TL;DR
A customer evidence program is only as powerful as the team behind it. Yet, too often, these programs lack ownership, collaboration, and a plan of attack—and that’s a big problem.
If you’re nodding your head because your program feels more like a game of hot potato than an asset that helps your teams build trust and prove the value of your product, keep reading. We asked top GTM leaders to break down the customer evidence ownership dilemma and share their strategies for success.
Here’s a peek at what they said:
- Ownership is essential, but collaboration across GTM teams is what drives success.
- Identify your biggest evidence gaps by looking at your sales funnel.
- Embed approval processes and prioritize repurposable assets to simplify workflows.
- Use tools like Gong and UserEvidence to streamline and centralize evidence.
- Measure success by diving into conversion rates, deal velocity, and key campaign metrics.
If you saw the title of this blog, and it made you think of this meme:
…you’re not alone.
And it’s not suuuuper complicated as to why we find ourselves in a Spider-Man-like standoff with our GTM counterparts.
Sales is the one closest to the need for customer evidence–67% of sellers reported that a deal had suffered or been slowed because they couldn’t provide relevant, specific customer evidence quickly (according to our survey of 600+ B2B pros for The Evidence Gap report). So, should they be responsible for having it on-hand?
Product Marketing is the keeper of messaging, positioning, and POV–shouldn’t they be sourcing the right customer data to make sure we’re standing out?
Customer Marketing’s job is literally to tell customer stories effectively–so isn’t it on them to make sure the whole team has ALL the customer evidence they need, and not just one-off case studies?
What’s the old adage about “Accountability can be shared, but ownership cannot”?
Scaling customer evidence has to be an initiative owned by someone at your company–otherwise it’s frankly not going to get done.
So…who should own it?
To unpack this gray area (and end the Spider-Man standoff once and for all), we turned to go-to-market (GTM) experts—Rowan Noronha (Sumo Logic), Jordan Greene (Point72 Ventures), Kaylee Edmondson (DemandLoops), and Jen Allen-Knuth (DemandJen)—to explore ownership and how to manage these programs effectively.
3 GTM leaders, 1 verdict on customer evidence ownership
Getting B2B marketers to agree on anything is tough. Just ask your GTM leaders about campaign measurement and brace for impact.
When we asked our experts, “Who owns customer evidence?”, their responses naturally differed. That said, one thing became clear: a shared reality transcends the debate—customer evidence is a team sport. But, when pressed, they each had an ideal owner in mind. Let’s take a look at the TL;DR for each, then we’ll dive into the good stuff on how you can make sure customer evidence truly is a team sport in your org:
Rowan Noronha’s Take: Product Marketing
“If Product Marketing has end-to-end responsibilities in an organization, they should own customer evidence,” says Rowan Noronha, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Sumo Logic.
And his reasoning makes sense: Product Marketing owns messaging, offers, and the stories that attract and retain customers. Owning customer evidence is a natural extension of that.
For Rowan, it’s on Product Marketing teams to take the wheel and then guide the ship forward by using their ownership to strengthen connections, or “interlocks,” with GTM teams:
- Product: Customer insights help Product teams decide what to build and where to improve.
- Demand generation: Understanding customer language and pain points makes campaigns and content more credible. For example, Rowan’s team paired internal perspectives and customer insights to create an industry report. “We wanted our report to share our perspective, but that was only one piece.” To make it credible, Rowan says they paired their perspective with customer insights.
- Sales enablement: Materials rooted in real customer experiences are more relevant and empower Sales to sell more confidently.
- Sales: Verified ROI and real-world success stories allow sellers to have pointed and relevant conversations.
- Customer success: Customer evidence proves you’re keeping the promises made during the sales cycle.
That said, Rowan acknowledges that collecting the evidence needed to unlock these benefits is rarely straightforward, which is why he relies on the AIDA model—Acknowledge, Incentive, Dialog, and Activate.
The premise is simple: You can’t expect your customers to give you their time for free. Instead, you need to build relationships, recognize their contributions, and make the ask when it’s a win-win.
Jordan Greene’s Take: Customer Marketing
Jordan Greene, GTM Advisor for Point72 Ventures, believes the responsibility of customer evidence lies with Customer Marketing due to their relationships with the customers. “The easiest way to build a trove of customer evidence is through relationships, and Customer Marketing teams should have those,” he explains.
But what if that team doesn’t exist? In that case, Jordan agrees with Rowan: Product Marketing should step up.
For Jordan, though, ownership isn’t necessarily about titles but about focus. “Ownership isn’t about who’s producing or using it. It’s about who’s obsessed with it.”
This obsession should also shape how you gather and create the evidence. While the traditional approach—starting with a happy customer willing to be a reference—might work, Jordan suggests a more strategic route:
- What kind of evidence will resonate with buyers and champions?
- What resources do you need to source it?
- How can executives, sellers, and CSMs help find the right customers?
In other words, instead of running with every customer who volunteers, he encourages teams to think critically about what they need—and then proactively pursue those opportunities.
Kaylee Edmondson’s Take: Customer Marketing
For Kaylee Edmondson, founder of DemandLoops, ownership mirrors that of demand gen: it’s a team effort. “Demand gen is an output of the company, and customer evidence is the same,” she says. “Everyone should be on the lookout.”
When it comes to formal ownership, though, Kaylee believes the responsibility should fall on Customer Marketing, especially as the business scales beyond a few hundred customers.
But even with a dedicated team, Kaylee stresses that success hinges on collaboration, particularly with CS. “Building a bridge with CS is critical,” she emphasizes. “You need to make CSMs your besties.”
To form this connection, she recommends regular syncs. ”Hold weekly or bi-weekly syncs where teams share ideas, strategies, and priorities,” she explains. “Then, let everyone return to their worlds to explore, test, and experiment.”
The verdict
It’s not about one team.
While our GTM experts cited Product Marketing and Customer Marketing as the logical owners, they all agreed that customer evidence should be a collective effort.
And, honestly, we’re okay with that because when everyone steps up and works together, you build the foundation of every top-performing GTM team: alignment, stronger priorities, and clear ownership that holds everyone accountable.
Customer evidence stops being a hot potato, too.
Best practices for creating and managing customer evidence…no matter who owns it
Ownership is just step one. The real challenge lies in creating and managing the evidence in a way that moves the needle. Unfortunately, that’s where many teams stumble, but not for a lack of effort.
According to Jen Allen-Knuth, founder of DemandJen, the problem typically stems from a lack of clarity. In other words, Sales and Marketing don’t know what they want (or need), which can leave gaps in evidence.
Jen’s advice? Stop guessing and let your sales funnel guide exploration:
- Early: Are you struggling to book meetings or losing buyers early in deals?
- Mid: Are deals stalling because champions can’t get broader buy-in?
- Late: Are buyers second-guessing their decision because they’re worried your product won’t deliver on its promises?
(We also put together these worksheets to help you ask the right questions to the right people at your company in order to uncover those pesky customer evidence gaps. You can grab those here.)
Once you’ve mapped your gaps, it’s time to build your playbook.
Set clear processes, guidelines, and expectations
Even after identifying gaps, Kaylee points to additional challenges—such as securing approvals or managing workflows—that can stall progress.
Her suggestion is to simplify and streamline. For example, she suggests including permission language in contracts or MSAs. “If customers don’t redline it, they’re giving default approval,” she says. But, she quickly notes that even with safeguards, it’s important to be respectful and ask.
For workflows, Kaylee recommends creating one high-impact asset that can be used in multiple ways. For example, you can slice a video into blogs, social posts, internal enablement, and ads.
Jordan echoes this mindset. “Instead of creating a bunch of individual pieces, aim for one standout asset that you can chop into a bazillion pieces.”
Quick reminder, though: we discovered through our research for The Evidence Gap report that the most important qualifier that buyers look for when assessing the customer evidence you present to them in the sales cycle is relevancy to their industry. So don’t put all of your eggs in one case study-shaped basket and call it a day–make sure you’re gathering a variety of customer evidence that can speak to multiple industries, use cases, and value props.
But, remember: gathering the evidence is only half the battle; its impact rests on how your teams use it, which Jen highlights as another snag that can hinder progress.
“Sales leads with the product, trying to convince prospects how great it is,” Jen explains. “But in the back of the prospect’s mind, they’re wondering, ‘Okay, but would it work for us?’”
This disconnect often stems from a “product-first mindset,” where teams treat evidence as a badge of honor and assume someone will care simply because it exists.
News flash: They won’t.
For customer evidence to have a real impact, teams need to deploy it strategically, not wave it around like a flag. Timing and context are everything, and The Evidence Gap proves it: 4 of the top 5 factors B2B buyers prioritize when reviewing customer evidence are tied to relevance.
This is why it’s key to set proper expectations with your teams about how and when to use these assets.
Collaborate and communicate often
“CS teams live in the details,” explains Kaylee. “Meanwhile, Sales often operates in generic land, focusing on big-picture goals, like increasing revenue, without understanding the deeper context.”
Jen agrees, pointing out that many sellers lack the time or resources to gain the deep insights that buyers crave.
See the disconnect? It’s a big one, and it’s taking your evidence out of the spotlight because your teams don’t understand it or have the time to fully leverage it.
To bridge that gap, Jen stresses the importance of communicating with—and enabling—your teams. “Enablement teams should create opportunities for sellers to refine their storytelling skills with customer evidence,” she explains.
For example, if you pinpoint a pipeline problem, consider gathering your team and discussing your approach. How are you using customer evidence? How could you position it moving forward?
The collaboration shouldn’t stop at Sales, though. Kaylee says an ongoing dialogue is also key to maintaining CS buy-in. “Your CS leader isn’t going to give you the keys to the kingdom if they don’t trust you,” she says. Put simply, these customer relationships mean everything to them. They need to feel confident that you’ll handle them with care, which takes regular communication and collaboration.
(If this section is giving you heartburn, our Closing The Evidence Gap guide has tons of tactical tips for how you can deploy customer evidence to your Sales team in a way that sticks.)
Embrace tools and technology
Picture being a customer marketer a few decades ago. Everything was manual. Spreadsheets ruled. Human error was inevitable. And customer insights? Out of sight.
Fast forward to today, and technologies and tools streamline workflows and ensure your teams actively use your evidence—here are some of our favorites:
Kaylee also recommends listening tools and CRMs. Tools like Gong, for example, let you tag keywords, which makes identifying trends in customer conversations easier.” Your CRM can also provide hard facts—purchase history, key challenges, and more—that can be a jumping-off point.
Measure impact
Clear ownership and a solid plan are important, but they’re only part of the customer evidence program equation. The real question is: Is it moving the needle?
For Rowan, success isn’t about volume but quality and velocity. “Success is tied to lead quality and faster conversion from SDR to AE to close,” he explains, which makes sense. Quality customer evidence should do more than tell a story; it should convince prospects and remove the barriers keeping them from signing the dotted line.
Jordan agrees, adding that demand generation is a natural proving ground. “Demand gen relies on messaging and content that stem from customer conversations,” he says. “When your content reflects actual customer experiences, your outbound emails, ads, search content, and thought leadership will perform better.”
From overlooked to understood: Turning customer evidence into your greatest asset
Jordan puts it best: “Customer evidence isn’t the responsibility of one team. Every customer-facing team should use it to achieve its goals.”
When teams adopt this mindset, customer evidence stops being an overlooked and misunderstood function that lacks ownership and accountability. And when you pair that with clear processes, open communication, the right tools, and a focus on the right metrics, you’ll have the framework proven to turn customer evidence into the function that drives every cog in your GTM motions.
Tired of playing hot potato with your customer evidence? Take control with UserEvidence. Schedule a demo today, or saddle up and explore our Demo Ranch.
