The Advocate Effect: How Internal & External Advocates can Accelerate Deal Velocity &

Conversion

Matt Heinz

President, Heinz Marketing Inc

@heinzmarketing

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Housekeeping

• Feel free to madly scribble notes, but you can also have a copy of this deck

• You can also have (for free!) copies of:• The Modern Marketer’s Field Guide

• Our Referral Marketing Benchmark Study

• My award-winning* bacon recipe

• Just send email to matt@heinzmarketing.com noting what you want

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This stuff works!

• According to a Heinz/Influitive study of 640 referral program managers:• 40 percent of leads come from referrals

• 2X increase in referral lead volume over 12 months

• 69 percent report faster time to close

• 59 percent report higher lifetime value

• 71 percent report higher conversion rate

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Referral programs = greater sales/marketing effectiveness

Two Keys to Higher Performance

• Marketing manages the program• 3X more likely to achieve revenue goals

• Formal tools are in place• 3X more likely to accelerate creation & conversion

Only 22 percent of companies have these in place!

Companies with formal referral programs come out on top:

From the front lines…

• 56 percent of sales reps deem referrals “very important”

• 68 percent of reps with formal referral programs rated their referral tools as effective or highly effective• Vs 40 percent of those without formal programs

• 45 percent of reps with a referral program expect their closed deals to increase in the next 12 months• 47 percent of those without a referral program expect their

sales to remain flat

The impact for larger companies

• Among companies with formal referral programs and 200+ employees:• 87 percent reported highly effective sales efforts

• Vs 42 percent without referral programs

• 67 percent reported highly effective pipelines• Vs 36 percent without referral programs

• Nearly 4X more likely to have a “very involved” marketing department in referral activities• 58 percent vs 15 percent

The impact for larger companiesAmong companies with 200+ employees:

Six Elements to Creating Your Own Advocacy & Referral Program

1. Community

2. Customer Channels

3. Content

4. Context

5. Collaboration

6. Infrastructure

How do you get more advocates & referrals?

Get ready for the speed round….

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Scripts & practice

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NEVER used the LinkedIn tool

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Read Joanne Black

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Read To Sell Is Human

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Use value-added assets for intros

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Make yourself more shareable

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Use every department in your org (and theirs)

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Be more aggressive with LinkedIn connections

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Be precise about requests

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Be more generous

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Write thank you notes

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Leave voicemails

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Follow up

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Be synonymous with something specific

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Daily Tools

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Use excuses to reach out

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Respond to EVERY birthday message

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Lead with problems you solve (NOT what you do)

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Housekeeping

• You can also have (for free!) copies of:• The Modern Marketer’s Field Guide

• Our Referral Marketing Benchmark Study

• My award-winning* bacon recipe

• Just send email to matt@heinzmarketing.com noting what you want

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Thank You!

Matt Heinz

President, Heinz Marketing Inc

@heinzmarketing

matt@heinzmarketing.com

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