Of all the questions we receive from the sales teams we work with, one of most common involves when and how to use references. Sometimes, one question incites a number of different perspectives.
In this post, our Consulting Executives share three different viewpoints on how to use references when responding to RFP’s and RFI’s.
The Situation
You need to respond to and RFP or RFP and you’re asked to provide references. At this early stage, should you identify your coveted reference accounts or respond with a general statement such as:
“To respect and protect the confidentiality of our customers, we’ve found that providing references too early in the process puts the burden of education about our technical and functional capabilities on you rather than on us.
Going through the process of joint discovery, solution design, and product demonstrations prior to providing detailed reference information allows both our customers and our prospective business partners to have a more focused and meaningful conversation.
We bring over 15 years of expertise and currently support customers in 88 countries. As business partners, you can be confident we will extend the same courtesy to your organization.”
Our Executive Perspective
Answer 1: “I’m Alarmed By This Response”
I would be quite alarmed if someone gave me this lawyerly answer to a references request. I would start to wonder what they were hiding, especially if I were planning to invest a significant amount on the solution or if the solution were important. Since I am an executive, I would assume it meets both those criteria since they are talking to me.
What is the customer looking for in the question? Experience of the sales person, capability of the integration and support teams? Credibility of the company or product? Business case justification and likely ROI? Involvement with competitors?
Any company of any size should have some vetted references by product type and vertical industry that demonstrate the solution, the business case and the experience and credibility of the company. You can demonstrate your knowledge by selecting the right references and using them to guide and further the conversation with true, specific real world answers.
Answer 2: “I Don’t See a Problem”
First let me say that I am a big believer in the value of reference accounts, but I don’t have a problem with a general statement approach. For reference accounts to work well, considerable set-up behind the scenes is necessary, and an out-of-control process leads to problems that may never become visible.
It is possible that you could lose a deal before getting out of the starting blocks, but a serious effort to get the best solution would accept this approach and rationale at such an early stage in the deal. In my mind, you run about the same risk with an uncontrolled, poorly matched “reference checking” approach.
Although the general statement is already lengthy, you might also consider adding the notion that you also want to match references to the specific nature of the project at hand, and thus need to get more involved before the best reference accounts are identifiable.
Answer 3: “Craft a Balanced Response”
The key to effectively addressing this situation is to balance your response. On one hand, you need to protect your existing customer’s confidentiality, but at the same time, responding with a just a general statement may turn off some customers.
Consider variations of how to reference. For example, documented collateral that is anonymous and yet vertically focused testimony, whereupon the name/identify of the reference is revealed at a certain phase of the process or signed testimonials with customer name and company. The other very viable option today is a video of the individual giving testimony with responses to FAQs. They can always explain that it is the customer who is making choices of varying degrees and they will reveal what they can at different phases.
Which of these techniques do you agree with and why? Comment below if you have any tips you’d like to share!
