By John Assalian
Jan. 6, 2011
Making a sale is an increasingly complex process. Recent research from IDG Connect found that the length of time to close deals in the business-to-business environment has lengthened by more than 20 percent in the past five years, while buying team sizes and the level of scrutiny in purchase decisions have increased. As a result, marketers are looking for the most effective, affordable and adaptable ways to engage prospects at every stage of the buyer’s cycle.
Customer evidence assets are marketing tools—such as videos, interactive videos, white papers, and case studies—that communicate product offerings through the voice and point of view of the customer. Incorporating customer backgrounds, implementation stories and true-to-life accounts of a product or service in action, customer evidence turns your customers into your strongest advocates. With customers supporting and validating your core messages, you have an edge on competitors depending on chest-beating and self-promotion to drive sales. The diverse customer stories you can tell, and the variety of media formats you can use, means that customer evidence offers the flexibility to meet your unique sales needs.
Customer evidence stories can adapt to the stage of the sales cycle you’re trying to fill. In early stages, the story can outline the dynamics and forces behind a new industry or product innovation, or present a customer as a thought leader adopting your solution. At a middle stage of the sales cycle, the asset can define the problem in a challenge/solution framework to help prospects see a world where their problems are solved. At the later stages of the sales cycle where comparative content is critical, customer evidence serves to reinforce peer opinion, as well as provide answers to implementation concerns.
One effective example of customer evidence is the case study. Traditionally, case studies are written by marketing teams to highlight a solution in action. Today, the case study format is increasingly flexible, both in form and content. Case studies can be delivered as print documents, videos, web presentations and interactive white papers. More and more, case studies are being presented from the point of view if its subjects.
There are two major benefits to the story-based approach of customer evidence: increased credibility of your offering and a strengthened connection to your target market. People trust the authentic voice of a customer and feel more comfortable about a product or service that has worked for a similar business. Remember, the ultimate goal of customer evidence is to have your prospective customers relate to other people's challenges and be inspired to action.
Customer Evidence Best Practices
Effective customer evidence storytelling requires an approach that combines journalism with a bit of anthropology. It focuses on compelling customers, whether it’s an individual champion or an entire company. The central idea is to present a real person in a business environment with whom your prospect can identify. In employing customer evidence for demand generation, follow these best practices to make the most of your existing customers’ experiences:
Story is first and foremost
Customer evidence is all about the compelling story. Allow your subjects to be honest and open. Keep your prospects interested with powerful quotations, and avoid marketing-speak, clichés, and jargon. Maintain a clear story arc, like any good film, book or article.
Solid interviews
Finding the right personalities for interviews is essential to a good customer evidence asset. It is important that you find compelling personalities that will fit the mood of your customer evidence story. Senior level executives, client account managers or, depending on the client, technical experts, can provide excellent credibility and material for customer evidence.
Details matter
General information won’t give your customer evidence very credible legs to stand on. Include specific statistics and concrete details such as, “over 1,200 sales leads generated”, or “392 companies participating in the free trial.” The more factual data your customer evidence contains, the more credibility it holds.
Extend your reach
Leverage customer evidence through as many channels as appropriate. Many large companies store their customer evidence assets in a central database. This practice can inhibit the visibility of your stories. Instead, reach your prospects through your company’s website, social networking and your sales team. By making your customer evidence assets easily accessible, you are facilitating the discovery of your brand, solutions and ideas, pushing your prospects further down the sales cycle.
Your Most Valuable Asset
Today's buyers rely on a complex mix of social, editorial and vendor content to form product awareness and ultimately make purchase decisions. Customer evidence should be a critical part of this content mix, and allows your story to be told through your most valuable asset: your customer.
John Assalian is the CEO of Viewstream in San Francisco (www.viewstream.com), the leading national marketing agency focused on serving technology companies that deliver complex solutions for technical computing, life sciences and design engineering.