In the freelance writer's equivalent of running a marathon-or more like a long-distance sprint--I once interviewed 20 customers and wrote 20 testimonial stories in two weeks for a company's annual report. While the worldwide sales force was always clamoring for reference stories, individual account teams were less than generous in offering up their own customers for the purpose. Too protective of the relationship? Perhaps. Too busy to give the effort any priority? Certainly. In any event, the company was lucky to produce two stories a quarter.

On this occasion the CEO directed them to pony up and they did. The annual report got done-but, alas, the lost opportunity! A fair amount of money was spent on a glossy production for a fleeting purpose. What if there had been a system or process in place to capture and reuse all the information collected? Instead, these 20 stories were never leveraged in any other way.

What if there had been an evidence bank of referenceable customers already in place to draw from? Customers could have been selected and stories assembled based on strategic factors-instead of who agreed to be interviewed in time.

As a result, the annual report introduction was OK-but it could have been super. And the company could have a realized a return on its investment instead of just racking up an expense.

Nancy Heifferon, Consultant Nancy.Heifferon@phelongroup.com