A synthesis of expert discussions on quantifying advocacy's impact. The debate around measuring the business value of customer advocacy teams reveals several practical approaches and thoughtful considerations from industry professionals.
Connecting References to Revenue
One fundamental approach is linking reference usage to closed-won opportunities through automated Salesforce tracking. This provides a direct connection between advocacy programs and business outcomes.
The Attribution Challenge
The marketing principle that it takes multiple touchpoints to convert a customer makes precise measurement challenging. This raises an important question about how closely we should try to measure advocacy's impact and whether attempting exact attribution might be counterproductive.
Sales Leadership Alignment
A compelling approach involves getting buy-in from sales leadership to assign percentage values to different advocacy activities:
- Case studies might be valued at 2-5% of deal value
- Reference calls could be worth 12-15% of deal value
This method provides credibility since the values come from sales rather than the advocacy team.
Allocated Revenue Model
A structured approach to measuring impact includes assigning specific percentages to different advocacy activities:
- Customer references: 25%
- One-to-many reference events: 10%
- Customer stories: 5%
- Reviews: 5%
Integration with Win/Loss Analysis
Using Survey Monkey integrated with Salesforce helps track which advocacy initiatives influenced buying decisions, connecting responses to actual ARR for ROI calculations.
Qualitative Evidence
Sometimes the most compelling evidence is qualitative: tracking instances where deals won't progress without reference calls. While not as quantifiable as percentages, this demonstrates the critical role advocacy plays in the sales process.
Holistic Measurement
The most effective approach might be combining multiple metrics
- Allocated revenue percentages
- Critical deal dependencies
- Pattern analysis of why advocacy is crucial for some deals but not others
This comprehensive view helps tell the complete story of advocacy's impact while acknowledging that perfect measurement may not be possible or even desirable.
