A customer like them

Your prospect doubts what you promise, which is fair: promises are cheap. A real customer who had the same problem can settle that doubt in a way your own words can't.

What the research found

In two experiments with purchasing and plant maintenance managers, a reference from an existing customer reduced doubt about a supplier's promised savings as much as a pilot did. A survey of business-to-business firms found that the ones using customer references systematically tended to sell better. And in a separate experiment, purchasing managers believed a reference more when it admitted a small flaw among the praise.

Which reference to pick is less settled. No study we found has compared a close match with a famous name in business buying. That the closest customer helps most is what sellers and buyers say in interviews, and it fits consumer research in which people are swayed more by someone like themselves. Studies of firms also suggest that a well-known customer's name helps, so there is no reason to hide it.

What it means for you

A customer's word can do a trial's work, without the trial, but only if it speaks to the doubt the prospect has. Say a bakery asks who else uses you, and you send a list of big names, none of which bakes anything. The list shows you have customers. It doesn't show that you can solve a bakery's problem.

When a prospect asks who else uses you

• Answer with the customer whose problem is closest to theirs, and give a result they can check, not only a name.
• If that customer agrees, offer the prospect a short call with them.
• Keep your best-known name on the list as well. It helps; it just shouldn't be the only answer.

How Bamya CRM helps

Bamya CRM is a free AI-assisted CRM where you can find the customers most like your prospect in seconds.

Research: Anderson & Wynstra (2010), Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing; Terho & Jalkala (2017), Industrial Marketing Management; Hada, Grewal & Lilien (2013), Journal of Supply Chain Management. The experiments compared a reference with other evidence, not one reference with another, and most of the studies are of large suppliers.