Stephanie: I've evaluated a lot of different programs and have gone to conferences where people are pitching their product. ReferenceEdge is always mentioned. The product is tried and true every time!Using ReferenceEdge means no more spreadsheets for advocacy, which is great. We have spreadsheets for so many other things, but not our advocacy program. And the dashboards are just so simple to use, and they allow me to easily report to our leadership on how our advocacy program is impacting and influencing sales. As our customers always say: the product just works!We did evaluate other programs that didn't really fit our needs. A lot of them were a lot more expensive. I've always gotten significant value out of ReferenceEdge, as I've used it in three past organizations. Brightcove is my fourth implementation of the tool. I will take it with me wherever I go, because I believe in it that much.

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‍Sheryn: One of the things that I first loved about ReferenceEdge is that it is built into Salesforce. The fact that the salespeople don't have to log into another tool is great.ReferenceEdge makes it so easy for sales to nominate a reference or request a reference right in their normal workflow. They have so much on their plates and this just streamlines everything.Another benefit I’ve seen is the ability to track usage and make sure that we're not overusing any references. And the fact that we can show the value behind the pipeline contribution and closed-won deals was huge. Realizing all this, I was adamant, we needed this tool.

Sheryn: ReferenceEdge helps us to accelerate the sales cycle, move deals faster. That's been one of the key things that we've enjoyed being able to show leadership.

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‍Stephanie: In my role, it’s helped to streamline everything. I'm continuously coaching our sales team and our CSM teams to use the tool, to go directly to their opportunity to make a request for a reference. It has saved us a lot of time and effort. I’m no longer the middleman (for the most part), except on special projects.ReferenceEdge is not just for references though, it is for all types of content, potential speakers, webinar presenters, pilot programs: all the different things that our sales and marketing teams need. It's right there. They are able to grab that information or contact really quickly. Internally, I consider our sales team my customers. I am there to service them and provide what they need to close deals faster, which ReferenceEdge helps me do. Now that we have built out the advocacy program with ReferenceEdge and populate contacts, I can actively help our team source an advocate for their advancing opportunities. On one occasion, a reference helped skip an entire stage in the opportunity advancement. That’s HUGE for our sales team!

Stephanie: Oh, my goodness! The dashboards! I'm a visual person. I like all the dashboards, especially the revenue influenced and the accounts and contact charts. I also like to see the funnels where you can see what opportunities are still open and which have closed with revenue influenced from a reference used.But really, I love just seeing the numbers of how many contacts and how many accounts we have to date. We have built this program from the ground up. The fact that we have 138 accounts and 220 contacts with a customer base of approximately 2K is awesome. We are very proud of the growth we have seen in 2024 and already this first quarter of 2025. Each one of these references have different tags or activities they are advocates for. They are not all for a reference call or a speaker, but they're all involved somehow in some sort of advocacy activity. Our account goal was 30 for the year (2024), and we kind of blew that out of the water so props to the entire team for that! We source advocates from many resources: team members, NPS surveys, community, customer events and peer reviews to name a few.I really do like the ease of the tool. It helps me track everything. The implementation is so smooth and easy. It tracks my different advocacy activities, so no more spreadsheets for advocacy, which is great. We have spreadsheets for so many other things, but not my advocacy program. And the dashboards are just so simple to use; they allow me to be able to report to our leadership on how our advocacy program is impacting and influencing sales.

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‍Sheryn: There's a couple of things that I just love about ReferenceEdge. The dashboards, for sure. I'm also a visual person. Having those built in is amazing. It makes it super easy to report out to leadership.I also love the fact that to request a reference or nominate a reference is a simple button in the workflow for our salespeople.

Sheryn: I think a community is that central platform where customers can come together online. They can ask each other questions. They can learn from each other through the discussion forums. Another important component of advocacy are customer engagement programs. We have programs that continuously try to drive our customers back to the community. We can see who's active and who needs support. We have our customer webinar series. We have our customer feedback programs. And once you start to see who are the most active customers in the community, those tend to be more of your fans. They're passionate about the product and what they do. There's definitely a connection between the people who are active in your community and who are active in advocacy programs. ReferenceEdge helps us keep track of all of it.

Sheryn: The fact that it's a quick button on their screen - to nominate a reference or request - just makes it easy and simple and streamlined.

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‍Stephanie: Yeah, I would reiterate the simplicity of it. In our Salesforce instance, the “nominate references” button is up in the top corner of our account and contact pages. Nominating and requesting references are both accessible from a multitude of different ways. “Finding a Reference” is in two different places on their Opportunity, so the sales team can't miss it! It is easily identified in the top right corner, or if they scroll down in the middle of their opportunity page. We continue to coach the sales teams and constantly remind them of the reference tool to help close deals. We join weekly calls and present on any new changes or additions as well as champion the ‘Ease of Use’ to find a reference. We send out a monthly toolkit, share internally in our newsletter and run competitions for nominations just to keep the tool familiar to our internal teams. I think overall, it is the simplicity of the tool that is of great value. Our team doesn’t want to log into another program or have more steps in the already lengthy selling process. They want quick and easy! After using the ReferenceEdge tool, I have sales team members saying all the time, “Oh, that was so easy!”

Sheryn: It's definitely from multiple sources. I think our number one success so far has been in-person events. Being able to make that connection in-person is huge. It is so valuable.Community is definitely another valuable resource. People who are actively giving us feedback on the product and participating in AI pilot programs, surveys, or early adopter programs, are wonderful customer advocates. Our webinar series as well. We have people who are active participants and continue to join month after month. But I would go back to the in-person events. You can’t beat that avenue.We have also automated a way for our customers to join our reference program through our NPS survey. They can simply check the box that they are interested in being a customer reference.And your second question of how do we continue to nurture those relationships? By continuing to reach out and check in on how people are doing. We also always like to reward our customers for their time, whether it's through gift cards or swag. And remembering personal things about them, too, cultivating those personal connections.

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‍Stephanie: I find references through a multitude of different channels. I use our sales team if they have a good customer, or if I hear a good quote or a notably exceptional experience. Our support team is amazing and they toss me little nuggets of UX comments all the time. We also have a closed-won Slack channel that keeps the entire company abreast of renewals & new logos. If I see a good story, I will follow up on that.Events are obviously a great source of advocates as well. I meet a ton of people in face-to-face environments that often lead to more marketing activities. For example, at our customer dinner in Chicago, at least three conversations have turned into a customer story, or some kind of content piece. Quite often, one event leads to another activity the customer wants to be involved in. I was able to source 8 customers for our annual Sales Kickoff who had never been involved with any speaking opportunities before. All of them brought so many anecdotes and experience to our panel that our sales team asked for longer customer sessions! The customers also expressed how much they gained from the experience and appreciated the networking opportunities. So again, building personal relationships are key to my success. It goes back to the customer experience and cultivating those personal relationships.

Sheryn: The key is meeting with your sales team, the different levels of sales leadership, on a regular basis. I have bi-weekly meetings with sales leadership in the different regions to keep them informed on the program details and to keep reinforcing the value of the program. We do that from the top down. And then we also meet with individual sales reps. I think keeping that regular touch point going is what's been helpful for us.

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‍Stephanie: Yeah, that's basically how we do it is get in good with your Sales teams! I had office hours when we first started the program where people could come to me and ask questions about references, requests or content.By identifying those sales team members who are using and benefiting from the Advocacy Program, I promote them on weekly meetings and in our Slack channels and newsletters, especially when we get a customer testimonial as a result or influence a large deal. Again, the sales team are my customers too!. I assist in identifying opportunity needs when a stage progresses, no matter how small the need. They may not always be the biggest customers with the highest spend, but it does contribute to our overall pipeline.We did run a competition early in 2024 to get people to nominate and put their customers in the reference program which was super helpful. I think sales sees value in references and the tool when they are used as an example to other sales members. People still like Gold Star stickers!I would also say that it helps to reinforce training every quarter. Doing regular training from top down really does help keep the new program in the front of our sales teams minds. We also send out a monthly customer marketing brief on the latest webinars, newsletters, activities or events just to recap of what happened in our customer base. I encourage sales to ask their customers to join the community, or if they have a great customer, nominate them for the reference program. It’s important to make sure sales knows the activities and breadth of opportunities for customers to advocate on Brightcove’s behalf. There are so many different activities our customers can be involved in.Ultimately, our goal is to push customer testimonials and stories. Highlighting our internal team has been incredibly helpful in growing customer stories while maintaining support and engagement for the Advocacy Program.

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‍Sheryn: One other key relationship that Stef probably can speak more to is also making sure that you're in with your Salesforce administrator, too. Just given that updates have to be made and maintained with the system in a timely manner. I think it is also a key to success.

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‍Stephanie: Yes, always play nice with your Salesforce administrator. They are very valuable.

Sheryn: I think keeping it top of mind. We send out monthly updates to our sales team and the customer reference program is always mentioned there. Also, for new hires we are part of their sales onboarding process. And keeping leadership informed and updated on any changes and sharing out the numbers regularly. So that also helps keep that top of mind.

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‍Stephanie: We split it between our two different businesses. It’s always a competition with salespeople. We will hear things like, “Oh media doesn’t have as many references as enterprise. We better step up our game.” It’s a nice, healthy competition!But as Sheryn said, that support and continuing education with our team is critical. I do onboarding for new hires, and I get an automatic notification to ensure they get their license for ReferenceEdge and I make sure they know what the tool is and how to use it.And then, we have to keep reiterating it with leadership and getting their full buy-in from each different business unit. We have those that are a little bit more supportive, and they see the true value, but also getting those other ones up-to-speed on how much they could benefit from using the program. References are not going away and we ask our customers for a lot of different things, to participate in all sorts of different activities. Advocacy is not just, “I'm going to get on the phone and talk to a prospect.” It is so much more than that.

Sheryn: Change Management is key to success for any program. You need to set expectations. For example: This is going to be a change in workflow or a change in behavior. It’s important to make sure they know what's coming and when. They need to know what they need to do. And then follow up to make sure that it's actually being done. Make sure people know what's coming and what they need to do and then report back on it to continue to show the value.I want to shout out the playbook that you guys gave us when we first implemented ReferenceEdge. I've never seen something so thorough. I was so impressed when I read through it. I've been working at SaaS companies or software companies for a long time. And when people have to migrate from one version to another version, change is hard. That is the one common thread that everybody will say, and so helping people go through the change and preparing them is critical.

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‍Stephanie: I agree, I think change management is key. Change is inevitable. I think setting that expectation that while change is happening, I’m also here to help. And I focus on how I can help provide the support that sales especially need for their opportunities, because their main focus is selling. The change management part is always hard, but usually it turns out for the best, especially if the change is more efficient and ultimately saves time when implemented properly.I'll second that on your playbook. I've done the implementations now several times and I know that with ReferenceEdge the implementations are easy. I actually was on vacation for the past two implementations that we've done and when I came back, everything was good. It was awesome. The team at Point of Reference is amazing.