Tag Archive for: case studies

You are here: Home / case studies

Posts

success-baby

3 Tips for Telling Great Customer Success Stories

Jun 2014/in , /by

Guest post by: Jan Willis, Calibra.

Customer success stories are an important and necessary sales tool.  Just like having references for any job interview, they aren’t going to make the sale but without good ones, it may cause a delay in the sales process.  Yet, customer success stories are often cookie cutter in style and not engaging.   Even worse, you may struggle to get your customers to approve them.

I’ve been working with companies on success stories across industries – from semiconductors to software development tools to software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. I have experienced the frustration of writing a customer story only to have the customer not approve it, or worse, approve it and then pull it after its been published. There will be many customers who won’t share their brand value with you for fear of diluting it. There will be others that you simply don’t have the relationship with to “override” the policy of not doing them. But there will be customers where you do have the product and people relationships that gain you the necessary approvals. Make the most of these customers and seize the moment as your champion might move on.  Most of all, tell a great story for your company and their customer.

Here are three tips from my recent experiences that I hope will help you tell a great customer story.  Let the story begin!

Tell the story in your customer’s own words

Don’t fall into the trap of marketing speak!  It’s easier to just write the problem, solution and benefits using all the company’s great messaging, but it’s dry and boring.  Tell the story as if it were unfolding as you read it.  And to do that you need to interview the key people and collect as many usable quotes as possible. Don’t forget to ask for their picture to make it even more engaging and realistic. I like what I see for pulling all three of these elements together in the customer case studies by RelateIQ, a Palo Alto, California-based start-up that is quickly becoming the go-to relationship intelligence solution for professionals seeking to build better relationships and make smarter decisions.

Use surveys to help gather facts and interesting user commentary

Not another survey! I know we’re asked to respond to surveys almost daily now.   But companies who are SaaS providers are one of the best examples of where knowing if customers are successful is not just nice to have – it’s crucial to achieving very high renewal rates, a key metric for a SaaS company.   These surveys are usually quite effective as they are often run internally by the customer to validate the ROI.  Provided there are open ended questions, this can be a rich source of additional commentary from the users by incorporating direct quotes that can help bring authenticity to the success story and have it sound less like marketing speak.   I have seen this work for myself while working on case studies such as Nuance Communications for FirstRain, a pioneer and leader in personal business analytics solutions for the enterprise.

If you hit the wall on permission, try new approaches

Beware of the marketing police!  I always find it a bit awkward to coach people on how to get through the marketing controls on the use of their brand since I used to enforce them myself.  The truth is every decision is a business decision and with the right case made by the right person, there are exceptions.  There are many companies who have business reasons to want to work with their suppliers on telling their story.    The keys are having senior relationships between the companies and finding the win-win scenario.  Should you still hit the wall on permission, there’s a new approach that I really like if you have 50-100 customers to work with.  Founded in 2007 and based in Emeryville, California, TechValidate solves the problem of extracting quantifiable operational and financial metrics from your customer base, and then instantly turning that data into usable, third party verified marketing materials.

Author:

Jan WillisJan Willis founded Calibra in 2007 after holding senior marketing positions at Cadence Design Systems, Simplex Solutions, Synopsys, and HP and completing an MBA at Stanford University. Calibra is a B2B business consulting firm specializing in helping high-tech companies enhance their brand and accelerate the market adoption of their products. Its consulting practice includes whole product strategy, company and technology branding, strategic options analysis, industry alliances, and interim leadership.

iStockphoto_Thinkstock_social_brain_0_1

Engage Your Customers With A Story

Feb 2014/in , /by

Humans respond to narratives, and we are more likely to retain information when it comes packaged in a story; so, storytelling is one of the greatest tools in the sales and marketing toolbox to engage your customers.

In a video from Marketo called “Lead Generation Tips from 6 Really Really Smart Human Beings,” Lee Odden, founder of TopRank Online Marketing said, “Facts tell. Stories sell.” This is the kind of catchphrase you should write down on a post-it-note  and stick on your computer monitor—it’s that important. You can use statistics about your product as a selling point, but your prospect’s eyes may glaze over. However, tie these numbers up in a compelling tale about how your product completely turned a business around in its time of need, and you are much more likely to grab their full attention. Numbers make people nod, but stories make them care—and people are more likely to invest in something they care about.

Do Background Research

In the same video from Marketo, Nick Westergaard, chief brand strategist and founder of Driven Digital, said, “Questions are currency.” In other words, what marketers really need to do is identify what their potential client’s questions are and provide an answer before the prospect even thinks to ask. But how do you do that? You do a whole lot of customer research: determine what’s going on in their markets and use big data analytics to get a sense of their industry climate. When you know your audience, you’ll understand what kinds of stories make them tick.

Where Do You Tell Your Stories?

If you haven’t noticed, narratives are pervasive in our culture. That’s because they work well, no matter what medium you use to tell them, be it podcast, text or video. Using them in sales pitches can be extremely effective too. When it comes to digital marketing, video is a pretty safe bet. Internet video is a huge part of marketing and unlikely to go away anytime soon. When it comes to sending a succinct, effective message, video is a medium unlike any other. Make a video to use on a landing page or share on social media.

How Do You Tell Your Stories?

Once you choose a vehicle for your brand story, it’s all about creating a narrative that will sell. The important thing is that it contains all the right elements to engage with the audience. According to Forbes, it’s important to create characters that your clients will root for. After all, a story without a protagonist isn’t much of a story at all. Make sure it’s someone with issues that will resonate with your audience. Remember in grade school when you learned that a story has a beginning, middle and an end? That’s still true. Don’t forget to craft a story arc. In the beginning, present a stable situation, which then gets upset by the introduction of a problem that your product will solve for them.

Be Honest

When we talk about stories in marketing, we’re not talking about fiction. Your stories should be rooted in real encounters. This may sound less interesting than writing the great American novel, but using real events actually makes the whole process easier. You probably have an entire file full of client success stories. Think about one of these sales from the company’s perspective. Rather than just being a percentage point in a sales record, this situation is a story waiting to be told.

Whether you are making a pitch, creating a video or e-book, basing your marketing and sales efforts in stories is the way to go.

back to top
MENU