We’re Passionate About Helping You Share Your Customers’ Successes

Our Origin

We started Point of Reference in 2003 in response to the part of the sales cycle that we as salespeople dreaded — the customer reference call. “Could I speak to some of your references,” set in motion a lot of wheel spinning and often didn’t produce the ideal result: the most relevant customer references available for each buyer, each and every time.

Solving the salesperson’s dilemma was only part of the equation. What about the people tasked with recruiting, qualifying, and maintaining customer reference information so that a single search produces good matches?

Market Evolution

Today B2B buyers don’t engage salespeople until they are 65-90% of the way through the sales cycle. We do much more of our own research before contacting the companies we think are the top 1-2 providers.

Buyers don’t accept the standard corporate sales rhetoric like they used to. As consumers, we’re accustomed to relying on peer reviews on Yelp, Amazon and TripAdvisor, and now expect the same in our business transactions. Peer influence is now the #1 factor in B2B purchase decisions.

The need is very clear. Businesses must make access to their customers’ success stories―written, recorded or live― effortless and plentiful. Those stories are your competitive advantage and are more effective than data sheets and PowerPoint presentations.

Automation

The customer reference process is ripe for automation. It is typically understaffed and over tasked. The manager of the program generally has 2-3 additional responsibilities. Salespeople and customer success staff have the most knowledge about reference customers, but they can be hard to engage. Being part of the Salesforce platform has enabled us to develop embedded automation for the most time-consuming, tactical components: reference requests, identifying new reference customers, updating reference information and quantifying/visualizing program value.

Mission

Our technology, expertise and services are laser-focused on saving time for program managers, sales, marketing and prospective customers. When you can consistently inject authentic, credible customer insights throughout the buyer’s journeym, your win rate soars. When you win we win.