«Return to Blog List The Multi-Anecodote Case Study

Prospects today want to know that people or organizations just like them are solving similar challenges with your products and services. You need example stories in your back pocket for every situation.

That means creating cases for all your key sales situations. That can be by product/service, way the product or service is used, geographic location, industry, etc.

A client I’m working with has several great examples of product use, but they all fall under the same umbrella. Creating 4 or 5 separate case studies that all reinforce the exact message didn’t seem like the best use of resources for this company.

Instead, we decided to create one longer case study that references several anecdotes. Here’s how this will work in this case:

• 4-page case study on one theme, reducing operator error on machines with remote monitoring software
• Anonymous story that does not mention actual customer names
• The story highlights the needs and challenges of this customer group as a whole
• We show 4 anecdotes or examples of how the software allowed customers to reduce operator error, giving each a few paragraphs

All the examples tie back to the same theme, truly reinforcing the message and making the case. Because the case is so detailed, it has credibility even though the customer is not named.

Expand Your Knowledge with Insider Tips!

This is just another example of the importance of mapping case studies to specific sales needs. You have to fit the case to the sales need, rather than taking a cookie-cutter approach.

It’s one of the 9 tips I cover in my new half-hour audio class, "9 Insider Tips from 10 Years Crafting Customer Stories."