ClickInsights: How to get customers to participate in a case study?

Posted by Ambal Balakrishnan August 13th 09

ClickInsights is an Expert Interview Series brought to you by Connect the Docs (ClickDocuments blog). In ClickInsights Expert Interview Series we feature "top-notch" industry experts and thought leaders and get their insights, opinions and predictions. We also ask for their suggestions on what reports, whitepapers etc to read to keep abreast with latest trends in their industry.

Case studies can be really valuable tools to educate your prospects. We asked case study experts "What steps companies can proactively take to get customers to commit to participate in a case study?". Get insights and recommended resources from Case Study Experts.

Recommended Resources from Experts on Case Studies

Blogs

Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
Cindy King's blog CindyKing
Michele Linn's blog Savvy B2B Marketing
Stephanie Tilton's blog Savvy B2B Marketing

Books

Casey Hibbard's book Stories that Sell
Jill Konrath's book Selling To Big Companies
Joe Pulizzi's and Newt Barrett's book Get Content. Get Customers.

Others

Steve Slaunwhite’s Cracking the Case Study Market
LinkedIn Group – Success-Story Marketing Group
Stephanie Tilton's 6 Steps to Successful Case Studies
Jonathan Kranz's eBook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies
Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies

Cindy King

Blog CindyKing Twitter CindyKing

“Give a strong reason for why”

Cindy King's Bio

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Specialist based in France. She uses her dual background in sales & marketing, in international business development, to help businesses improve their international sales conversion. She is also adept at content marketing, international web marketing and social media marketing.

Cindy King's Tip

In my experience, the first step is to open a dialog and a discussion around the customer's experience and the company's motivations for creating a case study.

It is in deepening this discussion that you can identify a key element: the main reason why the customer would commit to participate in the case study. And this reason can be different for different companies. Some companies would appreciate the visibility for:

Their brand
Their product
Their CEO or an employee
New development
An upcoming event
Recognition of their success

And some customers are simply happy to help the company that helped them.

Just as it is important to identify what they can get out of their participation in a case study, it is also important to discover any objections they may have. You can then work on ways to respond to these objections. But I usually find that you can work around objections if you have a strong "reason why".

Cindy King Recommends

Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Jill Konrath's book Selling To Big Companies
Joe Pulizzi's and Newt Barrett's book Get Content. Get Customers.

Casey Hibbard

Blog Stories That Sell Twitter Casey_Hibbard

“Customize your approach for each case study”

Casey Hibbard's Bio

Casey Hibbard is the founder and principal of Compelling Cases, Inc. Over the past decade, she has created and managed nearly 500 customer stories for dozens of companies, including Level 3, USA.NET, Jobfox, Qwest, Great-West Healthcare, Vocus and Verio. She is the author of the first published book on the topic of customer case studies, Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset.

Casey Hibbard's Tip

This is one of the biggest challenges for companies - getting customers to say yes to sharing their stories publicly. Unfortunately, there's not one answer to this question because the reasons companies decline are many. But I can tell you that even large companies rarely seem to give financial incentives to customers in exchange for case studies.

Not unlike a sales process, you have to look at the objections and motivations of each customer, and come at it from that angle.

Your customer company may be motivated to get a certain message out. Can you create a case study that tells your story and also tells the story your customer wants to tell the marketplace? Or, perhaps your individual contacts want some personal fame for making good decisions that saved his/her department major money, etc.

If exposure is a motivator, then reinforce how you will be using the story publicly, pitching it to the media, submitting it for awards, etc. Can you offer your contacts the chance to speak at a major industry conference?

Or, your contacts may simply want access to networking opportunities with their peers, access to your executives or deeper involvement with your product roadmap.

Also consider strategically engaging the right people in your company and in your customer's company. For particularly high-value case studies, you might ask one of your executives to get involved in asking one of the customer company's executives. Or, talk to your customer's corporate communications department, which is always interested in positive PR.

Just remember, stay patient and customize your approach for each case study that you want - and your efforts will pay off. If you ultimately can't get a customer, move on to others.

Casey Hibbard Recommends

For writers and marketers, the first book on customer case studies just came out, Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset, in ebook or printed formats. It covers the complete process of creating a story from start to finish to usage.
Steve Slaunwhite’s Cracking the Case Study Market how-to manual is a great resource for writers looking to profit in this field.
Join LinkedIn Group – Success-Story Marketing Group for discussions about all things related to using customer stories in sales and marketing.

Jonathan Kranz

Blog Kranzcom Twitter jonkranz

"Encourage participation by articulating what’s in it for them"

Jonathan Kranz's Bio

Today, Jonathan Kranz enjoys the confidence of numerous clients and agencies, but unlike most independent copywriters, his career didn't begin with them. Instead, he had stints as a follow-spot operator in a regional theater, a park ranger on an allegedly haunted island in Boston Harbor, and as a summarizer of documents in large-scale litigations (think: Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener). After completing his MFA in Creative Writing in 1995 (and publishing a number of short stories in literary journals such as the Missouri Review and the Green Mountains Review), he leap-frogged agency life and jumped into freelancing with both feet. Since then, he has written a huge stack of content, advertising, direct marketing, and public relations materials for consumer and B2B clients in financial services, banking, insurance, high-tech, healthcare, education, and other industries.

Jonathan Kranz's Tip

First, take an aspirin.

Because, frankly, this one isn’t always easy. Chances are, the people you’ve done business with are willing to participate, but they need approval from the Powers That Be (be they in HR, PR or in some VP limbo). Worse, you’re usually not granted access to these Powers, so you’re stuck in a communications triangulation that doesn’t allow you to make the best case for the client’s participation in your case study.

That said, you can encourage their participation by articulating what’s in it for them -- another piece of publicity. If they’re concerned about airing their laundry, tell them the case study puts the client in a favorable light, demonstrating the company’s willingness to do whatever’s necessary to improve, grow and simply be better at whatever it is they do.

But what if you just can’t get that approval? You might try writing a “blind” case study that describes the client abstractly (“a major SaaS provider in the sales management space”) without identifying it by name. Unfortunately, without a real name attached, the study automatically loses a great deal of its credibility – and most of its power.

The alternative? Abandon ship. Just give up the case study and try a different tack. Instead of packing the substance of the story into a case study format (challenge, solution, results), reposition the same information within a how-to article, such as “10 Ways a SaaS Can Grab Market Share” or “Secrets to SaaS Marketing Success” or “How to Make Your SaaS Soar Over Your Competitors.”

Jonathan Kranz Recommends

Michele Linn

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter MicheleLinn

"Figure out and promote the 'what’s in it for me' aspect of the case study"

Michele Linn's Bio

Michele Linn is a freelance marketing writer specializing creating buyer-focused B2B marketing content, such as white papers, research reports, feature articles and case studies. Her business is devoted to making the job of B2B marketers easier by producing effective content and providing insights on how they can market it. Her website is Linn Communications.

Michele Linn's Tip

You need to figure out and promote the “what’s in it for me” aspect of the case study—not only for the customers but also for the internal people who are responsible for identifying customers to use in case studies.

There are many ways customers can benefit from participating in a case study. As a point of reference, in Stories that Sell, author Casey Hibbard reports that that the number one thing customers want is “access to your execs and involvement in your product/service roadmap,” Understand what customers want and tailor the benefits of participating in stories to these key things, customizing the value for each customer.

But, before you even get to talk to the customer, you typically rely on others to identify possible customers for stories. You need to do three key things with this group: 1) clearly communicate the need and value of case studies; 2) have strong relationships with these people so they trust you working with their customers; and 3) motivate them to provide you with possible candidates for stories (note: this may require you working with their management to provide the right incentives).

Michele Linn Recommends

Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Jonathan Kranz's eBook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies

Sarah Mitchell

Blog globalcopywriting Twitter globalcopywrite

"No Customer Pain, Lots of Vendor Gain"

Sarah Mitchell's Bio

Sarah Mitchell is a freelance copywriter with a focus on B2B content, specifically case studies and white papers. Combining successful technical, sales and writing careers, Sarah provides a rare perspective to every project. She’s especially interested in working with small and medium-sized businesses. Sarah has lived and worked on five continents. Find her website at globalcopywriting.

Sarah Mitchell's Tip

A case study, or customer-success story, can be the most effective piece of marketing collateral a sales organization possesses. The problem is getting customers to dedicate their time developing your case study. If a company wants to encourage customer participation in this valuable exercise, they have to do two things:

Make it as painless for the customer as possible.
Sell the benefits of the finished document.

No Customer Pain, Lots of Vendor Gain

A carefully controlled sales process is one of the key elements to gaining customer participation in a case study. From the first point of contact, your sales team should be collecting data points, anecdotal information and benchmarks to build a strong story. Too many times vital information is not recorded during the sales cycle making it difficult or impossible to resurrect in the aftermath of a sale.

One of the biggest difficulties writers encounter is getting the data they need to build a convincing case. Even customers with the best intentions get busy or distracted when trying to obtain statistical data. Developing your case study is never going to be the top priority for the customer. By removing the obligation to provide comprehensive detail about the implementation of your solution, you’ve also removed a common obstacle for participation.

Whether they realize it or not, business development managers, pre-sales technical support and customer service staff are in a position to obtain the hard data a writer needs to construct the bones of persuasive story. The more information collected by the vendor prior to the sale, the less burden placed on the client when a case study is being developed.

Here’s the good news, a sales team focused on capturing data for a solid case study is going to be in a better position to close deals. The information needed by the writer can be used for Return on Investment (ROI) calculations, productivity improvements, user satisfaction testimonials and other key performance indicators that influence decision makers.

Case Study: The Customer Protection Plan
In a recent blog post titled “Protecting Your Best Customers” I discussed the dilemma of loving your customer to death. Unfortunately, your best clients can be abused by repeated requests for information about a solution they have successfully implemented. Often companies or specific departments have a policy against acting as a reference because of time or resource constraints.

In this situation, developing a case study is a good solution. A case study positions your client in the most favorable light while protecting them from repetitive questions and time-consuming conversations. They get recognition for their operation without the hassle of continual promotion.

Win-Win
The key to getting customer participation for your case studies starts and ends in your sales department. Adopting a data collection strategy in your sales force eases the burden on your client. Replacing an unpredictable reference program protects your best customers. Both techniques encourage customer participation. Even better, both techniques enhance the effectiveness of your sales force.

Sarah Mitchell Recommends

Stephanie Tilton

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter StephanieTilton

“Allay any fears and expand the opportunity”

Stephanie Tilton's Bio

Stephanie Tilton is an expert case study and white paper writer who helps B2B companies advance the sales cycle by engaging prospects and customers. Harnessing her unique blend of technical knowledge, marketing savvy, and writing skills, Stephanie has crafted nearly 100 case studies and white papers for leading brands such as Akamai Technologies, EMC, Macromedia, Novell, SAP, and Symantec. Her website is Ten Ton Marketing.

Stephanie Tilton's Tip

Case studies are a unique and compelling way to share the stories that propel your prospects through the buying cycle. But you can't produce these critical content assets without your customers’ cooperation. By following these five suggestions, you'll increase the likelihood of hearing a resounding "yes" next time you ask a customer to participate in a case study:

Share a published case study and explain how and where this one will appear
Highlight associated publicity, such as a press release or magazine article
Broach the subject when offering the customer something valuable
Make it worthwhile for your main contact
Assume full responsibility for gathering feedback and approvals

Allay any fears. Some customers are hesitant to participate because they worry that the story will expose proprietary information, or that it will be out of their hands once it’s written. To alleviate any concerns, explain up front that the customer has full say over what gets published. Also describe precisely how the case study will be used and where it will appear. Send the customer an example of a published case study so he knows what to expect.
Expand the opportunity. Instead of viewing the case study as only benefiting your company, remember it's a chance for your customer to garner publicity. If it makes sense, tell the customer that you intend to pair the case study with a press release or plan to pitch it to a trade publication. If you’ve followed this course in the past, point the customer to the press release or magazine article that showcased another customer's success.
Tap into the law of reciprocity. Raise the topic of a case study while offering something of value to the customer, such as getting a sneak preview of your product roadmap, an early evaluation copy of your upcoming release, or a spot on your customer advisory board. Because you will have extended an opportunity to your customer, she will be more likely to return the favor by agreeing to the case study.
Make it personal. When you approach your main contact about her company participating in a case study, she might be thinking, "what's in it for me?" After all, she likely has a full to-do list. If possible, highlight ways you can boost this person’s visibility, such as by featuring her in an accompanying video testimonial on your site or by asking her to present at your user conference. This may be the incentive she needs to champion the initiative within her organization.
Minimize involvement. Emphasize that the demands on the customer will be minimal, typically a 30-60 minute interview and review of the draft. You can even offer to shepherd the case study through the customer’s organization so your main contact doesn't worry about being distracted by this project.