How to write great customer success stories

image source: www.getentrepreneurial.com

A customer success story can be a great marketing tool. It immediately creates credibility with your target market. It gives the prospect a taste of what you are about and what to expect, and it can be the tipping point turning a prospect into a customer in their decision-making process.

 

Firstly some best practices for customer success stories:The purpose of a customer success story is to impact the buying decision. To create a compelling testimonial that prospects will identify with and decide to contact you or if provided as part of a proposal convince them that they are making the right decision.

Are you focusing on the right customers? Are you writing the best stories? Can your sales team and its prospects find the most relevant stories on your website? Can they search by industry, business need, segment etc

Marketing role

You must match your customer success stories to Netlink’s target markets. Does your sales team have the references needed to support your key services and products? Industry – do you have the reference sites in the industries you are focused on? Are the success stories targeting the same size business? Do they reference the geography you are targeting? What audience are you targeting, business or technical – who is the ideal customer reading these stories? Use compelling headlines that resonate with your target market. Use your staff quotes on the experience as well as the customers.

Reasons why your customers buy from you.

If you are wondering why you customers DO  buy from you marketing guru Laura Lake has some good ideas which I add my own thoughts to.

 

 

1. They are aware of your product. GET THEIR ATTENTIONConsumers  purchase products they are aware of. Your target customers know about your product . You targeting the right market with your message. Your message  is reaching those that  have an interest in your product. This does not mean you are doing more marketing, but you are suing the right marketing vehicles for your target customers is key.
2. They understand the benefits of your product. THE VALUE PROPOSITION IS CLEAR
   Consumers don’t buy products solely based on price. Now, this does not mean that they don’t factor in price, they do. Consumers buy based on the benefits your product brings them. You have asked your customers what the benefits of your product are, and you know. This is important. Your marketing is centered on these benefits so your consumers  take an interest in purchasing your product. You know the top  three benefits of your product and  you use those in your marketing message.
3. They  feel your product has perceived value. WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME
   Consumers will buy products that they perceive as having a value. You  use the benefits of your product to create a perceived value and it is that perceived value that helps in the sales of your product.  You  create that perceived value in your marketing message.
4. They see how your product meets their needs. HOW DOES THIS  PRODUCT HELP ME
   Consumers know how your product meets their needs. They know if  it make their life easier, save them time, make them feel better? You know what need our product satisfies. You don’t make them guess or come up with the answer on their own tell them, you help educate them on why they need your product.
5. Your product is  accessible to them.HOW DO I FIND IT?
   Consumers buy what is  available to them. If they hear about your product and it is accessible, they will consider it. Consumers want ease in obtaining and using your product. You make your product accessible to them. It is in different locations.  It’s offered online.

6. Why should I buy from you including any other option I have, including the option of doing nothing? Today people have defaulting to doing nothing. Not a compelling message that drew them in and do something.

7. Better sales people – consistently throughout the sales process in the customer voice communicated why this product or service was important to their business and the value it had to them in resolving their business issues. (Huthwaite)

8. You understand your customers. Why do your best customers buy from you? What stories did you use in the sales process that reasonated with them? Why did they choose to buy from you? The information is in your customer’s head.

Great webinar on value propositions from Steve Rankel

Steve talks about sales friction.  How to create a killer value proposition – it is a crystral clear statement about your product or service that:

1. Solves a problem

2. Delivers some benefit

3. Improves their situation

Delivered in a compelling way that gets you to the next step…

Marketing Book Reviews

Predictable Results in Unpredictable times. – Stephen Covey and others.

Talks about high trust teams. 3 trust building activities in a crisis

1. Create transparency and candour – especially if trust is low. Too many hidden agendas.

2. Keep your commitments – failing to complete commitments depletes trust. Be careful about the commitments you make and keep the ones you do make!

3. Extend trust to your team – build trust by extending it. Distrust breeds distrust. Case study on a formula one racing pitt -team Ferrari teaching a cardiac heart surgeon team how to work better –really interesting.

Individuals don’t get anything accomplished. Teams get things done.

I downloaded this from audible.com

Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz.

Sernovitz shares his “Word of Mouth Manifesto,” which every business owner should read :

1. Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.
2. Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free.
3. Ethics and good service come first.
4. UR the UE: You are the user experience (not what your ads say you are).
5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn.
6. People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.
7. Be interesting or be invisible.
8. If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.
9. Make the story of your company a good one.
10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.
11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.
12. Honest marketing makes more money.

Generation By Iggy Pintado

Pintado, a former IBM and Telstra heavyweight, looks at how the new communication technologies are changing Australians’ connection with each other and assesses the impact on our personal and professional lives.

Perhaps Pintado is right in suggesting that online success eventually comes down to:

• Being clear about your online purpose. Is it is socialise, build a brand or share information with like-minded people? For Pintado himself, life lived on the net is about maximising the amount of information, ideas and opportunities available to him.
• Selecting the most appropriate platforms that fit your need and niche and then actively participating to build profile, increase connections and become trusted.
• Being persistent because like all else in marketing, if you want online success you must continually work at it.

Do you understand the mechanics of your small business?

I was with a client the other day I it made me ask the question, do small businesses understand the mechanics or the business operating system of their business and how to control and leverage it? I would have thought so, but it does require some strategic thought.

Here are some of the questions I would be asking:

1. How do we make money? What is our unique selling proposition.
2. Who are our key customers? What do we know about them?
3. What do our customers love about us, what do they want us to change?
4. How much is the cost of sale for our service or product?
5. How much does it cost us to create a lead?
6. Who do we market to?
7. How do we communicate and market our offering?
8. What is our operating profit?
9. What are our goals for growth?
10. What are our goals for our company?

The mechanics of your small business system once you understand can be tweaked for optimum effectiveness. The right marketing strategy can be the difference between attracting the right customers and throwing money down the drain.

Having a well considered business strategy and reviewing it year on year means you have a plan and a measure to benchmark success and failure against.

So do you understand your business mechanics?

Building your own personal mission statement

How much of our time as small business owners is spent going through the motions rather than setting ourselves a purposeful path and following it. I have been doing some research in this area and I believe the process starts with knowing ourselves and then purposely creating the desired outcomes for our business, family and ourselves by having a personal mission statement. Here is a link you can use to create your mission statement:http://www.franklincovey.com/msb/missions/login This along with Stephen R Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are a good starting point. Covey covers in his book: He talks about:

• Being proactive – be the programmer – how to lead
• Begin with the end in mind – mission
• Putting first things first – priorities
• Paradigm of interdependence – do it with others
• Think win-win – best outcomes and mindset
• Seek to understand first – seek insight
• Synergize – 1+1= more than 3

Resources

Five steps to building your personal mission statement.

Mission statement builder

How to write your mission statement video