Loud Thinking August 05, 2014 at 11:27AM

Create Advocates for Your Brand

Often the most important people selling your product are not your sales and marketing teams, but your customers.

Here’s how to turn them into company advocates:

Let them interact.

Connect your customers to their peers — other people like themselves who deal with similar issues.

Bring them together through live events, in teleconferences, forums, and other networks so that they can exchange ideas and learn from each other.

Market their triumphs.

Prospects care about what they can accomplish with your products.

Tout your customers’

achievements in any white papers or case studies you publish as much, if not more, than your own.

Have them do the talking.

When you need someone to speak about your products or services in public forums or with the media, ask your PR person to take a back seat and give your customers the opportunity to speak on your behalf.

Adapted by Harvard Business Review from “How to Create True Customer Advocates,” by Bill Lee.

Tags: My Views