How do I show businesses they need a technology if they don’t yet know it exists?
Case Studies are Rocket Fuel for B2B Tech Sales
John Himes
August 29, 2023
Do you want to close more deals, generate more revenue, and grow your technology business?
Whether you have a dedicated sales team or are a tech startup entrepreneur who wears many hats, you need an optimized sales function. There’s a lot that goes into business development, but one aspect that you can’t afford to ignore is using case studies to support sales.
Don’t just take it from me. In Sales Truth ([USA: HarperCollins], 123) sales coach and bestselling author Mike Weinberg asks, “What would be a more powerful weapon in a seller’s hand than the ability to make the connection between a customer or prospect’s current situation (need or desired outcome) and a relevant success story where the company helped a customer who was in a similar situation?”
That’s why most technology companies choose to publish case studies as their first content after their initial web copy. We can get to brand awareness, inbound marketing, social media, and everything else later.
First we need to SELL!
When Dynamic Tech Media recently ran a survey of B2B tech marketers, we weren’t surprised to see that case studies were chosen as the #1 content type for delivering tangible results.
Maybe you’re hiring a digital marketing agency and you’re not sure where to start. Or you want to start asking your clients for their blessing (and their data) to show the value of your solution.
Are you wondering how to get started with case studies?
All this is not to say that case studies are just for tech startups. Even the largest brands continue to publish case studies on a regular basis because they work so well.
This is a how-to guide for using case studies to support B2B technology sales.
What is a case study?
It’s a customer success story.
A case study is proof that you’ve done what you say you’ll do.
There are three basic parts:
- Problem
- Solution
- Results
It’s as simple as that. What problems did your customer have that caused them to contract you in the first place? Your future customer probably shares some of those same problems.
What solutions did you implement to solve those problems? And what results does your customer continue to see from adopting your solutions?
Here are a couple components that go into a great case study:
- DATA
- Testimonials
- Did we mention data?
Do everything you can to convince your customer to share numbers that prove the return on investment (ROI) of your solution. That’s the data that B2B buyers are hungry for.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING?
Get more, straight to your inbox.
What are the benefits of case studies for supporting B2B tech sales?
One word: collateral.
According to HubSpot research, “88% of salespeople that use sales enablement content in their role say it is moderately or extremely important to making a sale.”
Not only does it give them something to show and share, but it’s also useful for salespeople to incorporate this information into their conversations and sales story.
Back to Weinberg (126): “[Case studies] must be committed to memory, and I cannot think of a more worthwhile investment of time and brainpower than for sellers to study and memorize these customer success stories.”
Beyond arming salespeople with this messaging, the written case study can also come in clutch for moving the lead through the sales pipeline. Sending the link is a perfect follow-up: “Hey [contact at target company], here’s the case study that we talked about earlier.”
Once it’s in their hands, it’s also easy for them to share. “The typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves six to 10 decision makers,” Gartner reports. Having a case study that they can share and discuss goes a long way toward creating alignment in favor of your solution.
How else can we use case studies?
Supporting sales is the big reason for publishing case studies, but smart business developers squeeze every last drop out of their investment.
Start by linking to them throughout your site. Remember, case studies are all about RESULTS, and the copy on your site has one main purpose: selling. Nothing sells like results.
Case studies aren’t feature lists. They aren’t even about you, the tech company. They’re about your customer. And it’s precisely that shift that makes them so powerful when strategically woven into your sales copy. They show your commitment to solving your customers’ problems and delivering value.
Case studies alone won’t get you ranked on the first page of Google, but they can lay a foundation for search engine optimization (SEO) that you can then build upon. It’s worth taking the extra time to do some keyword optimization and develop a strong meta description for your case studies.
Plus, when you do a more robust inbound marketing campaign, you can build an internal linking structure that leverages those case studies.
The last piece is social media. Share the case studies on whatever platforms you’re on, and ask your customer at the center of the case study to do the same. Repurposing content for social posts is an essential component of maximizing ROI from your content budget.
What do I need to write a case study?
There are two essentials that you’ll need:
- A story
- A willing customer
Really, that’s it. If you’ve ever helped a customer succeed and you can convince them to let you write about it, then you have what you need to write a case study.
Beyond that, there are some nice-to-haves that we mentioned above.
The first is data. Did your industrial robot boost assembly line productivity by 75%? Did your software eliminate hundreds of hours of tedium? Did your AI save the customer hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue by detecting fraud or theft?
Whatever it is that your customers have gained by working with you, make sure that’s front and center in the case study. I recommend leading with those headline numbers to pique the buyer’s interest and then going through the story to show how you reached those numbers. Conclude by once again asserting the results.
Testimonials are also a strong play in case studies. Social proof is crucial; 86% of businesses take it into account when making purchasing decisions, according to Gartner.
Ask your customer for a direct quote or three that you can incorporate into the content. Even better, ask them for a headshot that you can include so readers can put a smiling face to the name.
The last thing you need in order to publish a case study is somebody who understands how to write it. You need a tech content marketing agency who understands the strategy but can also dig deep, simplify complexity, and craft the story in your brand voice.
Dynamic Tech Media is that agency. We’ve written dozens of case studies for top B2B tech brands, and we can do the same for you.
Get in touch with us if you’re ready to inject rocket fuel into your sales.
START HERE:
DOWNLOAD THE FREE CORE BRAND ELEMENTS TEMPLATE
Take the first step to branding your tech company. Use our free template to crystallize the foundational elements of your brand.
Related Posts
Early-stage technology companies should publish content because it helps them get a foot in the door and then seal the deal.
B2B technology marketers prioritize regularly publishing a variety of content types to build brand awareness, foster a sense of community, and engage with their target customers.