In Brief
Customer
A leading global technology company
Challenge
The existing customer advocacy programme was slow to produce stories as neither customers nor sales teams were engaged. The lack of regular new success stories made it harder for Sales to evidence the value of a rapidly expanding product range.
Solution
Wise & Zeal re-engineered the recruitment approach, operations and sales enablement for the advocacy programme to create a market-leading programme which they now deliver as a managed service.
Outcomes
70+
public stories delivered in two years, of which 60+ named
223%
Increase in nominations in first year, 54% in second year
77%
of stories now feature new products
C-suite advocates
Client’s C-suite engaged and quoted in customer stories
Integrated
Customer stories are integrated within EMEA and LATAM and regional marketing plans
A programme in crisis needed a creative solution
Challenges
This global leading technology company has experienced impressive growth in the last decade, generating thousands of new customers, supported by an ever-increasing number of account managers. Their product portfolio has also significantly expanded making them a leader in almost all of their product categories.
However, the EMEA customer advocacy programme was struggling to keep pace with this growth. The existing success stories were outdated and mostly featured US-centric organisations with limited appeal to EMEA prospects. Securing nominations for new stories was a challenge, and the development process for new stories, managed remotely by the U.S team, was broken. The result? Just six stories produced in a year – and largely from lesser-known brands.
Bold and imaginative managed programme
Solution
Out went the fragmented, intermittent and passive programme model; in came a forward-thinking proactive programme, masterminded by Wise & Zeal in close collaboration with its technology client.
Pivotal to the programme’s success has been the sales and marketing tool kit and virtual roadshow created by the Wise & Zeal team – which removed the majority of objections posed by sales and their customers.
Two years on, the programme has been a game changer for the technology company. “We discovered an unknown benefit in the Wise & Zeal managed service after C-suite executives from our customers told us that working with an independent organisation gave them confidence that their story would be told – not our story as the vendor,” explains the spokesperson. “Customers state how simple the programme is and the value they have gained as a result.”
Results
Inspired innovation at every step
Among many imaginative moves, Wise & Zeal delivered a roadshow to market the programme, created a checklist of reasons why customers would want to participate and provided real-time dashboard reporting on programme performance. Wise & Zeal also explored new avenues for success story candidates, such as CSAT data.
Created consistently valuable content
Previously, success story content was mainly used at sales events – now it is used universally. For example, one line of business aims to use success story content in 25% of its social media posts. The average read time for the content is almost five minutes, and the content is also embedded in campaigns as a follow-up asset.
Increased success story production by 600%
In the first two years Wise & Zeal increased the volume of approved success stories from six to over 70 across EMEA and LATAM.
Senior executive engagement
Wise & Zeal engage at every level of the client organisation to market the new strategy and drive success story growth.
Attracted leading brands
The programme is now attracting leading global brands in FMCG, financial services and many other sectors. Previously, the participants were usually smaller, lesser-known organisations.
Internal resources refocused
As Wise & Zeal were trusted to engage directly with customers even at a senior level, internal resources were able to refocus on other aspects of marketing delivery.
