Every customer advocate program (CAP) measures its success in a variety of ways. There are metrics related to building out the database so that stakeholders find what they need when they need it. That’s super important because if amassing a quality database is not happening, there really isn’t a program so much as a suspect collection of potentially happy customers. This does not inspire confidence or trust.
Fast forward, you’ve built a stellar collection of references that align with your company’s growth goals. Then the questions are, do stakeholders know about this resource? Do they know how to find it? Do they know how to use it? All of these questions get to the heart of user adoption. Low or no awareness of or education on customer reference program use results in low or no user adoption.
We’ve traced every useful measurement back to one essential metric, the seed, if you will, of all long-range outcome goals:
That metric is the percentage of opportunities leveraging reference resources. If we were starting a program tomorrow, we’d need a baseline, which would be the percent of opportunities currently using some form of a reference to ultimately close a deal. It’s not a perfect science, but surveying salespeople will get you close. The question to ask?
“On average, what percentage of your opportunities require customer references in order to buy?”
Notice that “customer references” is not specific. That’s because customer content such as videos, case studies, webinar recordings, and reviews, along with reference calls/forums and site visits all leverage a reference. At the core is a customer reference/advocate.
If asked, “What percentage should we be shooting for?,” we’d answer, “there is no universal percentage. It depends on the nature of your solution or service.” How much social evidence is needed for that particular solution? If you own your space, probably not as much. If you’re blazing a new trail or a recent entrant into a crowded market, or maybe breaking into a new industry, probably a lot more.
Let’s say that your survey results show that, on average, 20% of opportunities leverage references. As a customer advocate believer, you know that the more frequently references are employed, the better the chances your sales team wins. We know it intuitively, but there are plenty of studies that support that presumption. Here’s a sample:
Now, what can you do to increase the use of customer references by your sales team to 30%, 50%, or more?
Perhaps you have thought of your role as more marketing than sales. But as you can see, to have an impact on this essential metric—the percentage of opportunities leveraging reference resources—you’ll need to put on your sales enablement/effectiveness hat and partner with that team. Improving this metric should be a shared goal. It’s awfully difficult to argue with this logic if the end goal is to win more deals.
As this infographic illustrates, a mature advocacy program is responsible for continuously identifying advocates, maintaining accurate advocacy data, protecting customer relationships, and aligning with top company goals to accelerate growth.
The infographic contains six key components. Here's a description of each for you to translate into your own talking points.
Every advocate starts as a customer.
The journey begins when account teams, customer success managers, support teams, and services organizations create positive experiences that build trust and confidence.
As customers achieve success, some become enthusiastic supporters of the company, its products, and its people. These customers are identified as potential advocates and introduced to the advocacy team.
The advocacy team interviews these individuals, learns about their experiences, captures important details about their interests and expertise, and creates a searchable advocate profile.
The result is a discoverable advocate: someone who can be found, matched, and engaged when the business needs credible customer voices.
Without this process, valuable customer relationships remain hidden inside co-workers’ heads or team spreadsheets, unavailable to the broader organization.
Great advocates are rarely discovered by the advocacy team alone. It’s really just too much to ask of any one part of the organization. Every customer touchpoint plays a part in cultivating and retaining advocates.
Customer success managers see customer enthusiasm firsthand. Account teams hear success stories during business reviews. Support teams witness customer loyalty. Product teams interact with passionate users who influence future direction.
A successful advocacy program creates a systematic way for all customer-facing teams to identify and nominate potential advocates, as well as a means for customers to self-identify..
Think of it as building a talent pipeline.
The broader the participation across the organization, the stronger and more diverse the advocate community becomes.
This collective effort ensures the advocacy database reflects the full spectrum of customer success stories across industries, products, geographies, and use cases.
The advocacy team serves as the steward of the organization's advocacy data.
Their responsibilities fall into three primary areas.
First, they recruit continuously. Advocates change jobs, priorities shift, and customer enthusiasm naturally evolves over time. Maintaining a healthy advocacy community requires constant replenishment.
Second, they keep information current. Customer stories, product deployments, business outcomes, and willingness to participate all change. Outdated advocacy data quickly becomes unreliable.
Third, they measure and report value. Advocacy programs must demonstrate their contribution to business outcomes such as customer acquisition, retention, and expansion.
Beyond maintaining records, the advocacy team actively shapes the composition of the database to align with company growth objectives. This is essential if the program is to be seen by executives as a strategic lever vs. a low-level function an intern can run.
If the company’s strategic direction includes expanding into healthcare, launching a new product, selling through a new channel, entering Asia, or targeting a specific buyer persona, the advocacy team ensures the advocate population evolves accordingly.
In many ways, they function as portfolio managers for one of the company's most valuable assets: customer credibility.
Most organizations initially think of advocacy as a sales resource.
Sales certainly benefits from customer references, but advocacy creates value far beyond the sales organization.
The common thread is credibility.
Advocates provide something no marketing budget can purchase directly: authentic proof from real customers.
Most mature advocacy programs include additional components that extend value for both advocates and the business.
These activities are connected mechanisms that strengthen relationships, increase engagement, and create additional opportunities for customers to contribute.
Together, they help transform advocacy from a transactional activity into an ongoing customer experience.
The ultimate purpose of customer advocacy is not activity.
It is business impact.
In Summary
Advocates are valuable assets. The advocacy team's job is to make sure those assets are available when needed, protected from burnout, and aligned with the organization's most important priorities.
When done well, customer advocacy transforms customer success into measurable business value. It is an enterprise capability built on trusted relationships, reliable data, and authentic customer voices.
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