A customer reference program is a network that manages customer contributions in the form of testimonials, case studies, success stories, product ideas or surveys, ROI data and more. The network is used to reach prospective buyers in order to shorten the sales cycle, reduce risk by demonstrating success, and lower fear, which in turn translates to more sales. The goal of a customer reference program is to build and maintain relationships with reference customers and allocate reference resources within the organization on a strategic basis, while leveraging the use of reference customers to the best advantage.