Big logo, small story

Some things happen over and over again with customer advocacy; the new program owner that says 'let's just put advocacy on the contract', the swing between human and product stories, and the obsession with big logos.

We're not always great at choosing which customers to ask to tell their stories.

Logos impress initially, real advocates with authentic stories (and happy to tell them) are proven to impact business far more.

I think we need a little more sanity and a little less vanity.

01  The most famous name on the list

Years ago, I worked for a huge technology company, a very senior executive decided we needed a story about one of the most famous brands in the world. Everybody agreed instantly, of course they did.

I was fairly new to the company and got the task. Lucky me.

It took three meetings before we established that there was a tiny deal (not yet implemented) with a small spinoff company, and that the flagship brand in question was not a customer.

Not a lapsed customer, not a customer for one BU. Simply not a customer, at all.

The logo was desirable enough that a room full of intelligent, expensive people got overexcited planning a story about a relationship nobody had checked existed.

Yet. I have never seen the same energy applied to the manufacturing customer in the Midlands (UK) who has renewed four times, brought two peers with them, always takes reference calls, and would say yes tomorrow.

02  Biggest is not best

In my last life we spent years supporting sales with references and proved that the largest customers by direct spend were never the ones influencing the most revenue.

Obvs the big logos are great for buzz, brand, keynotes and awareness, we must not discount this.

We all know that famous names are the hardest advocates to chase. They have the most approvers, the strictest policies, the most to lose and the least to gain; being seen to endorse a vendor does nothing for a brand that everybody already knows. You always start from a position of "no".

And when you do land one, the strength of the story is often inversely proportional to the power of the logo. Why? Enormous organisations approve careful narratives: no jeopardy and no negatives. Logo, compliant quote.

Big logos are great for that 'NASCAR' slide. Love them there. That's not the same as investing $60k and three months in a video with a high chance of it being vanilla-ised.

Meanwhile, the mid-sized customer nobody knows outside of their home country has the thing that actually moves a buyer: a real problem, a result they are proud of, and a job title your prospect recognises as their own. They bring authenticity and empathy.

Buyers should see themselves in the story, imagining the same success.

So which stories change a buyer's mind?

Great question; we'll come back to that. Let's first agree that you WANT to chase that big logo.

03  First, look at yourself

Everyone complains at some point that big enterprises will not play. Their legal team says no. Their brand/comms team says no. Months later, the key contact leaves the org.

I always ask the same question:

"If a supplier of yours asked your company to be a reference, how would that go?"

It's not normally a straightforward answer.

Who is able to sign it off here? Nobody quite knows. Is there a policy? There might be, somewhere, from before the reorg/acquisition. What would legal say? No idea how to ask legal. How long would it take? Long enough that the vendor would give up first?

This question often changes attitudes, the best clients went away and found out how to get a reference request approved, or how to agree to a story, and how long it would take.

04  What to chase instead

Three things.

Story potential. Was there jeopardy, a charismatic individual, an early-adopter of a new product, the only story in a given geo/vertical/segment? No amount of brand recognition compensates for a story where nothing happened.

Resemblance. Is this a story with which the typical purchaser of your products/services/software can empathise? Will they recognise the challenges and imagine themselves having the same success? A story is a mirror before it is anything else.

Influence, not revenue. You probably already know this list, even if it's never been written down: the customers you reach for when sales (annoyingly) needs a call this week, the ones who always say yes and always land well, the ones that delight in sharing their love for your company. That list overlaps with the 'top 100 accounts' list far less than anybody expects.

That big logo is worth having when it turns up, and it is a genuinely nice thing to have on the wall. Just stop planning the year around a name and then discovering, several meetings in, that nobody checked.

05  What comes next

This is the fifth issue of Proof Positive.

Next issue: seeing is no longer believing. Nobody can tell a real customer story from a fabricated one by reading or viewing it, which means the work we do is more valuable than ever when trust is scarce.

Issue 006 will appear in your inbox while I'm off the grid on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, so it is written to be read slowly! Forward this one to one person who is currently chasing a logo rather than a story.

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Robin Hamilton is the founder of Proofpoints, the customer storytelling platform launching in 2026. Previously, cofounder and CEO of inEvidence. Proof Positive is published fortnightly.

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