by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia

The importance of evangelists in organizations around the world is often misunderstood or underestimated, and too few organizations have made the incredibly rewarding investment into one or more of the valuable types of evangelists – who are particularly valuable in B2B organizations for reasons I hope will be obvious by the end. Let’s set the stage.

An evangelist in a B2B company is a passionate advocate for a brand, product, service or innovation. Their role involves spreading the word about the company’s offerings, building relationships, and inspiring others to become customers or supporters. They are often seen as the face of the company, engaging with the community, attending events, and creating content to promote the brand. So, without further delay, let’s look at the top ten reasons every B2B company needs an evangelist:

1. Increased Brand Awareness: Evangelists help spread the word about the brand, reaching new audiences and increasing visibility.
2. Improved Reputation: Having passionate advocates can enhance the company’s reputation and build trust with potential customers.
3. Higher Customer Loyalty: Evangelists are often the most loyal customers, and their enthusiasm can inspire others to stay loyal as well.
4. Cost-Effective Marketing: Evangelists can provide valuable marketing support without the high costs associated with traditional advertising.
5. Enhanced Customer Relationships: Evangelists build strong relationships with customers, providing personalized support and fostering a sense of community.
6. Increased Sales: By promoting the brand and its products, evangelists can drive sales and generate leads.
7. Valuable Feedback: Evangelists often provide insightful feedback on products and services, helping the company improve and innovate.
8. Thought Leadership: Evangelists can position the company as a thought leader in the industry, sharing expertise and insights.
9. Employee Morale: Having a dedicated evangelist can boost employee morale by showcasing the company’s strengths and successes.
10. Competitive Advantage: A strong evangelist can differentiate the company from competitors, highlighting unique selling points and creating a loyal customer base.

Finding an Evangelist to Hire

If your B2B company doesn’t already have at least one evangelist (see the five types at the bottom), there is no better time than the present to make that first hire, or to hire additional types of evangelists to maximize your success. There is nothing wrong with hiring an evangelist from outside, especially when you don’t want to pull existing employees out of roles they’re already excelling at or when an external hire brings higher levels of skill than the internal resources you think might be best suited to such a role. Here is how to get started with that next hire:

1. Identify Key Traits: Look for candidates who are passionate, knowledgeable, authentic, influential, and committed. These traits are essential for an effective evangelist.
2. Leverage Networks: Utilize professional networks like LinkedIn, industry events, and conferences to find potential evangelists. Look for individuals who are already advocating for similar products or services.
3. Engage with Communities: Participate in online communities, forums, and social media groups related to your industry. Engage with active members who demonstrate a genuine interest in your field.
4. Job Listings: Post job listings on relevant job boards and websites, clearly outlining the role and its importance. Highlight the impact the evangelist will have on the company’s growth.
5. Referrals: Encourage your employees and industry contacts to refer potential candidates. Referrals often lead to finding passionate and dedicated individuals.

Cultivating an Evangelist from Within

If you don’t feel comfortable hiring an evangelist from outside, either with or without some level of rotational exposure to all of the different parts of organization, or if you know you have some really skilled and passionate internal resources you think are ready to step into a new role, that’s fine too.

1. Identify Potential Evangelists: Look for employees who are already passionate about your brand and products. These individuals often go above and beyond in their roles and are enthusiastic about sharing their experiences.
2. Provide Training and Resources: Offer training programs to help employees develop their evangelism skills. Provide resources such as marketing materials, product information, and access to industry events.
3. Create a Supportive Environment: Foster a culture of evangelism within your company. Encourage employees to share their ideas and experiences, and recognize their efforts publicly.
4. Offer Incentives: Provide incentives for employees who actively promote the brand. This could include bonuses, recognition programs, or opportunities for career advancement. (Editor’s Note: Sorry CoPilot I’m not sure I agree with this one)
5. Engage with Employees: Regularly engage with employees to understand their needs and motivations. Create opportunities for them to share their feedback and ideas.

Whether you hire your evangelists internally or externally it is important to think through how to best introduce and integrate them into every part of the organization relevant to the type of evangelism role they are filling. At this point you might be wondering how there might be more than one type of evangelist, so let’s look at briefly and if you follow the link you’ll learn more details about each.

Here are Five Types of Evangelists to Consider Hiring

In my previous article Rise of the Evangelist I defined five different types of evangelists that organizations may already have, or may want to hire, including:

1. Chief Evangelist
2. Brand Evangelists
3. Product Evangelists
4. Service Evangelists
5. Innovation Evangelists

This specialization occurs when the evangelism an organization needs become too big for one evangelist to handle. At that point, a Chief Evangelist creates the evangelism strategy and manages the execution across the team of brand, innovation, and other evangelism focus areas.

I dive more into the role and considerations for companies on how An Innovation Evangelist Can Increase Your Reputation and Innovation Velocity.

What Are You Waiting For?

Evangelism isn’t just a marketing activity. Evangelists are incredibly important to enhancing not just the customer experience, but the employee and partner experiences as well. Not everyone may have main character energy but almost everyone still appreciates main character level credit, and this can be incredibly impactful for all three main constituencies – customers, employees and partners. Tell those stories, translate that value and make the investment into an evangelist today!

Content Authenticity Statement: Some of the lists and paragraphs in the article were created with the help of Microsoft CoPilot, but there are also some paragraphs created by me along with content from some of my previous articles.

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