“You want to make your customers referenceable? Then you’ve got to go out of the way to keep your customers happy.” – Dan Raynes

Dan Raynes is a State and Local Senior Account Executive at Rubrik. He is one of the highest performing sales reps I know and has consistently achieved over 100% of his annual quota at the last five companies he’s worked at. As customer marketers, we work closely with account teams, and I brought Dan on because I thought it’d be great to hear directly from someone in sales who’s also a massive believer in the power of customer advocacy. You can find Dan on LinkedIn.

On this episode, we cover:

• Why customer stories and advocacy are beneficial for sales in the first place
• Why turning your customers into references can be a huge advantage for a sales rep
• How he builds trusted relationships with customers over time—and the necessity of consistent check-ins when it comes to keeping them happy
• The specific tactics that he uses with customers to ask for referrals and references
• How he weaves in customer stories when pitching to prospects

You can find the full transcript of the episode here.

During our conversation, I also mentioned the book, The Trusted Advisor, which is about earning the trust and confidence of clients. The book is more geared towards people in professional services, but I find the tips are just as applicable to building relationships in general. One of my favorite takeaways from the book is this equation: Trust = (Credibility + Reliability) / The Other Person’s Perception of Your Self-Interest. 

“There are no win-lose relationships or lose-win relationships. There are only either win-win relationships or lose-lose relationships. If you can’t establish that mutually acceptable relationship, you’ve got to move on.” – Robert Galford (co-author of The Trusted Advisor).

Thanks for tuning in! If you enjoyed this podcast, I would be over the moon if you could share it with others, especially those in the customer marketing and advocacy space. For more interviews with advocacy leaders and tips on creating customers that will sing your praises, head on over to beatingthedrum.com.