CatMom

Account Executive

Prospect asks for client reference…

I know this comes up for everyone at some point when they're new somewhere or if the company is newer.

You finally start to get that momentum with a prospect and bam 💥 they hit you with the good ole "we want to talk with one of your clients"

at a larger company you can beg and bribe your colleagues to use one of their trusted clients but what about when you're at a smaller company with only a couple handfuls of clients...

or in general, what are you doing with your clients or your CS team to secure a couple easy go-to client references always on standby?

if prospect asks for a client that has the same use case or specific similarity but you only have one client that fits the criteria and they aren't on board with being a reference right now...how do you spin it to your prospect like hey here's someone else that doesn't fit any of the criteria but they can speak to the company and the service....

really just looking to open a discussion around client references and how to overcome obstacles around them.

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11 comments

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jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't blame prospects for asking for a reference.

It's definitely a pain in the ass, but if someone is investing $50-150K then they need to feel comfortable.

I've had this at small companies with small client lists, and I've been able to just personally reach out to my contacts there and ask if they're willing to act as a reference. I build a lot of rapport throughout my sales cycle so don't usually have a problem.

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

I think one thing that you have to do in these earlier situations is realize not everyone will be a good fit. when you are pretty much looking for an early adopter it takes a certain person to do it.

some people DO NOT want to be the first to do anything. Some people love the idea.

So i would find a way to gauge how open to that they are. Even if they ask for a reference, they may be cool to not have one, and BE the company you could build a reference around.

CatMom

Politicker

1

Account Executive

Great point! I’ve been trying to leverage leadership (co-founders) to hop on calls as they start to get closer to closing to help build the confidence and trust in us to try and avoid them asking for a reference 😂

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

Yeah that is a great idea and for sure needs to happen. The key to this is to make sure you are making it clear to your leadership why they are jumping on the call, what you need them to say and what questions they can expect.

If you dont have that it makes it harder for them to be effective and you run the risk of them talking about lots of stuff that may take it off track haha.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

2

Sales

An easy out is to build personal relationships with lower level team members on your client list. They’ll agree to be personal references much more quickly than an official reference from a big company.

CatMom

Politicker

1

Account Executive

Oooh I like that approach!

Cabbie

Good Citizen

2

AE (Account Executive)

I work for a smaller firm and I've had this a couple of times.

When they ask I try and set expectations immediately:

"Look, I'll do my best to pull a reference for you from around the office, but we aren't as large as our competitors and it's possible I'm not able to find a client that's a good fit for your case.

Is this a dealbreaker on your end?"

Or something to that effect usually sets the tone.

Best of all: you can then leverage that later.

One of my largest clients asked for a reference and I wasn't able to provide one at the time; then, later, when someone else wanted the same: I called them up like, "hey remember when this would've been really useful to you?".

And now they're easily my biggest champion, with a nice broad use-case application.

People are surprisingly reasonable with this sort of stuff, and as noted above: it's actually a good way for you to find clients who are probably more in line with where you are as a business.

CatMom

Politicker

2

Account Executive

Love this so much! Can’t wait to be able to leverage my newer clients for this in the future. Definitely going to try this approach!

Cabbie

Good Citizen

2

AE (Account Executive)

Happy to help - hope it works for you!

LordOfWar

Tycoon

2

Blow it up

We have NDAs with most of our customers, so I feel your pain.

Try to get a couple of testimonials from some of your happiest clients and keep them in your back pocket for when new customers ask.

justatopproducer

Politicker

2

VP OF SALES -US

I’d tell them check out our website with live videos of our clients satisfaction, if that doesn’t suffice I’d ask a client from a similar industry if they would be okay connecting them.

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