We have Emily Smith from service Titan is going to share with us about the reference process that she's used. And she's going to be like an open book. She has lots she can share. So she was like, How long do you want me to talk? Because I could talk forever. So she did say that she's open to us jumping in with questions, so she might have to talk forever. Yeah,
I did put together well, first of all, hello, everyone. I'm Emily. I work at service Titan, and I've got two Britney's. So Brittany de Diego Hey, well, I'm Brittany Burgess. They both are on my team. Brittany is our manager. Brittany D is our manager Julie's it's still it's been like five months, and I still can't get that together. But yeah, so they're both on my team as well. So I know that they, you know, we'll jump in and share different expertise and everything too. But I did put together some slides, they're very wordy, brevity is not my strong to just figured some light reading material chatting through. But like she said, if anybody has any questions, please hop in. This is just kind of an overview of what our reference process looks like, and what we've kind of put together and what works for us. And then where we're really looking to, hopefully take it so I will go ahead and share. So it does that. Screen sharing is disabled summary. If I said, Oh,
yeah, I, I do this every week. Somebody's like, Can I share something? There you go. We still have a couple of people coming in. So let's give him just a minute. Hi, Leslie. How are you?
I doing good. Hi, everybody.
Good. Caitlin. How are you?
Good. Good. I was just saying it's gotten so nice. Here. It's 40 and sunny. are looking at.
We have almost no snow now. So yeah, totally gone. Yeah, I'm about three hours east of Caitlin. Okay, let's see, I think we can get started. Go ahead. So Emily Smith is again, going to talk with us about references. And we can jump in and interrupt as we have questions.
So I have been working in references at service team for about two years. And so this is just kind of, like I said, an overview of the process that we currently follow and a little bit about our advocacy network. So and we'll go ahead and share. But basically to kind of start off is we've got our advocacy program, which is called the torch network. As you will see, there's a little bit of a fire theme, we have something down there called Spark Session. So we do kind of follow a little bit of and Faygo branding as we go throughout there. But as far as perks for everyone that joins our advocacy program, they get co branded marketing opportunities, brand exposure, special events. So as you can see from my background here, there is an event series called torch network live. That is a webinar series that we run once per month that chats through how to use our product, talked about best practices, business practices, thought leadership, so a lot of different opportunities there that are exclusive to them as torch network members, there is an online community group within our service Titan community that is exclusive to them where they can network and communicate with each other, they get discounted Pantheon, which is our annual conference. It also includes at Pantheon, a private lounge for them interaction with executives, a lot of swag both at Pantheon, as well as when they join, they get a fun little swag box for them. And then opportunities to directly impact our product roadmap. So working with the product team, joining product advisory groups really just kind of getting to inform that roadmap year over year. And then we do have metrics and requirements to join. So one of the easiest ones is that they just need to be on the platform for six plus months, but then that they meet certain utilization metrics that that we've determined with the team. And then we do a lot of cross functional partnership. In order to get these nominations on a steady state. Our goal is to really hit about 10% of our overall network. So that is kind of the plan there. And so to do that we do partner with our success managers, so we use bonus lead to provide different spiffs. And that's how we target some of our gaps. So we have vertical gap size gaps, we'll do targeted pushes that way to partner with them. We do also partner with like I said, fire theme, our spark sessions teams, the spark sessions are cohorts of about 10 to 15 non competitor companies that meet monthly so that's kind of a networking group where we try and build community on a little bit smaller scale, and they have program facilitators that take them through different topics every single month. And so we partner with that for them to kind of say at the end of every, every session that like yay or nay, this is who would be a good fit to join the torch network. And then customers can also nominate themselves. So we have a forum on the website, we also have a forming community where they can raise their hand and say, Yes, we'd like to be a part of it. So that's kind of what that looks like. I'm not monitoring chat, because I don't have a double screen today. So are there any questions that came through Mary that I can answer?
Oh, wait, you're on mute. Sorry.
Mute aside chatter
where the other
Perfect. Oh, good, then. Um, yeah. And obviously, the Brittany squared knows the answers to pretty much every question as well. But looking at the types of references that we handle, so we handle three different types of references, obviously, you've got the bread and butter of sales references, we also have a happy coals process. So this is a little bit unique to us in the fact that we did partner with a subject matter expert. So we partner with a man named Mike West, he was one of the very first users of service Titan ever, and really, really successfully grew his business. So he grew up from one location to nine locations, while using Service Titan, he crossed into what will have different states with his business. So what we have actually done is partnered with him, and he is a contractor with us where he is paid. So that is the only time that we have paid references. So everything else is recognition versus reward. But this is the only time so we do pay him a flat rate with an additional kicker if the deals do close, but he does both outbound calls, as well as takes traditional reference calls. So if there's ever a prospect that seems dead in the water, he'll make an outbound call, he'll talk to them about his direct business experience. So that does work really well. And he's got an absolutely phenomenal close rate, because he does have that rapport with all of those customers, and is really well known in his industry. And then we've got peer to peer conversation. So those conversations are if we have existing customers that want to speak about workflows, best practices, overall adoption, this is something that success managers offer. It's also something that onboarding managers will offer. So what we do see across our references is service Titan services, the trades industry, the trade industry, is a more casual group. And so a lot of times when we're connecting references, it's not CTO, CIOs, anything like that we're connecting them with second third generation family business owners. So a lot of times it's owner to owner conversations about how they're running their small businesses. And so that's where these become really, really valuable. The sales cycle that we see for service Titan. And for people adding our software is a lot faster than you would typically see. It's not 1012 months, it can be one week, it could be one month, it's a really, really fast sales cycle. So because of that we're doing really high volume references, and we're doing them really quickly. So we're doing I
asked, I just have a couple questions. Are you talking about the peer to peer right now, or the happy call still?
Oh, sorry, I'm talking about kind of both. So I'm talking about. Yeah, with so sales references, the sales cycles are extremely quick. So that's where we're doing references, we're typically seeing about 20 to 40 of them per month. And then with the peer to peer, they're also equally they do take a little bit longer, because the requests are a lot more niche. But we are getting about 20 to 30 of those per month as well on average. And so yeah, so we're doing we're doing pretty high, pretty high volume, which is why we're definitely looking to develop and scale to a one to many process on the peer side to make it a little a little bit more manageable for us and kind of tapping into it there. And that's kind of why a call a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to mind for ideas on on a one to many process because it's definitely not tenable for us to continue to do as many one two uncles as we're currently doing. Right. So that's kind of where we're trying to figure out a more scalable process there. But the sales ones, they really do want to have a lot of those one to one conversations and it's different than we'll see in a lot of other references programs where they want to make sure that what we're seeing for their business will happen and what we've seen and what I've seen more than any other industry I've been in is you could have a salesperson read the same script as somebody in the industry and they will sooner listen to the person in the industry and be like yep, I believe that so they're really really valuable calls for them. And so
what does self service Titan do? What do they sell AI? Software? Yes.
Software for the trades. So think ah, Fox plumbing, commercial construction really all? Yeah, so you do see kind of it runs The gamut there where you've got these really large businesses that have private equity that's involved in all of that. But then you do also have quite literal mom and pop business shops that, you know, have family for 234 generations and have been continually passed down. So is it? It's,
are they like yearly contracts?
So it is a monthly but then on a yearly cadence, but they do it's a monthly subscription. So they base it based on the number of technicians that they've got. So the technicians that are in the field, that's kind of how, how it's all shaking out, Brittany, am I communicating?
Yeah, yeah, it's an annual contract. But we collect revenue monthly through fees. So it's when we're looking at these deal sizes, it's CMRR. That's based on the number of licenses, which is all around the technicians in the field.
Gotcha. Okay, that makes sense. And because you have so much success with them wanting to see the other people in the industry use the software. That's why having that one contractor, like that goes really well. Right?
Yeah. And that was something so he actually had approached us about it. And so we, the reference program started with one to one calls for sales, and so for any prospects and all of that, but then he actually approached us when he went into retirement and was like, I love service Titan, I love talking about service, I'd love to keep getting paid to talk about service Titan. And so what that really did for us was it helped a lot because he can take the calls that are a little bit more straightforward. So is it worth the money? Is it going to grow my business? Does it do what it say it's going to do, and he can have those really big conversations with people that want a more general call. And he can make those calls within 24 hours. So we can get him on the phone with these people, basically, as soon as they request a reference. And he does communicate at the beginning of the call that he is being compensated for the conversation that he's having. But really, his business acumen speaks for itself. And so it does, it is worth it for us to have him make that disclaimer at the beginning. And it really hasn't taken away his credibility, I would say there's maybe one or two that are like, Okay, I want someone that's not on the payroll, but right at the time, valuable conversation with them. And he genuinely loves speaking about it. So our mindset how many times am on a call, we do it. But it's been a really great process. And then as far as sales goes, so we do sale, regular prospect sales, but then we also do upsell sales requests, what we've seen is just and I'll get into metrics as well. But with our references, we are seeing that the closed percentage is significantly higher than just the general deal cycle. So we on average, have a 50 to 80%, close rate on deals with references. And we are fulfilling them, like I said, really quickly. So our SLA is that within four business days, we have a customer that has agreed to take this call where we do
can I just asked a lot of questions first. So with that, what kind of system are you using that helps you keep track of your references and being able to go in and pull that metric to say yes, 50% of our sales calls close faster.
Yes. So when I can, there we go. So
Oh, and somebody wanted to know if you'll be able to share the slides? Yeah,
absolutely. So I made them really wordy with the intention that if anybody wanted to review them after that, they would be able to more than happy to share them. Um, but yeah, so we actually don't currently have a reference tool that we're using, when it was something that that we kind of chatted about. So in my previous company at DocuSign, they did us our own innovation, where we did struggle with that was that we could not get the budget to get enough licenses for the sales team to be involved. And so we don't currently have a formal reference tool, but we have actually put together something that is extremely efficient, I can't take a lot of the credit for it, because Brittany de is the one that kind of masterminded this entire thing and put this whole process together. But all of it's done through Salesforce. So we have a requester that can fill out a form via a custom object in Salesforce. So this is kind of a screenshot of what that looks like. We pulled together a lot of information from them. It also links directly to their opportunities, so we can see what stage the opportunity is. We can also show where our reference status is. So customers or requesters can see how far along we are in the process. We can also put customer participation there so each advocate or each we call them torches and torch network members, but they have a unique customer reference program number that tracks their participation across our sales, marketing and research requests. So it tracks advocacy participation at the contact level in Salesforce. And anytime we onboard a new customer into the torch network, they fill out a survey covers a lot of different information as far as their favorite product, what activities they want to participate in. What they want to see changed a lot of different things there. So we've put all of their survey responses in that one spot as well. So that we can just go into Salesforce on that customer contact level and see everything from everything, they've accepted, everything they've declined, we could also pull reporting on what their deals like help like what their close rate is on an individual level. So there's a lot of different information that we can look at. And then we partnered with Corporate Engineering to develop what we call a reference finder tool. So we partnered with the team. And over a few months, we worked out basically a scoring system. So it looked at all of the different data points here that are requested or needed. So we need them to be this size in this GL in this vertical. And going through all of that. And basically then looked at our advocacy network as a whole. And then would score references based on how many of those requirements have been met. And so we basically just got an email directly to our inbox that says, For this reference, here are all of the people that score highest for this reference. It's a perfect system. But ideally, the way that it's supposed to function is that you go right in and say, yeah, that top person works. We do a lot of additional vetting. So we go in, we look at their NPS scores, we look at their social media comments, we look at if there's any escalations, if you know, the last time they had a success call, we look at a lot of other metrics to before we do make an ask, but it really does help kind of take the book legwork out of doing a lot of manual searching there to help them kind of spit out a top answer there.
Wow, I can do the whole call on that. I think people are like, Whoa, that is great. Can I ask it's kind of different from this topic. But does your community participate? Like how does it participate with the advocacy program? Or is there no connection there.
So we've got the customer community, we do have, like we put references out there on our community group of people want to raise their hand and participate. The community group that we've started is only a few months old. So it is relatively easy stage, the goal is that it will bear the weight of a lot of the peer requests. So those peer to peer connections, we've shared them there. And a lot of customers have reached their hands to have those conversations. So it's definitely something that we're working towards. But as of right now, it is still more on on Britney and myself as the reference manager is there to fulfill, but it's definitely a goal.
Cool. Thank you. I was just curious.
So then SLAs, I know it was a comment that a lot of people made. So this is a very wordy slide. But basically, we've got a few different types of SLAs. So for us, those reference managers, as I mentioned, we find a match for them within one business day, we do communicate the reference need and get approval from the advocate CSM before we reach out. So we do a lot of vetting, we do our due diligence, we do feel pretty confident about the matters that we find. But we never want to reach out without a CSM being aware of it, approving it, we then have templates that we've created that outline a lot of language around what type of request it is, if it's a pure request versus the sales request, who's requesting the reference, we link out to their website, we share information about their business, we share why they're requesting the reference what they want to talk about. But we share all of that once we get the green light from the CSM, we send the email directly to the customer and ask them if they're available to take this call, so that they can go in with all of the information necessary there. And then our SLA is that we find an advocate that agrees to be referenced within four business days, our current average is about two business days. So we definitely aim to do it in fewer days than four. And most of the time we had that. But we do we do commit to four business days just because the sales cycles are so quick that once they request a reference a lot of times and I'm sure this is not a foreign concept to anyone either. As soon as sales requested, they need it two days before they asked for it. So it's definitely a very quick process there. But then we do have SLAs for the requesters just to kind of mitigate some of the issues that we're seeing there's that sales can't request a reference before the prospect has seen a demo. So we want to make sure that they're asking really intelligent questions and have seen the software before they're engaging an advocate to speak with them. The only exception to that rule is happy calls. So that's where Mike our contractor will call them directly and so they can be at any stage there and really help reengage them that way. They can't request multiple references or an on site Visit for SMB deals. And then the requester is not allowed to attend the reference call, we want to ensure an organic conversation so they're not allowed to join. And then one of the things that we have built in to make sure that we can get the data and metrics that we need is that the AES do need to close out the reference request. So there is a process to close out and say, this customer took it, yes, the call happened, and any notes and all of that there, and there's actually a stopgap that's built in where they can't close one their deals in Salesforce until their references closed out. So that's just how we make sure that we can capture as much data as possible of what references are actually happening and what ones are not happening.
Wow. One question, Andrew wondered, are you getting the seat the CSM approval within Salesforce nevermind Brittany already answered. So that's that, I have a feeling that you're very efficient with your tools. Because doing all of this is so much moving around, you have some automations in there that like if you check certain things, it will send the email for you or anything like that.
So we've had a lot of conversations around that. So there are some things that are automated. There are some things that aren't Andrew, what you asked is actually something that we did have a conversation about, we did almost build out a functionality where when we matched it would automatically send a message to their CSM saying your customer has been selected. Are you okay with it? Yes or No? It just with our team members, like they said it was faster and easier just to get a Slack yes or no. And then what we've tried to do is just kind of keep the power in our own hands as much as possible to make sure that, you know, we know when advocates are being reached out to the reason that we don't have an automated template is because there's so much manual data that's changed because we do provide the business name the link to their website and talk about specifically what they want to speak about. There are just too many things in the template that are personalized for every single outreach that it didn't make sense to be automated. So it was a conversation for sure. But there's there's definitely some places where to keep that that personal connection in touch with our advocates. We've just, we've done it a little bit more manually.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. Thank you. Yeah, of course.
And we're very, very protective of our advocates, we love our torches. And so we have put SLAs in place to make sure that we don't have reference fatigue, we don't have reference burnout. Obviously, we do still have the times when sales or successful reach out without us knowing. But we do try and make it as easy as possible for them to at least lupus into the conversation. So one of the ways that we've partnered with them is we know you have existing relationships, we know you've got partnerships with your customers, we don't want to get in the way of that if you can just let us know who you want to reach out to so that we can get it on our end to say, yes, we can confirm that they're not competitors, or that there's not an escalation or anything like that. And then that we can also track their participation. Because there definitely have been times where we've reached out to a customer not knowing that their success manager reached out to them two days prior. And that's not the best look. So that's just kind of what our, our band aid fix is there of like, yes, you can reach out directly on your own, we're not going to make you go through our full process if you don't want to, but just let us know. So we can track participation and make sure that that they're not getting a ton of outreaches. And we do try to limit outreach to advocates to once per quarter in the joining of the torch network, we tell them that they have to be open to most one activity per month. But we do try and and only keep it to once per quarter. So we're not bugging them every single month. But yes, like Brittany said my prayers for sure we protect them very, very much. We love them all so much. They're a really, really fantastic bunch of people. So we want to make sure that that we're using them as efficiently and effectively as possible. And then just the other thing there is that advocates don't schedule the calls. We have had instances where we have lost an advocate and we had lost a deal because they could not find a mutual time to schedule and they got in a fight over email. That was definitely my least favorite email to read. So that is the example that we provide. And so what we tell the requester as you're requesting this it is on you to make sure you get this scheduled. So you're dealing with figuring out their calendars. You are putting the calendar invite on their calendar, you're giving them the Zoom link, you are making it as easy as possible to tee them up for success. We provide them with a ton of templates on how to do that and step by step instructions on what they need to do. But we do just ask that, that they schedule the calls. They don't attend them, but they do make sure that the onus of scheduling is on them.
Question on that one. Alright, so once the call is done, how do you ensure that that rep or whoever lets you know that that call has been completed so that you can track that?
Yep. So in that screen that I was showing, I'll go back here. So where it says reference status right here, where it says new, there are multiple different dropdowns. There. So there's dropdowns, that show when it's matched when it's awaiting approval when it's been fulfilled, there are then additional things for once the reference has been completed. So they have to mark that it's been completed, or they mark that it did not run. And then what reason it did not run because their sub statuses underneath of Prospect didn't show reference didn't show so that we can get as much data there as possible. And then outside of the screen, I didn't get a big enough screenshot, but we also attach the customer there. So basically, we have a close out process where once a call happens, they go in, they say this customer completed this call, and then we have the reference as a whole has been completed. So that we then have tracking there of which calls did and did not happen. And I believe you said
that they can't close out the sale unless they've done this, right.
So that is what we have for sales, unfortunately, we do have a little bit of a tougher time getting success to close their deals out. So that's where it is a little tougher when we have the peer to peer conversations, we have to chase them a little bit to close out their reference calls. But that is actually another thing that we've built into our SLAs is that if we have a success manager that has more than three reference requests that haven't been closed out, we will not fulfill any additional references for them until they close all of those out. So those are what we've tried to build it in. So it's like if you're not giving us the data that we need to let us know if these calls are happening, we will not be providing you with additional long. It takes two minutes of their time to do it. So it's not really a big lift for them. It's just they have a ton of things on their plate. So it understandably falls through the cracks. But we do try and stay really diligent there so that we can get as accurate data as possible.
Okay, and I have one other question. I think you did say this earlier. But what? How do you make sure that they're asking for the reference at the right time? I think you said there were some requirements before they can make the ask.
Yeah, absolutely. So we haven't built into where they can ask in the sales cycle. So in our sales cycle, it needs to be in post demo. But essentially, what that means is that they need to have seen a demo before we'll put them on a call with a reference. There's always exceptions to those rules where they need manager approval if they want to go outside of that. But as far as sales references go, we will not provide one unless they have gone through a full demo on that with our sales team.
Okay, we don't get a ton of requests, and our sales cycle is longer than yours. But what often happens for me is that somebody will request a reference, I will find the reference, similar to your process, introduce them to the rep and let the rep handle all of it. And then like weeks will go by and I'm just like what's going on with this reference? And they're like, I don't know, the prospect went dark. And I'm like, Well, if the prospect dark, I don't think a reference was like the right thing to be happening at this point. And so so often, it's like, we have people say that they'll do reference calls, and then they just never happened. So I think this was helpful to put some, some guidance, and
it definitely still happens to us, we we do have that. And that's where that close out process is actually really helpful for us as well is there sometimes we have the same salesperson that put in a request for three references, and then we see that all three of them cancelled. And so it's then it gives us an opportunity to reach out to them via slack and be like, can you talk me through why all of these canceled, and then use it as an education process of okay, like, this is what the goal of references are, we want to be there, we want to be a partner to you, we want to help you get your deals over the line. But we also need to make sure we're protecting our references and making sure that we're not asking them to volunteer their time and then turning around and canceling on them. So we do have those conversations where if like, I I monitor the emails that come through, so every time I see a cancel, I reach out and I'm like, I need you to talk me through why this got canceled. And then depending on what they say, well then, you know, share responsive like in the future, let's make sure that this is where this prospect is at before you request a reference. So it's definitely something that we see as well.
actually encouraged to kind of emphasize what Emily just said as well, the with them for that is when they use up that reference on a deal that's going nowhere. The next deal that they have that actually has a chance at closing the references used up now. So it's helping them see it's like you need to preserve them for your own sake so that when you have the deal that actually has a real chance at closing, they're ready to go in. They're happy to speak and not annoyed that you wasted their time on a dead deal a month ago. So really just helping them see it. It's in their best interest to only ask when they really need it. Yeah, good point.
That is my absolute favorite slack to get one. Some salespeople are like, I should have submitted it for this one or not for this one. So they do, they do start to realize it from a strategy perspective as well. And then actually, based on the conversation, argue that you had on a call, gosh, I want to see back in like October, you were talking a lot about looking at what this does to velocity. And so what I've been trying to dig into as well is figuring out what this does, like what references do for our enterprise velocity, because those deals, cycles are a lot longer. So something that I'm working on building out right now is an opportunity to meet with our enterprise sales leadership, and talk about what our references do for their deal cycles and possibly seeing if we can get references to be a stage within their deal cycle so that we can be a lot more proactive with them, because that's something I think we struggle with is that these enterprise deals are a lot more strategic. And we want to put our best references forward. And so the more we can get with that conversation and keep those people on the back burner for when we need those strategic conversations, I think that will help us as well.
Even if it's not even if it's not a stage, can you just go and and because you're now linked to the opportunities through this, which is wonderful. Can you just run a report and see the delta of those that have used a reference versus those that haven't?
Yeah, and that's what we're I'm working on pulling together that reporting. And there's definitely no denying from a close a close rate percentage perspective, that references are significantly include increasing those percentages. But I think it's also looking at Yeah, how we how we can get a more proactive seat at the table. So it's not okay. Yeah, used as reference.
I will say this. One of the pushback I got, because I started before I did the velocity I started with, look at the look at the close rate, right, look at the close rate, we're talking about, like a 30%, higher close rate when they use a reference. And they said, Yeah, but that's because we're using references on those that we already know. We're gonna close. So there was pushback. It's kind of true. All right, that's true. But so that there is it okay, well, let's look at the rate then. Because that sounds like because I was trying to get clout behind the reference program, is a reference program is what I use as the door to get more budget and more opportunity to do other things, right. And to really get sales on your side when you can show sales directly, you win them over. So yeah, that's just the that's why the delta is that kind of key missing component, right? Just not that you don't already probably know, that was just the pushback I got for others.
You know, no, that 100% Makes sense. And that's useful information. As I'm getting ready to put something together that I can share with that team. I think it's just trying to figure out how we can have a better seat at the table. Because like I said a little bit earlier, a lot of times, it's I need this, I need this yesterday. And so with enterprise deals that significantly harder as I know, all of you know, too, but just trying to figure out how we can preserve the right people and strategically say, Okay, we're on, you know, your war rooms, once per month, or whatever that looks like, what are your top deals for the quarter? And how can we already line this up for you? So we're not scrambling as soon as you guys need it?
Yeah, yeah. Good information. Looking at this
question, and I promise, it's not that I just don't know these things. But I think it's important to point them out when we hear different programs. How did you initially start this and get these people involved was like, did the CSMs help a lot with that, or what happened there that they got, you got all these people involved enough that now customer success and sales come to you like, I think that's a big obstacle for a lot of people as they start their advocacy programs. And it's great once you get to this point, and you can like, put all these SLAs in there and tell them what to do. And I think we'd all love to be there and get there with our programs. But how did you initially get that start?
So Brittany de Diego Hey, well as the like I said, the mastermind behind the whole program, the beginning of this program does predate me. So, Brett, I don't know if you've got you've got some
expertise there. You can.
I mean, time is the number one thing. We launched our advocacy program or references in the torch network in summer of 2018. So it takes a little while to get here. Also, alignment from leadership of the orgs that you need to partner with is key from the get go. So our VP of sales and our VP of success were fully bought into developing an advocacy program. So their partnership went So far, but in the beginning, probably the first year or two, it was you're on the outside banging doors down, and you're trying to control the wild west of sales, and you really did have to prove yourself and your value. So patients there, there were totally frustrating moments where I just felt like I kept having the same conversation with an AE, or with a CSM or you know, the same people over and over again, I was hitting my head against a wall, but it's patience and time there. I mean, when we first launched the program, it was at our user conference, which was so tiny back then I had one folding table and 50 hats that had our logo on it, and a piece of paper that said, sign up if you're interested. So that is how our advocacy network which now has over 1000 members in it started four or five years ago. So it just takes time and patience and then growing to scale. Even our our reference system that Emily is continuing to evolve in Salesforce, it didn't start as mature it is as it is, now it started a lot more basic, and we've continued to learn an ad from it. And I'd say if you're launching these programs, or getting ready to revamp them, a ton of discovery bought in from the end user. So get the partnership and buy in from the leaders of these orgs. And then spend time with AES, interviewing them, spend time with their managers interviewing them, the CSM, their managers, like every tear, collect discovery at every layer, to understand priorities within those teams workflows within those teams, and then help build it to fit as much as possible, because you are going to be the outside coming in and asking them for help and just support your function because we can't operate in silos, we're really dependent upon them. But if you try to build it in a way that fits, it's much more easy for them to adopt it. Thank you. That's my work on it that I hope answers that question.
It was Thank you.
And I think also, piggybacking a little bit off of Brittany working with it now in a little bit more of a mature stage is that we're making a lot of really great cross functional partnerships. And that never stops. And that's my favorite part of this role is the number of different people and teams that I get to work with. So the spark sessions that I mentioned earlier, they have a group of about four facilitators, they're a fantastic group of people, but they're the ones that are meeting with our customers on a monthly cadence, and they're speaking with them. And so I'm able to mine information from them. And so it's just kind of continuing to expand on those relationships. Brittany Burgess was a CSM before she transitioned in advocacy. So she's got phenomenal insight and partnerships there. And it's really like, I think the relationship development is a huge, huge part of this, there are a lot of AES that I've got a very great rapport with, where they'll message me are like, what are the chances I'm gonna get a reference from this software, and I'm like about 2%. And they're like, Okay, I want it. So it's like, we're able to have a lot of those really candid conversations as well, where I think Britney did, you know, a lot of the legwork as far as the top down. But as the day to day Reference Manager between Brittany and myself, it's a lot of those, those cross functional relationship building efforts that I think have helped keep, you know, us top of mind for all of them. And then also following the processes that we have, because they work with us on a one to one basis so frequently.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's one of the things I've brought to customer marketing is that in community, I was always like, I need to build my internal community to build my external community. And I do look at advocates as a smaller external community. So it's still that I have to have these relationships. If anybody else has questions, please go ahead and jump in. Okay.
And then just a couple other things as far as metrics, so I can take no credit for this, Brittany has put together just the most beautiful metrics dashboard I've ever seen in my entire life. And it's got more V lookups. Than my brain can even process a lot of the time, but it looks at a lot of different things. But the biggest thing is that we measure are the percentage of fulfillment. So how many references that are coming in? How many of them Are we fulfilling every single month? So we do have a target there of you know, we want to fulfill 90 to 95% of the ones that come in, and we avoid it all possible call saying like, No, we can't find someone a lot of times, we'll try and hit it with two references, or we'll try and back into it or at least get someone that can speak to three out of the five things that we need. So that's kind of where we try and partner with them a lot to figure out like we can't get someone that ticks every box, but what can we do to get them the best call that will answer the bulk of their questions. We also look at fulfillment times like I said, our SLA is four days we're currently operating around two ish days and we we always I'm in a competition with myself every single month to beat it. Um, and then we look at influence, close rate. So the CMRR influence and contribute to, and then also the, the dollar, like the percentage close right there. So that's kind of the metrics that we're looking at, there are a ton of other ones. And we look at all of the data we do also, actually, to your point, look at the data as far as how many of those references that we set up didn't run, how many of them canceled how many of them had prospect no shows how many of them in reference, no shows. So looking at all of that data and drilling down and as well to make sure that we're continually iterating, that process of okay, this reference didn't show let's not use them in the future or, you know, continuing to have those conversations. So that is a lot of the metrics that we're looking at measuring there. And then I know on a call a couple of weeks ago, enablement was a big conversation. So there's a lot of things that we're doing as far as continued enablement goes. So we do have a confluence page that we put together that has step by step instructions on how to nominate customers to join the torch network, how to request references, how to close references. It is like a 15 page document that's got screenshots, it's got arrows, it's got, you know, pretty much everything that you could ask for there. And we do look at it quarterly, and make sure that it is still up to date and accurate information for them. We do also attend sales war rooms to share program talk tracks, and to speak about our references partnership and what we provide. We also speak to them about our contractor, Mike West, he is always chomping at the bit if I don't send him more than like 10 references in a month, you'll email me and be like it's been really quiet. So we do try and get him on calls as well where he can speak to the value that he provides there. Last time I looked, he's got like a high 80s in the percentile for his clothes, right. So his clothes rate is absolutely phenomenal. So we definitely try and put that in front of them as much as possible. We do also do quarterly trainings with every new cohort of CSM. So we partner with success enablement, and have a deck that we share with them that really talks about torch network and the value that it provides that our customers, we've got some really fantastic data on the significant significant increase in NPS and cscap SAT scores that we see for towards network members versus non corporate network members. So just kind of like Brittany said earlier, it's a very helped me help you aware, we have this program that we're constantly working to improve. And it really does help give them another line of defense as a success manager. And then we also have quarterly enablement that we're working on for existing success managers just to make sure that they don't forget the processes and go outside of them. And then we do have, like I mentioned earlier templates to set up every single call once an advocate does accept so that they are communicating the right language and making sure that they can get those those calls set up. And then within this as well, we do a lot of customer programming. So like I said, we have the customer community that we're running. So we've got a lot of different things that happen in there exclusive content, guest bloggers. And then we have our torch network live event series. So trying to give them a lot of opportunities to network with each other and continue to find that value and putting our faces in front of them as the people that are, are running the advocacy programs so that when they see emails come through for us, they're like, Oh, I know that person, I will do a reference for them. So I think that's also helped as well as getting on calls and, and really making our names and our faces known so that they don't just ignore an email from us when it comes through.
Wow. I'm impressed.
I like I said it is it takes a village. So Brittany de put together very fantastic program that I had the fortune of coming into and just trying to work alongside and then Britney Burgess was a fantastic counterpart. So, you know, it's it's very much a team effort. And they make it very fun. But it's something that we're really excited to do. But it definitely takes a lot of people and a lot of effort. But yeah, so that's all I have. I'm sorry, I talked a lot. I could talk a whole lot more. But if anybody has any questions.
Any questions?
Do you have a feedback loop in case the reference even though they did a check with the CSM, but the reference, sometimes there's something that comes out in that call? Is there some sort of feedback loop that you've made? Sure you find out if there's an issue?
So there's not a really formal one it does really exist in Slack or an email where if there are issues that come up on those calls, that they'll email us and let us know or they'll sockos and let us know. I do have some references that I'm really close with email me and like I think I did a good job I think they're gonna sign so you know, we definitely have that directly from references, but based on feedback from the calls the A's will loop us in and and will let us know if there's anything that we need to address there as well. I think we've had the conversation around In that closeout process, including notes, but I think we would rather get it closed out so we can get that data rather than add another step to make it even more complex. So it's definitely conversation we've had so
Oh, awesome. And there was something else I was just gonna say, oh, one of the things when I was running one of my reference programs, the company had objectives for each of the departments sorry, the dogs under my chair and she's protecting me from this conversation. Apologies, she's, she's a pugs thinks she's a pitbull. But anyhow, one of the things I did was I became really good friends with, like you said, you network internally with the customer, the key account manager, we call them so it was the gentleman who ran the people who were working on accounts that already existed as customers, and we became part of their quarterly objectives. So if they recommended the case, day, they recommended a reference it they got a point towards their objective. And so of course, everyone rushed the last month, you know, the last day of the month, of the month of the last of the quarter, but it's just an idea that it worked really well. So I didn't have to lay out any budget or anything like that. They got their objectives met and someone else swallowed the budget for it.
Yeah, so Brittany Burgess. Actually, you were mentioned on the call earlier, do you want to speak to some of the success? OKRs?
Yeah, actually, I'm super excited about this. We just got advocacy as one of the CSM OKRs. And it's kind of points based. And so the success stories that they submit are worth three points, testimonials are worth a point. And then they have other things that can count to like if they're in our certified administrator program, and they complete the course. So on and so forth. So that's super, super exciting.
That's awesome. That will work well. Congratulations.
Can I ask if so your advocacy program? Is it mostly references? Or is this apart? Like do you have to do case studies and things like that as well.
So I the beginning, it was predominantly references, but we really have been expanding it significantly. So the torch network live event series that I run falls underneath our umbrella. So we look a lot of engagement for that. So we do focus on every single month having an area of the product that we're covering, and then looking at reporting of how utilization has increased over time based on what we shared as far as data goes there. And then Britney Burgess does work on all of our testimonials, case studies, customer stories. So that is something that that we are moving towards as well. Something that I had mentioned a couple halls ago is that we do have some difficulty when we share customer information around customer videos. And if they do any case studies or anything like that, contractors are very informal, they feel absolutely zero issue calling someone directly. So we've had instances where a customer has done a video with us, we put it on our website, it's really great. But then they've asked us to take it down because they're getting 20 calls a week from people being like I see you're on service site and tell us how you feel about that. So that's kind of where there is definitely a process that we're putting out there. But yeah, so we do have case studies and customer stories and everything. And then like Brittany threw in there as well. The the community team does roll up underneath advocacy as well.
Awesome. Wow, there's so much there that this has been amazing. Thank you so much for sharing all of this.
So wonderful call no joke, like absolutely love seeing the process, love seeing the strategy, the build out the transparency, this is so helpful. I mean, it really is. And um, I also want to say I'm really proud of you and the team for being able to accomplish this, right. It's not an easy feat to be able to get Salesforce enacted, and to be able to track it the way you're doing and build out the SLAs and the common practice that you're doing. So thank you for sharing.
Yeah, thanks. Honestly, because and I think for a lot of us, well, some of us, I think and people that will watch this in the future. It's nice to see what a program looks like a few years in. I know with a few of the customers I have, like we're just building out their programs. And a lot of people are new to this space. So it's encouraging to see how that program has developed over the last few years and what you've done with it and I I specifically like the idea of the way it sounds like you're using your tools, I think there's always room for for companies to use their tools better, and I could just spend an hour listening to show me your tool setup because I get so excited about how to use your data and automations and all of that I'm a real computer geek.
It's, I mean, I genuinely I cannot speak highly enough of the dashboards and everything that Brittany has put together, she put together a new one for because we just moved into FY 24. And I believe my email response to her was, it's the most wonderful time of the year, a new dashboard. It's absolutely my favorite thing to look at is just all the different data and everything. It's yeah, my absolute favorite. And I think what's really great too, about what has been built with the torch network and having it have the strong branding that it's got is that within service and users, it is a really big point of pride for people that are a member of the torch network. So they do wear their swag really proudly, they get really excited when they're in. They, they definitely you know, want to make sure that people know that they're endorsing our work. And so I think that does us a great service, as well as that a program has been built and created that they're really, really excited and proud to be a part of. And so I think that that makes our job even easier as well, because they're really excited to be in it too.
Yeah, that's awesome. And lots of people are thanking you in the chat in case you don't see that. And this is all recorded. So you'll you'll be able to see the all the chats and everything later as well. So yeah, I'm just so excited. This was fun to watch and have you share now I'm gonna have to have a third people in the community share their programs. You're all next, just so you know.
I'll have a slides into the Slack channel for anyone that it's helpful for. And then you know if anybody has other questions or wants to see templates or anything like that, definitely feel free to give me a shout. I'm happy to share anything additional, or if anybody wants to chat.
Perfect. Yeah, thank you so much. Next week, Emily aImost. From uplift content is going to join and share the case studies report that we all filled out the survey for the week after that we have in it's like us, instead of NPS. We're going to talk about how to do surveys instead with our customers. And then we have some things planned for March, which I can't remember off the top of my head. So you're just gonna have to watch your emails. But thank you everyone for coming. And if you anybody has any more questions, we've got like five minutes so
no, yes. Okay. I'm drawing a blank on anything that Oh, Daniels leaving for a couple of weeks. We'll miss you have fun. Is that Monaco? Is that where you're going? I think it would really help if you showed pictures when you came back. So I feel like I've traveled some. Oh, nice, right, because I saw that on a movie once. It's not nice. It's nice, right?
Perfect.
Yeah, that's all I really have for the week. So nice, everybody, come see me.