When they ask who else you work with

"Who else do you work with?" is a good reply. It means the buyer is interested enough to check whether you're safe.

Answer the real question, which is rarely about logos.

What the question usually means

A senior buyer asking who you work with is trying to reduce risk. They're about to spend political capital bringing in an outside firm, and they want to know they won't regret it.

Underneath, they're asking one of three things.

Have you solved this problem before, for a company like ours? That's about relevance.

Are you big enough and stable enough to deliver? That's about scale.

Would anyone I respect vouch for you? That's about trust.

Read the context to tell which one. A buyer at a large bank asking this after your note about a core platform move probably wants relevance. A buyer at a fast-growing company may be checking whether you can staff the work.

What to send

Answer with the closest match to their situation, described plainly, and offer a conversation with someone who can speak to it.

Say a VP of operations at a regional distributor replies to your note about their warehouse system consolidation with "Who else do you work with?"

Fair question. The closest match is a mid-sized distributor that merged two warehouse systems after an acquisition, with the old platforms running side by side for most of a year. We helped plan the cutover and ran the integration work. If it would help, I can ask their operations lead whether they'd take a short call with you. Separately, is the consolidation the bigger issue for you right now, or is it something else?

That reply gives a real, relevant example without dropping a list of names. It offers proof from a peer, the strongest kind. And it brings the conversation back to their problem.

Use client names only when you have permission to share them. Many services firms work under confidentiality terms, and a buyer who sees you name clients freely will wonder what you'll say about them.

Reference offers that work

The best proof is a peer who'll talk. A short call with someone in a similar seat at a similar company beats any case study.

Line them up before you need them. Ask happy clients whether they'd take an occasional reference call, and keep track of who you've asked so you don't wear anyone out. The keeping score without keeping score post covers how to do that without making it a trade.

And match the seat. A CFO wants to talk to a CFO. A technical lead wants to talk to the engineer who ran the work.

What to avoid

Don't send a logo slide. A wall of brand names tells the buyer you're big. It doesn't tell them you've solved their problem.

Don't list every client. A long list buries the one example that matters.

Don't stretch. If you haven't done this exact work in their industry, say so and name the closest thing you have done. Buyers can tell when an example has been bent to fit, and it costs you trust you won't get back.

And don't drop the thread. The question is a step forward. Answer it, then go back to the problem they have. That's the conversation that leads to a meeting.

Why this reply is a good sign

A buyer who doesn't care doesn't ask for references. They don't reply at all.

So treat "who else do you work with" as the buyer leaning in. They're building the case to say yes, and they need something to bring to the rest of the committee. Give them a clear, relevant example and a peer to call, and you've handed your champion the proof they need. More on what happens after the first reply in how to be usefully wrong.