Case Studies: Arguably the Best B2B Sales Tool
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| Cindy Herrmann, Mogul Marketing, talking about the value of business stories. Photo by Patrick Honda, PC Promotional Printing |
People – and businesses – like to imitate people – and businesses – that they trust and admire.
Think about who are your best clients, the ones you would like more like. They may be your most profitable, your most satisfying, most influential, whatever. This is a good candidate for a case study.
A Story
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| Carolyn Reznick, Chapaqua Public Library photograph by Ray Herrmann, Mogul Marketing |
Jim Quinn & Associates wanted to take their business selling library furniture to another level. We had assumed that for a new library, the architect and interior designers would make most of the furniture decisions.
We did market research calling Quinn’s clients and prospects to learn how purchasing decisions were made. We were surprised to find that librarians make most of the decisions. Architects and designers defer to them because they know the library’s customers best. Probing further we found that librarians are intellectual snobs, and only really trust advice from other librarians.
In the last twelve years we’ve written and photographed countless case studies for Quinn where we interview librarians, and talk about what it is like working with Jim Quinn & Associates. He emails them, mails them, uses them in trade shows, and has them on his web site. Jim Quinn notes, “Librarians love them. They see people like themselves buying our furniture and feel comfortable doing the same. They are fantastic for our business.”
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| Alan Stern, Stage Right! Organizational Development photograph by Ray Herrmann, Mogul Marketing |
Another Story
Alan Stern had been an organizational development consultant and trainer for many years. He had a web site that he had developed himself. He came to us to redesign his site to look more professional. We spoke about case studies. Alan liked the idea, especially about doing them on clients he wanted more like.
We chose two. Saint Peter’s Hospital – because he wanted to do more training in health care, and New York State Audit, because they are extremely creative and open.
Shortly after they were completed, Alan found himself on a plane next to the head of a Wisconsin hospital. Alan happened to have a copy of the Saint Peter’s case study with him and by the end of the trip he had an appointment scheduled in Wisconsin.
I would be glad to talk to you about your business and about stories over a cup of coffee.
– Cindy