All technology sales professionals reading this blog will agree that no presentation gets a nod to be presented to the prospect unless it has one or many case studies as a part of it. And at the beginning of the blog I said ‘all’ instead of ‘almost all’ because that’s how the industry operates. If for some reason you do not have a case study for a similar work done before with any other client, a case study which is the closest will be put in its place. Because the idea in our heads remains that unless a case study is shown, we might as well not do the presentationat all.
But before we get into how good or bad that presumption is, let’s back up a bit and state what we are talking about.
For everyone not familiar with a ‘Case Study’. Case Study in tech sales parlance is the detailed explanation of the work performed by your company with a client. It’ll contain
- Business Problem/Objective: The issues faced by the client which they needed solved. This is typically why they release an RFP (request for proposal) to various companies to help them resolve the issue. The business problem can be their consumer base going down, or the revenue per customer suffering, or their internal systems not working the way they should etc.
- Solution: This is where the efforts and resolution provided to the client by your company is showcased. This section will cover details of the solution provided by you which includes the hardware or assets provided, the number of resources needed to work on the project along with their skill sets, duration of the project etc.
- End state: This is the final stage of the case study where the achievements of the case projects are listed. Generally these are tied into the Business Problem/Objective that are on top of the case study and how they have been improved post the solution provided by your company.
The end goal of a case study is to bring in the confidence in your prospect’s mind by proving to him/her that you understand the space and have credentials of having done this before and can accomplish it again for them.
Now that we have understood in brief about what a case study is, let’s delve into the finer aspects of sales psychology. If you remember my blog on ‘storytelling’, you’ll realize that a sale most often doesn’t happen rationally. The prospect has to be connected to the solution emotionally and should be able to envision the dream state of what it’ll do for him/her. And as you can notice, a case study doesn’t tell a story. It’s a combination of facts listed together that in many aspects is drab and boring. It’s quite rare for a prospect to get wowed by the case study to give you the order.That doesn’t mean that you eliminate the case study altogether. It has its place in the presentation, but if presentations could get you the deal, then companies wouldn’t need the sales professionals in the first place.
Here are some things you as that sales professional can do:
a. Connect with the principal deal maker:
Most of the case studies that are in a presentation are handed over from one person to the other. Rather it is handed over from one sales presentation deck to the other. In the bargain, the person who has to go over the slide during the sale presentation doesn’t know the background of the project and ends up reading the information that is one front of him. I don’t need to tell you how exciting the end result of that would be. Instead if the sale professional, which in this case is YOU can reach out to the original deal maker or the sales representative to understand that story first hand, you’ll have some powerful nuggets to share during your presentation. Any anecdotes and interesting tid-bits from the project will go a long way to break the monotony of scripted slide.
b. People matter, always:
When you are in a conversation with a person, the way you connect with them is not by telling your side of the story but by connecting with them in a way that they consider themselves to be a part of it. The same hold true when talking with a prospect as well. Your prospect is a person at the end of the day. He/she has some dreams and aspirations which they want to achieve. If your offer shows them the path to achieve that objective, they’ll be rooting for you until you get the sale.
When you are talking about a case study, focus on the people in the story. If it was you in who did the principle deal, its an immense advantage. At the same time concentrate on the client contact who in your given case study, came out on top (either with a promotion, or accolades etc). The power of this visual is so great, that the prospect would be able to identify themselves within your case study.
c. Creativity is the key:
One thing that is clear is that the monotonous presentations do no one any good. You might as well just mail the presentation in for the prospects to read themselves. The flip side to that is being creative in your case study storytelling. One of the ways I have noticed some proficient sales professionals handle this is by telling it backwards (remember the movie Memento). Before getting to the case study, you can put in a spoiler saying that the protagonist of this project won an award from the CEO or got a promotion at the end of the project. See the excitement build up from there.
CONCLUSION:
Case studies are an important part of your sales arsenal. They provide the required confidence to your prospect as it is the proof of you having delivered their ask before. But the way the case study is presented can make or break your deal. The easy way to cover it is by remembering that you are presenting a story to your prospect rather than a project sheet. Keep your prospect in the center of your conversation and build enough excitement to give yourself the best chance for the prospect to pick your deal.
