The Case Study Ask: Five Things Your Customer Needs to Know
The more facts you give someone, the better armed they are to make a decision – like when you ask a customer to be featured in a case study or success story.
Typically, a sales or account manager asks the main customer contact if they would be willing to do a case study.
If it’s a solid relationship, the customer will likely say yes.
But in most cases, there’s a lot more that follows the simple ask.
How do you set up the request for success?
Start by giving them the facts. When your contact expresses interest, follow up with an email with the details.
Include these key points:
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The benefits of this joint marketing opportunity for all parties
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What’s involved – who and how much time is required for the interviews and review phase
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How the story will be used – website, one-on-one sales, PR, newsletters, etc.
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If they will need to sign a release form
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One or two samples of your other customer stories
Document this in an email so that your contacts can easily forward it on to others.
Customer at risk of saying no?
If you’re concerned at all about the customer declining your request, deliver these facts on a call or in a face-to-face meeting instead and include key decision-makers (likely those beyond your main contact).
Giving customers all the details also helps prevent surprises later on. Everyone already knows what to expect.
What other facts have you found help customers make the decision?
Fortune 500 Companies: Celebrity Endorsers of B2B
If you sell consumer products like skincare, sunglasses or video games, a celebrity endorsement can be a powerful thing.
In the B2B world, you can still tap a famous individual – but it’s not necessarily wise. Accenture recently had to drop its endorsement of Tiger Woods.
When selling B2B, Fortune 500 companies are usually the celebrities we want and need to endorse our products and services. Celebrity – whether it’s Lance Armstrong or IBM – carries a lot of prestige today.
"Today it’s more important than ever to associate your business, your product and yourself with celebrities – and even make yourself into a celebrity – to rise above the competition," states Jordan McAuley, author of Celebrity Leverage.
I recently read McAuley’s book and while it’s mainly focused on leveraging celebrity individuals, some of his ideas can help you get B2B endorsers on board:
Open the door
McAuley recommends starting out with a small request, which he calls the "foot in the door technique."
"When someone first complies with a small request, they are more likely to later comply with a larger request," McAuley states.
Personally, I’ve seen that work well for companies trying to get their biggest customers to publicly share their story. Start with a testimonial or reference call before approaching them about a case study, press release or speaking opportunity. Ease them into a deeper relationship.
Know your endorser well
If you sell consumer products, you have to know if celebrities have children or about their lifestyle habits in order to target effectively.
In B2B endorsements, homework is just as important. If you want to feature a customer, know what their current goals and challenges are as company. Then approach them with a pitch that ties perfectly into a message they WANT to communicate publicy. Align your goals with theirs and it’s a much easier sell.
Set up a velvet rope
Exclusive nightclubs create an air of limitation as if only the rich, famous and beautiful are granted entry.
You can do the same in B2B marketing. Limit access to a program, event or promotion by numbers or by timeframe.
For example, limit a special event or webinar to a small number of participants. Or, give your audience a hard deadline by which to sign up for a special offer.
Many people don’t act without a sense of urgency or exclusivity.
What have you found effective in getting "celebrity" endorsements for your business or industry?
Creating Case Studies? The Math You Have to Master
I have a confession. I’m bad at math.
Writers and marketers out there, I know some of you are with me. We were the spelling bee champions, the honors English students and the school newspaper editors.
But algebra was not our thing. Sure, there were some kids talented at both, at which I’m always amazed.
After elementary school, my attitude become one of, "I’ll never use this stuff. I’m going to be a writer!"
Well, here I am in a career mostly about writing and I’m Googling my math questions, or instant messaging a quick story problem to my computer science/math husband.
If you are a mathlete, then stop reading here, or forward this to your "word" friends.
Persnickety Percentages
Customer case studies are about documenting results, showing that actual customers experienced the benefits that marketing and sales promised.
Whether you’re a marketer, business owner or writer producing case studies, there are likely times when you have to do the math on your own. It’s fairly rare that featured customers come ready with all their numbers worked out about how your solution made a difference.
So what do you need to know? Percentages!
In case studies, it’s all about the before and after. How much did the customer reduce costs? How much time are they saving? By what percent did their sales grow?
Percents are sometimes the fallback approach when you can’t name actual dollar figures. Customers will let you mention percentages instead, so you have to know how to calculate them.
Percentages can be easy if you’re going one direction with them, but not other directions.
Fortunately, I found a handy guide for the math-challenged among us. This page gives you a simple formula no matter which number you’re missing and how to do your calculations. There are even problems to test yourself.
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Love it. It’s easier than Mrs. Swafford’s approach in 6th grade. (They probably learn this in 3rd grade now.)
Bookmark the page. I know I have. You simply have to do the math in this job sometimes.
Just today, I needed to determine what percent 1752 is of 1,807,125. Can you?
Podcast: Case Studies to Build Trust and Sales
How do you make the most of a customer’s success story? What if you can’t name a customer? How do new FTC rules affect case studies?
Get answers to these questions and others on a 25-minute podcast where RainToday.com interviewed Casey Hibbard, "Using Case Studies to Build Trust and Facilitate Sales."
- Ways to use your customer case studies
- How many and how often to create case studies
- What makes a successful case study
- What if you can’t name customers?
- Examples of professional services firms using case studies successfully
- Why you shouldn’t make people register to access cases
- How to ease customer permissions and approvals
- What the new FTC rules mean for endorsements
Listen here. It’s only available to non-members of RainToday.com until Feb. 24.
What’s Better – Customer Feedback or Vendor Success Stories?
As buyers, we need help making decisions. There are just too many options.
My last post revealed my own decision anxiety, multiplied when there are no customer reviews or success stories for me to rely on.
From personal experience, reviews help us make decisions faster and feel more confident about them.
But what’s the difference between customer feedback a la Amazon or eBay compared to vendor-produced case studies and success stories? And how can companies benefit from both?
Customer Reviews
Smart companies today ask you for your feedback. They email you after a purchase requesting that you follow a link and "rate and review" the product or service.
- Feedback is raw, real, unpolished information right from customers.
- Customers are free to share their negative experiences.
- Any grammar errors or typos are still there, adding to the authenticity.
- It’s free-form, so customers talk about what is important to them, usually without any prompting questions.
- As a short review, it only takes a few minutes.
- There may be a shortage of free-form reviews on higher-end solutions (i.e. $1 million ERP software implementation).
- That content isn’t leveraged beyond showing up on review sites.
- Cheap or free for vendors.
Vendor Case Studies & Success Stories
Case studies and success stories, produced by the vendor company, formally capture a customer’s experience.
- Vendors reach out to their most successful customers, so no negative stories.
- Prospective customers see them as more slick or "commercial" than raw feedback.
- Customers agree to share their story formally and publicly.
- Formal interviews draw out specific aspects of the customer’s experience.
- The story format engages readers in a different way, taking the audience through challenge, solution and resolution – allowing prospects to better see themselves in those stories.
- Results are measured – to the extent possible.
- Once approved, the content can be used in various formats – press releases, stand-alone testimonials, award applications, etc.
- Takes more money and time.
In today’s buying climate, you need these customer experiences to help buyers. What do you choose?
Both. Ideally, your prospective customers can find free-form feedback on the web AND review more formalized, comprehensive, measurable stories about customer experiences.
Customers today benefit from both. The first provides more AUTHENTICITY and the second much-desired DETAIL – both critical pieces of a buying decision.
In fact, make both a part of your marketing plan:
- Give happy customers links to online feedback sites.
- Approach those same happy customers about documenting their stories more extensively in print, audio or video.
- Send prospects to sites with customer feedback (hopefully it’s good!) and to stories on your website.
Regardless of what mix you choose, always ensure that you give prospects access to other customers’ experiences. You can help them get past indecision.
What’s your take? What do prospects gain from free-form feedback versus vendor stories?
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