Making channel investments pay off
"Prove it" with success stories
Make
client profiles your #1 sales tool
Ever had a prospect tell you to "prove it"?
In today’s budget-crunched economy, customers are looking long and
hard at their technology possibilities before they spend any money. And,
they’re not shy about asking their potential vendors and solution
providers to validate the claims they’re making.
One of the best ways to prove your solution is to create success stories
around happy and successful customers you’ve helped get results from
technology. Success stories are an important part of reference selling,
and are valuable tools in your sales force’s hands. In fact, one
technology company calls success stories the "#1 sales tool"
for salespeople to move a customer through the sale cycle.
What makes a good success story? When we work with
clients, we tell them to pick stories that have some long-term value to
their business:
•
The
sale or customer truly embodies the breadth of their solution.
•
The
customer has measurable results in productivity, revenues, or other metrics
directly attributable to their solution.
•
The
story positions their company within a targeted vertical or industry segment.
Once you’ve decided on a customer and sale,
be sure to gather all the information you need to write a great story:
• Find out what challenges the customer was experiencing before you
got to them.
• Ask what other competitive solutions they were considering, and
why they chose yours.
• Be sure to include specific data about the customer’s operating
environment: number of users, locations, applications, and other information
that will help the reader understand how the customer used your solution.
Roll it out
So you found a good story and you got some great
data. But, what do you do with it? For many technology companies, success
stories get posted to their website, where they sit waiting for someone
to download them.
Try a few proactive ways to promote these stories to both internal and
external audiences:
• Generate some demand by creating a customer newsletter or white
paper highlighting a few good stories and how your solution can help other
companies find similar results.
• Show your sales force how to replicate the customer results by
highlighting the sales strategy and tactics the salesperson used in that
sale.
• Enable your partner channel to reference these stories as they
target new industries and market segments in their quest for midmarket
success.
Whether you’re a technology vendor, distributor, or VAR, there are
many opportunities to validate your solution, so keep success stories
in mind the next time a prospect asks you to "prove it."
In 2003, Launch International helped high-tech companies develop more
than 35 success stories and client profiles. For more information contact
Launch International at info@launchintl.com.
