Almost all companies make a foolish use of case histories.
Typically, this happens:
By constantly bothering the Marketing team to produce something useful, sooner or later Marketing will actually create a good case history.
At that point, they proudly distribute it to the Sales department during the first company meeting, recommending giving it to the customers, “because it helps them understand the application of our solution, the benefits…” etc. etc.
And at this point the disaster happens.
Because many salespeople execute the suggestion to the letter, and 9 times out of 10 end up delivering the case history into the wrong hands!
What an absurd waste:
– Waste to produce the case history
– Waste to print it
– Waste of the salespeople’s time
And above all, a waste of sales: sales lost because the case history is misused.
But how should a case history be used then?
Here we go:
case history is NOT a substitute for the brochure, to ” leaflet ” in the hands of the first interlocutor the salesperson speaks with.
It should instead be a tool available to salespeople to help them climb the pyramid from the current interlocutor up to the real decision maker.
The salesperson, therefore, should never hand over the case history to his referent, unless this person is also the decision maker, or has such an authoritative influence that his boss tells him “tell me where to sign the order and I’ll sign it“. But if the referent’s boss is the one who decides, or the boss of his boss, the case history must not be used as a brochure at all. Otherwise, the referent will take it to his boss or to the boss of his boss, who does not appreciate it at all and puts it there on the desk without even looking at it.
BUT…
… case history should be used by the salesperson as a delicious bait just to get to the decision maker!
The lesson is that a case history should be “sold” as if it was even more important than the product we want to sell and used as the key to get in front of the real decision-maker.
Something like (readjust in your words):
“Our Marketing department gave us some confidential information, the result of a research we did in companies similar to yours, speaking with dozens of ___<the same role of the decision maker>___. For reasons of confidentiality we can’t put anything on paper, but if you can arrange a meeting with your manager, I’ll be happy to share with you a set of data that you will find very interesting.
This way, the salesperson stops using case histories as flyers.
Instead, s/he becomes a storyteller.
And as a storyteller, custodian of quality information, s/he becomes a more valuable figure in front of the customer, acquires authority, elevates his role. And in addition to telling case histories more and better than a brochure, s/he can also ask the right questions to those who decide.
Ultimately, this means faster sales cycles and more sales.
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