yelpification and the age of advocacy

Bill Lee@bill_leebill@lee-consulting-group.com

Author of “The Hidden Wealth of Customers”, (Harvard Business Review Press) and President of the Summit on Customer Engagement (February 25-26, 2014)

FEATURING:

JIM WILLIAMS@influitivejim@influitive.com

VP of Marketing at Influitive, the advocate marketing experts

Tweet about this webinar: #advocatemktg

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

About Bill Lee

There's really nothing I've seen like it in the country.”

Lisa Arthur, CMO, Teradata Applications

The most insightful business book I’ve read this year.

Dorie Clark, Forbes Online

When it comes to developing high-impact customer relationships, I found out very quickly that all roads on that issue

lead to Bill Lee." Jackie Breiter, Vice President, Customer Success and Flagship

Program, CA Technologies

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

ClientsWe provide educational, research and

consulting services to leading firms, both large and small.

"The value was unbelievable. If we'd had this knowledge when we first started, we'd be in a better place today.”

Vicki Cooney, VP Market Development, AmerisourceBergen

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

2014’s Most Important Reality

Buyers want—and increasingly expect—to hear from their peers

before they purchase.

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

The Research

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

The “Yelpification” of Everything

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

The Yelpification of Big Law

"OTHER WAYS OF SELECTING COUNSEL JUST DON'T HAVE THE SAME RELIABILITY AND LEVEL OF INSIGHT.”Bob Marin, General Counsel, Panasonic North America.

“72% of general counsel said that they will be migrating a larger percentage of work away from white-shoe firms”.

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

Filling The Gap

I.Learn HOW

BUYERS BUY.

III.Create MORE

CONVERSATIONS.

The 4 Pillars

Buyer’s are bypassing this >

Growth

Stagnation

For this ^IV.

Allow what you learn

to CHANGE YOU.

GAP

II.Get

THE RIGHT CUSTOMERS

into these conver-sations.

Traditional Marketing Communications:Advertising, PR, Marcom, Lead Gen, Social Media

Buyer’s Conversations:Directly With Their Peers

III.Create MORE

CONVERSATIONS.

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

Marc Benioff’s Epiphany

Our customers are: –More credible to buyers–More persuasive to buyers–More empathetic to buyers –More interesting to buyers– Better able to understand their needs

… than we are.

And there’s a lot more of them.

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

Marc Benioff’s Epiphany

• “Let your customers drive innovation.”

• “Energize your customers into a million-member sales team”.

• [What two marketing approaches lead most directly to sales?] “The word-of-mouth phenomenon of customers

sharing their success stories with their peers.”

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com

bill@lee-consulting-group.com©Copyright 2014 by Bill Lee

Marc Benioff’s Greatest Technology

H2H

(Human to Human)

H2HHuman 2 Human

What’s an advocate?

More: One that makes a non-financial investment in your company.

IT

HR

Sales

Marketing

Development

What does an advocate do for YOU…

Product reviewsContent distribution

References User groups

Product surveys

Customer Advisory Boards

Analyst briefings

What does an advocate do for YOU…

Why do we advocate?

Advocate motivation

Status Access Power Stuff

PLA

NN

ING

IDEN

TIF

YIN

G &

O

NB

OA

RD

ING

EN

GA

GIN

G

RE

CO

GN

IZIN

G

& R

EW

AR

DIN

G

MEA

SU

RIN

G

5 steps to building a successful

advocate marketing program

The Advocate Marketing Playbook

#advocatemktg

Questions?