INCREASING CREDIBILITY 2 THROUGH CUSTOMER VALIDATION References and case studies show prospects what others think of your product, but they don’t tell the whole story. References solicited by your company are never impartial; they’re usually your best and most loyal customers, which can make prospects leery of trusting them. In addition, when your prospects contact them over and over again, references can start suffering from “referral fatigue,” reducing their usefulness. What’s more, B2B buying decisions are increasingly made “by committee.” More than half of B2B buyers in Demand Gen Report’s 2017 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report say the number of people in their buying groups is growing. No one reference can answer all the questions these diverse decision-makers may have. Reviews can solve all of these problems while saving your business time and money. “Reviews are more objective,” explains Lieb. “They’re not [buyers] talking directly to the company, but [buyers] talking to each other.” To maximize the credibility of reviews: • Get authenticated reviews on a third-party site. These are more credible than references chosen by a business. They also give prospects the chance to look at your reviews independently, with no pressure and without contacting a salesperson. Native advertising platform StackAdapt uses G2 Crowd and has seen great success. “G2 Crowd offers an easily accessible platform for prospective customers to see what our current customers think of us,” says Vitaly Pecherskiy, Co-founder and COO StackAdapt. • Choose review sites that allow reviewers to assess products in detail. Such reviews provide more specifics about a product than references or case studies, so each decision-maker involved in the purchase can assess how the product fits their needs. “Reviews go much deeper than references,” explains Pecherskiy. “With reviews, you can learn a particular strength of a product, [which] helps [buyers] reduce risk.” • Cultivate reviews from a wide range of users. Get reviews from people in different business roles, industries, locations and company sizes. This provides an array of reviews so that all types of prospects can find reviewers whose needs align with their own. 4