If you’re waiting for your customers saying thanks to you for your technical products and services, you’re missing an incredible marketing opportunity: the success story.
The most coherent thanks or testimonial from a customer tells an incomplete story. The specifics of what you did are simply partially explained for the reason that customer quite rightly assumes you realize all that. In addition, the client’s praise may mislead some other clients, referring to a technology by the wrong name, by way of example, or over-simplifying a breakthrough.
Profitable story avoids those problems and ensures that you receive the credit you deserve. A hit story is through your control because you weave the storyplot you want to tell around the customer’s quotes and testimony. In place, you write your ideal thanks.
Three Requirements for the Great Interview
Good results stories begin with great customer interviews. To gain the most benefit from the interview, you need to:
Ask the tough questions. Sometimes “negative” questions generate the most positive answers from customers: What would you change about the services or products? Is there anything you would do differently now?
Let go of the pre-conceived ideas about your technology products, services and solutions. You could unearth a new use for the product or a new selling point if you let the conversation go wherever the buyer wants.
Put aside the project’s history while you recall it. The client’s perception of the problem (and also the solution) and the logic behind why the customer chose your small business may be entirely completely different from your perception–or even from exactly what the customer originally said.
The Advantages of Objectivity
Lengthy ago i interviewed a long-time customer of the company that designs and builds monitors to help keep data centers cool, dry, secure and no smoking. Those monitors successfully protect equipment worth thousands and thousands of dollars; every customer has always said so. However this particular customer brought up the value of the monitors for capacity planning. Environmental information from your monitors allowed the organization to reconfigure their data center and avoid an expensive move to a greater facility. Because the customer was motivated to share this information from the interview, the monitoring company discovered a fresh benefit from their product and an entire new class of potential customers.
The company posted the story on their website, emailed it to potential prospects and handed out at trade shows. If we had several accounts of success, I wove them together to produce a white paper.
Accounts of success are excellent vehicles for educating your web visitors. But your first obligation is always to tell a story. Avoid writing successful story that seems like a technical school assignment. Keep it relaxed, ensure that is stays moving.
Remember, we all love a good story.