This week, two PowerPoint presentations came my way.

My clients’ happy customers had actually presented these decks in live case studies (either in person or on a webinar). How fantastic is that – a customer willing to talk to an audience about success with your products and services?

That’s about as good as it gets.

Smart marketing teams know the next step: Turn that live presentation into something that you can re-use again and again.

Here are 4 tips for taking next steps with a customer’s live case study presentation.

1.  Ask for permission upfront

You would think that standing on a podium and publicly discussing success with a specific solution makes a written story a shoe-in.

Not true. A written story, posted on the web, leaves a searchable and lasting trail of evidence about what your customer said. This scares some customers. They’re worried you’re the next Enron and they just don’t want to risk a public endorsement.

You need to ask for specific permission for a separate written story, and the customer will want to review it most likely.

While your contact may be fine with turning the presentation into written or video assets, the company may not agree. BEFORE you record that presentation or webinar, or write it, ask for official permission.

If you can record it, ask HOW you can use the recording. Some might just give you permission to share it internally among sales reps, while others will let you post it on your website, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

2.  PowerPoint is not enough for written

Even if you don’t plan to use the recording with external audiences, or don’t have permission to do so, a recording is valuable.

A PowerPoint presentation provides the visuals and highlights but it’s never the full story. The presenter adds that.

What’s missing from PowerPoints? Detail, explanation, complete sentences for quotes, and most critically, emotion.

Customer case studies are stories. Without real customer comments and emotion, you lose much of its storytelling power.

Personally, I always have more questions, usually lots more, when I receive a PowerPoint.

So, get it recorded somehow. If you don’t want to release the video to a writer, then get a transcript.

3.  Interview the customer

For a couple of reasons, you may need to interview the customer further:

• The customer’s presentation didn’t include some of the information that usually goes into a case study. Maybe the customer doesn’t go into why they chose your solution – a very insightful piece for prospective customers.
• Or, you did not get a recording.

Ask the customer if they are willing to fill in some of the gaps that the slide deck misses.

4. Got permission? Use it!

When you get specific permission to use these assets, make them work for you. Don’t shelf that rich information.

Post video, edited down perhaps, on demand on your website. Send the video link to prospects, Tweet about it, and distribute it on social media video sharing sites.

Write it up and post it online and among your sales assets.

Check out this list for 25 ways to use your customer stories.

What are your experiences getting more out of live presentations?

Customer case studies just aren’t like other marketing projects.

With a brochure, data sheet or white paper, marketing managers can usually mark the calendar for when to begin.

But as much as they target a certain number of case studies or success stories a month or quarter, starting still depends on if and when the customer is ready.

And sometimes that’s a LONG time to wait.

For freelance case study copywriters serving these marketing managers, those lags present another challenge: memory loss.

If you haven’t written for a client in a few months, the details may be fuzzy – especially if you work with multiple clients (or really technical products) like many writers.

In fact, I often need to re-orient a little to a client’s products and services.

Years ago I came up with a way to help myself out in these situations.

Every time I engage with a new client, I create a "Cheat Sheet" that’s just for me.

It includes all the main details I need to get back on track quickly after a pause in projects with a particular client.

Create your Cheat Sheet from the beginning, which also helps you focus your study of a new client’s products and services.

What goes on it?

Look for answers to questions such as…

• How does the company refer to its products and services? What names and industry terms do they use?
• What do the featured solutions do?
• Who uses them?
• When?
• What problems do they solve?
• What are the main business benefits that users can expect?
• What preferences do they have that are specific to them?
  (I.e. maybe they prefer to capitalize business titles versus lowercase)

Take the little bit of extra time to create this every time you work with a new client. When you need a refresher, everything you need is on one sheet.

You’ve probably heard most of these stats before. Current customers are significantly more valuable than new customers.

• Acquiring a new customer costs 5 to 10 times more than retaining one.
• A 5 percent increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent.
• Repeat customers spend 67 percent more, on average.
• Twenty percent of customers account for 80 percent of total revenues.

Think about it. These customers already know your products and services well, and are (hopefully) very pleased. It’s a fan base that’s receptive to hearing from you – especially when you talk about solutions to their problems.

Yet how often are companies using customer success stories to upsell solutions to already happy customers?

Consider this…

A CRM software company created a customer case study featuring the success of one branch of a major nationwide mortgage company. The branch had become the number-one location in the country due largely to productivity with this software.

Using a story on that branch, the software company got in the door with the leadership at national headquarters. That led to talks to take the software to more branches nationwide.

It’s just one example of leveraging a customer story to expand business with a current customer.

Here are various ways that businesses can use customer success stories to grow sales with existing customers:

• Up-sell or cross-sell different products and services to the same customer
• Feature one division of a company and then share that with other divisions in the same company or organization
• Highlight the success of one location of a company to share with other locations

If you’re only using your best stories to attract and sell to prospects, then you’re not getting your full return on investment on a case study.

Can you share any great stories of using case studies to sell more to current customers?

Several times a week, an appeal for funds from a charity (or alma mater) arrives in my mailbox or inbox. The same organizations contact me over and over.

It’s annoying, but if they don’t ask for contributions, they usually don’t get them.

That’s just how it works. We have too much going through our heads. If you’re in an asking position, you have to be in the audience’s line of sight often if you hope to get a response.

The same goes for the quest for case study or success story candidates and reference customers. Marketing and reference managers are constantly looking for stellar customers to include in reference activities.

You have to remind teams inside your company and out – employees, partners and customers – what you need.

1.  To start, make sure your wish list is current and specific.

Evaluate your inventory of references and case studies to ID what you need most. Maybe that’s financial services companies using your new Product M, or education industry customers that have recently migrated to your SaaS offering.

The point is, always know what you need.

2.  Then, take your requests to all your communication channels that touch employees, partners and customers:

• Sales meetings
• One-on-one meetings
• Employee newsletters or intranet
• Partner/reseller newsletters and online communities
• Customer newsletters
• Social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
• E-mail
• Partner events

3.  Next, make it easy to submit a candidate or themselves. Ideally, direct everyone to a short online form to collect a few key details.

Then a marketing or reference manager can follow up to pre-qual the candidate.

Just remember, be specific and make it easy – and you should up your response rates.

What has worked for you in getting case study candidates?

For those who doubt the draw of a customer case study online, here’s your proof.

One Microsoft case study, posted online just four months ago, has racked up 86,552 total views.

Listed among its most viewed case studies, the Outback Steakhouse case study describes how the restaurant chain used a Microsoft solution for a Facebook campaign.

Other cases in the "Most Viewed" tab have more than 50,000 views. (On each online case study, Microsoft actually lists the number of total views.)

That many eyeballs should be a clear case to companies that case studies and success stories shouldn’t just be online somewhere; but they should be prominently displayed and easy to find.

Here are a few tips for organizing your case studies online for maximum exposure:

Tease them on the home page

How-to stories about other companies’ success with your solution is a top draw for prospects.

Feature a case study somewhere on your home page or devote a space to scrolling teasers for several case studies.

Include them with product information

Anywhere that you talk about specific solutions, feature a case study right there that shows that product or service in action.

Make them easy to find!

Allow site visitors to search or browse case studies by industry, product or other categories that might matter to them, such as business need.

Check out Microsoft’s page for ideas.

Include a Retweet button

Make it easy to share your content on social networking sites like Twitter. Include a Retweet button or other social media sharing icons.

The most important rule: Don’t let valuable customer stories go to waste! Leverage that content anytime and anywhere that you talk about the value of your products and services.

Share your own examples of companies that organize their stories well online.

Sales isn’t what it used to be. Prospects are more overwhelmed than ever before.

They’re pulled in a dozen different directions at any time, challenging them to actually get anything done.

They don’t have time to listen to a sales pitch, even if they know they need to make a change.

That’s the basis for Jill Konrath’s new book, SNAP Selling.

Since reading Jill’s first book, Selling to Big Companies, I’ve been a fan. I even interviewed her for my book, Stories That Sell.

Unlike many sales gurus, she focuses on buyers’ mindsets and how to work within them.

In SNAP Selling, Jill introduces four factors that need to be at the forefront of sales reps’ mind when working with crazy-busy people – those with "Frazzled Customer Syndrome."

Today’s prospects evaulate you on these four criteria, which Konrath calls SNAP Factors:

Simple: Your ability to eliminate complexity and effort from your prospect’s decision-making process will improve your chances for sales success.

iNvaluable: In a world of copycat products and services, the value you personally bring to the relationship becomes essential.

Aligned: You must stay relevant to your client at all times; they don’t have time for anything else.

Priority: With an ever-changing business environment, you can’t afford to have your prospect deem your services non-urgent.

For more on how to leverage these factors in various stages of the sales cycle, check out SNAP Selling.

Download two chapters and new sales tools here.

(P.S – I’m not an affilate for Jill; just a big fan.)

About three years ago, a conversation between an American and an Australian – who have never met face to face – planted a seed.

The ideas of marketers Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton led to a project with 100 bloggers from nine countries, and has now evolved to a third collaborative effort, a printed book with 171 authors all talking about putting online marketing and social media best practices into practice.

Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy, now available on Amazon.com for $19.95, features 171 marketers sharing their insight on social media as a must-have in the modern marketing toolbox – a "who’s who of the world’s leading marketing bloggers."

I was fortunate to have the chance to contribute. Here’s an excerpt from my section, titled, "The Stories Customers Tell: 4 Ways to Boost Your Positive Online Buzz."

"Whether that big purchase or decision is about a dream vacation, a financial planner, or enterprise software, the stakes are high. To reduce perceived risk, today’s buyers look to the experiences of others – increasingly documented online on forums, blogs, discussion groups, vendor websites, Twitter, and other social media sites."

The best part of Age of Conversation 3? As with previous AOC projects, profits go to charity. This year, proceeds will be donated to an international children’s charity of the authors’ joint choosing.

Check it out. In the process, pick up hundreds of social media and online marketing tips while contributing to a great cause. 

Picking up from my last post commenting on Hubspot’s "27 Marketing Lessons B2B Marketers Should Know," here’s another tip from Hubspot that ties directly with customer case studies:

"Content is precious. Repackage existing content into different formats, such as blog posts, podcasts and webinars to drive more leads."

You can easily repackage customer case studies and success stories into valuable, reusable content throughout your sales and marketing communications.

Here are just a few ways:

1. Blogs

An estimated 77% of active web users read blogs. They’ve proven to be powerful drivers of search engine traffic.

Even better, those following your blog are interested in your particular topic, giving you the perfect target audience.

Share your best customer stories on your blog – either in full or linked back to the full story on your website.

Focus on the customer’s experience and path to success, not just tooting your own horn.

Here’s a great example.

And finally, be sure to get the customer’s permission before you publish anything with their name on it.

2. Contributed articles

For editors, it’s all about the compelling story. They’re constantly looking for ideas and contributed articles that tell stories their audiences want to hear.

Many websites and publications take contributed articles.

Try submitting a story about your new product and see how that goes. Then try submitting a story about how a specific customer has succeeded with your product, and it changes things.

With just a little editing, you can turn a customer case study into a contributed article, preferably by-lined by your customer.

Just make sure it focuses on best practices and approaches without heavily talking up your product or service.

3. Press releases

The same thing goes for press releases as above.

When you announce news, such as a new product offering, pull an anecdote into your press release that ties the news to a customer’s success.

Ideally, you have some beta customers with early experiences of your solution that you can share.

A customer example makes a dry release much more interesting.

4. Industry awards

I’m big on awards these days – after seeing some Fortune 500 companies jump at the chance to tell their stories for awards opportunities.

Why? We all like to be recognized for our efforts. Your customers are no different.

If they’re doing cool, best practices things, and your solution helps with that, find relevant awards programs and ask their permission to submit them.

You might be surprised how on board they get for an awards submission when they might not publish their story as a case study.

If your customer wins, their story gets natural publicity through the awards process.

Also, once you have all the juicy details, ask if you can make that public on your website.

5. Newsletters

Feature a different customer success in each newsletter or e-zine that goes to customers, prospects and even employees.

Show all your audiences how you help customers solve their problems.

It will likely be the most read part of your newsletter.

But that’s not all. Check out 25 Ways to Build Trust (and Sales!) with Customer Success Stories.

Last week, the Hubspot blog ran a story with lessons from the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, "27 Marketing Lessons B2B Marketers Should Know."

I picked up some fresh new tips and important reminders.

You can accomplish several of the lessons with the help of customer case studies and success stories.

Here’s one of the lessons and how customer stories tie in…

"Solve problems for customers, and leverage marketing to demonstrate these solutions."

Isn’t that why you’re in business, to solve problems for customers, no matter what you sell?

Yet, often it’s not clear to potential customers if and how you can solve their problems – despite all you might invest in web and brochure copy.

You have to SHOW prospects…

• The types of problems you solve
• For whom you solve problems
• How you solve those problems
• And the end result of solving those problems

The best way? With examples of your happy customers’ successes.

Ultimately, prospects believe your satisfied customers more than they believe you. Always integrate that voice into your marketing.

Watch this space for more ways to use customer stories to achieve some of Hubspot’s B2B lessons.

If you’re a coach, consultant or solopreneur, you’ll want to join this one-hour, no-cost call on Wednesday, May 19.

You may be one of the most experienced professionals in your field but if you can’t convincingly convey credibility to potential customers, then you may not win the client.

How do you set yourself apart and convey credibility?

Customer success stories.

Show that you deliver what your marketing messages promise by showcasing the experiences of your happiest, most satisfied clients.

In this complementary, one-hour teleseminar, Creating Credibility – and Sales – with Your Customer Success Stories, you’ll learn why and how to use customer stories to give yourself a competitive edge.

Learn more or sign up now.