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What is a Reference Customer?

A Reference is a customer success story that documents a real outcome — who the customer is, what problem they solved, what results they achieved, and what they said about the experience. References are one of the most persuasive assets in B2B sales, and agents use them to build trust with prospects who share similar characteristics. A prospect is far more likely to engage when you can say “a company like yours achieved X” with a specific, named example. Agents select references based on the prospect’s segment, industry, and company size, so they always cite the most relevant story — not just the most impressive one. The analytics pipeline also tracks when your team cites references in calls and emails, so you can see which stories resonate most and which are underused.

What a Reference contains

FieldPurpose
Customer nameWho the customer is
Success metricsSpecific outcomes achieved
Use case solvedWhich problem they addressed
Industry & company sizeFor matching to similar prospects
Testimonials & quotesDirect customer words
Impact achievedBusiness results

How agents use References

When an agent generates an outbound sequence for a healthcare company, it searches for references in the healthcare segment. When prepping for a call with a mid-market SaaS prospect, it pulls references from similar-sized SaaS companies. The relevance of the reference to the prospect’s context is what makes it effective. References connect to:
  • Offerings — which products or services the customer uses
  • Playbooks — which sales strategies leverage this story
  • Findings (via analytics) — calls where your team cited this reference

Managing References via API

  • GET /api/v2/reference/list — list all references
  • GET /api/v2/reference/{id} — get a specific reference
  • POST /api/v2/reference/create — create a new reference
  • POST /api/v2/reference/generate — AI-generate reference profiles from customer data
  • PUT /api/v2/reference/update — update an existing reference
  • DELETE /api/v2/reference/delete — remove a reference