── SKILL

Turn happy customers into references, on purpose.

Who to ask, the ask, the value exchange, and a pipeline of advocacy over time, without burning anyone out.

Inside: Who to ask, the value exchange, and the advocacy pipeline.

01 / HOW TO USE

Install it in one line, or paste it in.

In Claude Code (one command)

Copy the install line, paste it into your terminal, and restart Claude Code. The skill installs itself to ~/.claude/skills/ and runs automatically when it is relevant.

In Claude, ChatGPT, or a Project (no terminal)

Open the file, then upload it to your chat or paste its contents in. A skill is just a markdown file of instructions, so any capable AI can follow it.

New to skills? A skill is a plain-text file that teaches your AI a workflow. Point any capable assistant at it and it follows the steps, on your data.

02 / MAKE IT YOURS

Connect your context. Set it to your motion.

CONNECT YOUR CONTEXT · AND WHY IT HELPS

a CRM

pulls account health, tenure, and value, so the ask goes to the right accounts.

a product-analytics tool

confirms a "happy" account is actually a deeply adopted one, not a quiet one.

a survey or feedback tool

adds satisfaction signals so you ask the people who already told you they are glad.

SET IT TO YOUR MOTION

This was built for a B2B SaaS org running a customer marketing motion. Set these to your stack:

Run any advocacy model you like. The skill matches ask size to relationship strength, so point it at your own health and champion signals, not anyone else's.

Set this	What it is	Default / Example
CRM	your CRM connector	your CRM of choice
HEALTH field	how you read account health	health scoregreen/yellow/red
CHAMPION field	how you tag your advocate	contact rolerelationship strength
ASK_LADDER	the asks, easy to heavy	reviewreference callcase studyreferral
VALUE_EXCHANGE	what the customer gets back	exposureswagcreditsexec access
SATISFACTION	your happiness signal	survey scorerenewalexpansion
PIPELINE_STAGES	how you track an advocate	IdentifiedAskedCommittedLiveNurtured

03 / THE FULL SKILL

Everything the skill does, in full.

── WHAT THIS DOES

Turns your happiest customers into references, case studies, and referrals as a system, not a scramble the week before a launch. It finds who has earned enough goodwill to ask, matches each one to the right ask, sets a fair value exchange so it is not a favor, and runs the whole thing as a pipeline with stages, not a one-time beg. Advocacy is a program you build, not a mood you catch.

── THE METHOD

1
Who to ask (earn the right)
Not every happy account is an advocate. Rank on three things: they are getting real results, the relationship has a named champion, and you have banked more goodwill than you are about to spend. Only then do you ask. Asking a shaky account for a public story is how you lose it.
2
Match the ask to the relationship
Asks come in sizes. A quick review is light. A reference call is medium. A named case study is heavy. A referral is a favor with your reputation attached. Start light, earn the heavy ones. Do not open with the biggest ask on a new relationship.
3
The value exchange
Advocacy is a trade, not a donation. Name what the customer gets: exposure to their market, access to your executives or roadmap, credits, a genuine thank-you that helps their own career. If you cannot name what they get, you are asking for a favor, and favors do not scale.
4
The advocacy pipeline
Treat advocates like a pipeline with stages: Identified, Asked, Committed, Live, Nurtured. An advocate is not one-and-done. The customer who did a story this quarter is your reference next quarter, if you nurture them instead of disappearing.
5
Cadence and no-burnout rule
Space the asks. The same three logos cannot carry your whole program, and over-asking a good advocate burns them out. Rotate. Keep a bench. One heavy ask per advocate per period, tracked.

── QUALITY GATES

No ask to an account that is not both happy and stable. Verify the health signal first.
The ask size matches the relationship strength. No heavy ask on a light relationship.
Every ask names what the customer gets back. No naked favors.
No advocate carries more than one heavy ask per period. Rotate the bench.
"Happy" is backed by a real signal (renewal, adoption, survey), never a hunch.

── OUTPUT (EXAMPLE)

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

ADVOCACY PIPELINE, one book
Need: 2 case studies, 3 reference calls, an intro to a similar buyer

Ready to ask
  Account A  champion strong, deeply adopted, renewed 2x
             -> heavy ask: named case study. Exchange: conference speaking slot.
  Account B  champion strong, high survey score
             -> medium ask: reference call. Exchange: early roadmap access.
  Account C  happy, newer relationship
             -> light ask: a review. Exchange: a public thank-you + swag.

Not yet
  Account D  results good but no named champion. Build the relationship first.

Nurture
  Account E  did a story last quarter. Send the results it drove. Do not re-ask yet.

── WHERE THE NUMBERS COME FROM

The ask ladder and the one-heavy-ask-per-period rule are defaults, not laws. They suited a mid-market customer marketing motion. If your advocates are enterprise and rare, slow the cadence. The logic does not change. The thresholds are yours.

── EXAMPLE CHAT

EXAMPLE CHAT

You

I need 2 case studies and 3 reference calls this quarter. Who in my book can actually carry that?

CLAUDE

Ran your book against the ask ladder. Ready to ask Account A champion strong, deeply adopted, renewed 2x -> heavy ask: named case study. Exchange: conference speaking slot. Account B champion strong, high survey score -> medium ask: reference call. Exchange: early roadmap access. Not yet Account D results good but no named champion. Build the relationship first. The thing worth flagging: Account C looked like your best case-study candidate on paper (biggest logo, great results), but they already carried a heavy ask last quarter, so asking again this soon burns them instead of earning the story.

You

Good catch, I forgot about that. What do I do with Account D?

CLAUDE

Hold it. No named champion means no one owns carrying your ask internally, so it's not ready for any ask yet, light or heavy. One sharpener: connect your CRM's health field and I'll re-rank the whole "ready to ask" list automatically as accounts renew or expand instead of you re-checking it by memory each quarter.

04 / GO FURTHER

Where an operator takes this next.

Picking asks by hand works for one quarter's list. Here's how an operator keeps the pipeline running.

Advocacy stops being a fire drill once the pipeline runs itself.

Track the bench automatically

Wire Salesforce or HubSpot health and renewal fields into a scheduled Claude task that refreshes the ask ladder every Monday, so no advocate gets a second heavy ask before their rotation is up.

Catch the goodwill signal live

Connect Gong or your survey tool so a glowing call or a high NPS score drops the account straight into "ready to ask" instead of waiting for someone to remember.

Close the loop into content

Feed a completed case study into your content-repurposing skill so one advocacy win becomes a LinkedIn post, a nurture email, and a sales one-pager automatically.

05 / PART OF A BIGGER PLAY