree to participate. Establishing your social currency will allow you
to identify what your customers care about, what they need and what they will
get in return for being active contributors to the community.
Apptio’s social currency, is primarily composed of networking opportunities, access
to our product management team where they can influence future releases, and
getting visibility in their industry through press mentions and awards.
Our goal is to cultivate a passionate feeling for us and our solutions. Because when
customers have that feeling, they devote themselves to our community, and our cause.
Local
User
Groups
Access to
Product
Management
Press and
Industry
Analysts
TBM
Council
Figure 3: The dollars and cents of social currency.
Through conversations with our most active advocates, we learned that networking
and collaborative knowledge were the most important things they need to be
successful with Apptio. As a customer once put it: “You’ve already given me the
technology to help me create a paradigm shift in my profession. The next best thing
you can do is to match me up with people who are going through the same thing that
I am so that I can take my IT organization one step further.
Ensuring that we deliver on this promise is vital to the success of any reference
program. So we focus a lot of time and resources on giving our customers the
peer connections that they crave. We nurture their networking along with the
synergy that comes from industry colleagues talking about mutual challenges and
solutions. The tools listed in Figure 3 above drive the conversations that engage our
customers. They make them feel like they’re contributing to the greater IT good.
Apptio is celebrated as a high-tech, high-growth SaaS company. However, as
our CMO puts it:
"" We’re a philosophy company, and philosophies create movements. Apptio
doesn’t just deliver software, we help companies change the way they think and
act. We’re changing the lives of our customers so that they see their investments
of money, people, and technology differently. We enable them to invest in more
of what really matters to their business
"

7. 6
Philosophies also create communities, where no single leader stands alone.
Six years ago, Apptio founded the Technology Business Management (TBM)
Council to foster a community of leaders committed to managing IT like
a business. What started as a simple mission among six thought-leading CIOs
grew into Apptio’s philosophy to help IT leaders succeed globally.
The TBM Council is now a non–profit organization where Apptio serves as the
Technical Advisor. This partnership gives our customers exclusive networking
opportunities not found anywhere else in the industry. This offers our
customers the chance to tell their stories in their own way, and to be involved in
something they believe in. Through our role as the Council’s technical advisor,
we continue to champion the TBM Council, helping to grow it from 238 people
to over 1,100 members today. We also supported the first inaugural TBM
Conference in November, drawing more than 400 CXOs and senior IT leaders
together to discuss how they’ve applied TBM in their companies.
Component#4:Turnitaround:Makeitaboutyourcustomers
You know, sometimes customer reference requests can
come across as “Hello customer. Stop what you’re doing,
drop your day job, and please spend a day of your life to
help me get richer by talking to my prospects.”
Instead, we make everything about our customers. We shift the discussion to an
enticing offer that positively reinforces their feelings about participating with us.
That philosophy drives the story themes of our Hero Stories Program:
“You joined a movement to transform IT.”
“You’re a leader with a laudable mission!”
“You’re are a contributor; someone who helps your peers succeed in IT.”
“We recognize and showcase your innovation.”
“It’s not about what Apptio does, the real story is about
what you do with Apptio.”
Transforming customer references into a movement is really about making their
stories all about them. So you don’t ask them to do a reference, or ask them to
give an endorsement. You give them an opportunity to share their learning. This
puts their reference-content contribution within the context of them helping
others. And that makes them feel good.

8. But there’s more to it than that.
We also encourage customers to engage in various ways to promote their role
and success at their own companies. Most of these people struggle all the time
with making their role relevant. And sharing their outcomes helps them advance
their own agendas within their organization. We give them a chance to say to
their boss, “I’ve been invited to be a speaker about this case study featuring our
success, and here’s why.” That gives them a chance to look good in front of
their boss, coworkers and peers, and that always feels good.
Component#5:Remembertomultiply-amplifyyourcustomerstories
This element is about capitalizing on your precious opportunities. It’s about
taking a single customer contribution and repurposing that content into as
many artifacts as you can. You advance your movement by multiplying the
effect of a single contribution. Figure 4 below shows how one piece of content
can lead to a number of pieces.
This is what I call Apptio’s
ripple effect. The ripple effect
is about making the most
out of a single customer
contribution, to make sure
their success story reaches its
full potential by re-packaging it
through different channels.
It’s important to have a plan
before you publish the story,
and whenever possible, to
get the customer to pre-
approve publication before
investing time and resources
in developing the story.
Then, we start off with an interview. From that we create a case study from it
whenever possible. After that, we socialize it through a video, and align that content
with a marketing campaign. Then, we promote it through our blog and social media.
You create many artifacts from a single interview and publish it over and over
again. You socialize it. But not only with your prospects. You also share it with
your customers and your team.
Interview
Case Study
Press/Quotes
Campaign
Blog/Social Media
Figure 4: One piece leads to many to ripple your
message across many channels.

9. 8
Why is this so important?
Because when you show others what your successful customers are doing,
this fosters a feeling of belonging and being part of a community. And it helps
your prospects and customers make an emotional connection. They may think
things like, “I have that very same problem here”, or “That solution approach
would be perfect for us.”
Component#6:Operationalizeandmeasure
I’m a one-person team. There are only 24 hours in a day. So in order to get a lot
of work done, I have to operationalize. By that, I mean that I leverage automation
technologies, applications and vendors to amplify my output.
Now to do this intelligently, I define, establish and socialize processes. Then
I use technologies and vendors to work those processes. That allows me to
focus my time and budget on what’s important. So don’t hesitate to leverage
CRM systems such as Salesforce to manage your customer data. Consider
reference management systems to reduce the time you spend on manual
processes and to help you scale your operations.
Another example is our Apptio online store which includes backend fulfillment.
The online store helps us with welcome package fulfillment, inventory
management, as well as single order fulfillments. So when I want to send
a customer a quick gift, I can send it out with a few mouse clicks.
Finally, I want to talk about measuring your results. Earlier, I spoke about
aligning your activities with your corporate goals. That’s not only important
from a planning perspective, but from a reporting perspective as well.
Executives want to know what you achieved. Between the lines they’re saying,
“You need to justify the time, resources and money you’ve expended. If you
want more, then prove to us why we should give it to you.” And the only thing
that will satisfy those hard questions is your ability to measure your actions
and link them to revenue. So your applications and systems need to include the
ability to capture data and present them in reports. When you do that, you’ll be
able to build and grow your reference movement program.

10. Bill Lee, Founder
bill@c4ce.com
www.c4ce.com
+1.214.907.5600
3225 Turtle Creek Blvd,
Suite 1801 Dallas
TX 75219
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