Posts Tagged ‘justification’
Budgeting for Your Customer Reference Program
If you’re just embarking on a customer reference program you are likely wondering what kind of budget you will need. Asking how much to budget is a bit like asking a home builder how much a new home costs. The question will come back to you: Do you need a mansion or a simple cottage?
While your specific situation must guide your ultimate decisions, we’ve found there are a set of tools and activities necessary at some level for any formal program. We’ve listed a few of those tools and activities in the chart below and we encourage you to think about how you will address each of them.
We’ve also included a sample budget allocation, which may vary considerably from your situation. In fact, many of the tools and activities listed can be accomplished by internal staff with zero incremental investment. In other situations, it may be best to seek the support of vendors to increase capacity or introduce best practices.
| Budget Category | Percentage | Budget Line Item |
| Program Definition | 6.3% | Needs assessment |
| Program planning | ||
| Process definition | ||
| Program Management & Recruitment | 49.9% | Program management |
| Recruitment activity | ||
| Fulfillment activity | ||
| Data/content management | ||
| Content Development | 23.6% | Qualification |
| Interview customers | ||
| Author content | ||
| Project management | ||
| Reference System Tool | 15.7% | System design |
| Licensing | ||
| Data import | ||
| Integration | ||
| Internal Enablement | 2.4% | Training materials |
| Training delivery | ||
| Adoption campaigns | ||
| Program Promotion | 2.1% | Recruitment campaigns |
| Participant appreciation |
Going a Step Beyond
There are many other activities you can incorporate into your customer reference program, including social media, customer advisory councils, customer events, customer awards programs and more. There is no limit to what you can do – or the budget you can spend.
Deciding which activities to undertake depends on many factors, including the type of product the company sells (for example, enterprise companies might need case studies where a consumer products company could use short customer overviews), and the size of the company.
Arguably the most important thing to keep in mind as you create justification for your proposed budget: consider which activities are most likely to positively impact the company’s bottom line.
Tweet It
LinkedIn
Facebook
Email“Budgets need to be dynamic. We continually modify our investment mix as our program goals, resource requirements and deliverables evolve.”
– Rochelle Silveira, Director of Customer Development, NetApp.
