The best way to get customers on board for case studies is to tap into those with the closest relationships with the customer. As important as it is to identify the contact with the best relationship with a customer, it is also important to give that contact the tools to represent you well. Throughout our lives, we rely on relationships to help us get where we want to go. In middle school, it may start with enlisting a friend for help: "Will you ask so-and-so if he/she likes me?" In most cases, that's a sales or account rep who knows the customer well. What's involved? MORE >>

How better to reinforce your best practices and winning strategies across the sales organization? Savvy sales teams share customer success stories to move prospects further toward a purchase decision. But customer case studies aren't the only type of story that can help a rep close a sale. Many companies create sales-win success stories to document what was behind a particular sale. Who did sales reps talk to? How long was the sales cycle? What approaches did they use? What challenges did they face? In fact, they're quite proprietary. Conduct internal interviews. Document the details. MORE >>

The former option will result in the best quotes and information for your customer stories. "I could sell this for you." " That line, coming straight from the mouth of a happy customer, is music to a company’s ears. Not only is the customer satisfied with the solution, but the customer has become a true evangelist. heard this just a couple of weeks ago while interviewing an IT manager at a hospital about their new help desk system. He was genuinely a fan, and in the heat of talking about what he loves about the software, added the line above. Here are a few tips: 1. MORE >>

Share your best customer stories on your blog – either in full or linked back to the full story on your website. Just make sure it focuses on best practices and approaches without heavily talking up your product or service. If they’re doing cool, best practices things, and your solution helps with that, find relevant awards programs and ask their permission to submit them. Repackage existing content into different formats, such as blog posts, podcasts and webinars to drive more leads." Here are just a few ways: 1. Blogs. Here’s a great example. MORE >>

Either way, a collaboration is best. As you've heard here before, a customer's story can be used for much more than just collateral or for website content. Live presentations are one of the hottest ways to showcase customer stories - and all the more powerful when the happy customer does the presenting. Picture a customer contact speaking before a room full of peers at an industry conference, talking about his/her successes, and how, by the way, the customer uses solutions from certain vendors to help make it happen. How does it work and what do you need to take into consideration? MORE >>