Sales Content: Using Case Studies to Promote your Business

July 13, 2010

If you haven’t figured it out yet based on my previous blog rants, I am very passionate about sales teams having quality content to use as backup and support, particularly when they are building relationships/generating interest with new prospects. My obsession comes from the fact that I have been in sales roles before where my leads were literally begging for content to better understand my product once I made that initial connection, and I didn’t have the necessary materials to share with them. It made me VERY frustrated. So now that I am leading Business Development Consulting Services as part of OpenView Labs’ operational support, I am gung-ho about the lead qualifiers that we are working with being given all the tools that they need to be successful in their role.

One type of content that I think is particularly useful for a Lead Qualifier is a Case Study. Of course your cold callers should be well versed on previous/current customers (why they needed your product, and how it helped them once they made the investment). However, having a physical (or digital) piece of collateral that articulates a customer success story is a very, very powerful tool. A case study says to your prospect — ‘hey, we are valuable, customers have had a good experience with us (enough to take the time to share their opinions), and we have solved x, y and z for a company that is similar to yours…’

At the end of the day, OpenView is a startup, and we generate content to promote our business to prospects (successful expansion stage CEOs who are looking for investors). Our cold callers, aka the Research Analysts, use this content to help prospects understand our business every day. Another aspect of my role (yup — I’m a busy gal) is to build, or shall I say lead the creation, of case studies for our business.

Check out some of our recent pieces on Recruiting Support, Scrum Methodology, and Lead Generation Services.

If you act resourcefully, you can create quality case studies without a.) having to spend a boat-load of cash and b.) without having to dedicate an enormous amount of your marketers’ time to produce content. Consider using outside contractors to interview your customers, and draft your write up. There are A LOT of freelancers on the market at the moment who have dropped their hourly rates for new business. If you are looking for some exceptional external contractors for this type of initiative, I’d be happy to make some introductions to some great writers, designers, etc. that OpenView has worked with over the last year. Shoot me an email at [email protected] for more information!