The Peerbound Podcast

Ciana Abdollahian (Director, Customer Advocacy at Snyk) on Building Advocacy Programs from the Ground Up

Episode Summary

Step into the realm of strategic customer advocacy with Ciana Abdollahian, Snyk's Director of Customer Advocacy, and a pioneer in crafting advocacy programs from the ground up. Explore tactical methods for launching successful programs and understand how aligning advocacy with company-wide initiatives and executive objectives can be key to holistic business success—supporting successful acquisitions, analyst recognition, and effectively conveying value even during economic downturns.

Episode Notes

In this episode, Ciana and Sunny dive into:

(01:41) Ciana's first corporate job (which she found via Craigslist)
(04:45) Learning the ropes of customer advocacy at Kronos
(07:03) Building customer advocacy from the ground up at SumTotal Systems, leading to a successful acquisition
(12:40) Why customer references matter
(14:15) Why customer advocacy
(16:26) Expanding the customer advocacy remit at Zerto, and supporting another successful acquisition
(24:08) Finding Snyk and how Ciana helped them become a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant
(28:47) The role of the voice of the customer in new business generation
(32:28) Developing the Customer Value Study at Snyk to help sales teams communicate ROI
(39:38) Ciana's take on the future of customer advocacy and how to collaborate effectively

Stay tuned through the end of the show (44:51) to learn:

How Ciana got her office to stock up on Diet Coke.
What type of pastry Ciana is obsessed with and why.
Who Ciana thinks we should interview next.

Featuring:

Ciana Abdollahian (LinkedIn)

Sunny Manivannan (LinkedIn, Twitter)

Twitter

Tune in:

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