How does the company refer to its products and services? What product names and industry terms does it 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?

9.  Write down the product/service questions you have for your client, and don’t be afraid to ask them!

10.  Also as you study, start a draft of your customer interview questions for these solutions.

Never forget to stop and do your homework. You’ll make the grade much faster with your new client.

What else is in your ramp-up process with new clients?

Customer case studies pull major weight among your marketing and sales materials. But they are just one way that a customer can serve as a reference for a business.

Customer stories fall under the bigger umbrella of customer reference activities, which can involve anything from taking a phone call from a prospect, speaking to an analyst or agreeing to a press release.

Smart companies manage their customer references, and even smarter ones manage them well to ensure every reference is maximized – without overusing precious customer contacts.

But it’s a hard sell at most companies to add reference management.

What’s the payoff of a well-functioning reference program? Good metrics can be hard to come by.

A webinar put on by Gartner last week featured impressive stats:

Buyers trust references most

In Gartner surveys, the #1 thing that buyers said influence their preference to purchase is references from the IT provider. (The survey focused on technology purchases.)

Why? Because it reduces risk, according to those surveyed. If another company like them has done it, then they can reasonably expect to achieve similar results.

Moreoever, they are 2.5 times more likely to buy from a provider that can quantify the value proposition. That means creating materials – like case studies – that demonstrate the return on investment of a solution.

References get customers to buy sooner

Gartner referenced the CIO Insight survey results that indicated prospects buy 25% faster when a relevant reference is provided.

References are so valuable that a strong one can actually shorten the sales cycle.

What’s the monetary value?

Even more impressive is just how much references mean to buyers – so much that sales reps may be able to bypass other steps in the process.

Gartner told the story of an IT provider that offers pre-sales assessments, which can cost up to $30,000 each.

However, “skillful use of customer references actually reduced the need for these assessments by a third, saving the company almost 200,000 last year while accelerating the sales cycle.”

It’s not easy to make the case for true reference management, but these stats should go a long way.

Ever heard this popular expression regarding presentations?

"Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. And then tell them what you told them." Or something along those lines.

Why should we repeat ourselves? Because people have short attention spans. By repeating, audiences hopefully go away having heard your most important points at least once, if not more.

In a written story, repeating ensures that skimmers catch your main ideas.

So how do you apply the "tell ‘em, tell ‘em, tell ‘em" advice to case studies and success stories?

Try applying these three ideas to your next case study project:

The Intro Summary

In longer magazine features or even the evening news, the story often kicks off with a brief summary of what’s to come – usually only about a paragraph.

For each of its case studies, Microsoft includes a summary just under the headline, before the body copy starts.

Keep it short and to the point. Ideally, mirror the rest of the story in that single paragraph by briefly mentioning the main challenge, how it was solved and the biggest benefit the customer experienced.

The Body Copy

Before you ever start writing, ask one question: What is the most important thing I want the audience to know? Then, structure your story around that message.

For example, maybe the #1 take-away is that the featured product enables faster customer support.

Early on, talk about the challenges of delivering customer support and how slowness has affected the business.

Follow that with solution delivery that indicates HOW the solution expedites support.

Finally, let the reader know that customer support is indeed faster, and back that up (hopefully!) with metrics.

Include customer quotes that touch on the speed of delivery through your story, and headlines as well.

With multiple mentions of your main idea, you not only "tell ‘em," but a case study lets you SHOW the audience.

The Wrap-Up Quote

Personally, I love ending a case study with a quote that’s the equivalent of a big bow around the whole story – something that truly encapsulates the customer’s experience.

Who should have the last word in a customer story? The customer. A quote feels more authentic than ending with a summary paragraph.

The perfect wrap-up quote doesn’t introduce anything new, but rather reflects the relationship in a nutshell.

To get a spot-on final quote, I usually ask this simple question, "Is there anything else you would like to add that we haven’t talked about yet?"

Often, the customer provides his or her own summary of the relationship.

If not, try, "What would you tell others about your experience of working with ABC Company?"

With your story written, go back and count where your key points pop up to make sure you’ve told them, told them and told them again.

Seen any great examples of companies that do this with their case studies? Send them my way and I’ll feature them on the blog. 

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.)