Why God Made Case Studies

In a recent post on Positive Disruption, blogger and marketing veteran Tom Martin wondered why prospective clients could intuit the benefits of social media as a marketing tool, and yet still demand some proof-of-concept before committing. An excerpt:

But alas… the lack of good case studies impedes the adoption of a [social media] strategy… People need proof in order to believe. Even God needed to show proof of his being, whether it was a burning bush, parting a sea or the ultimate case study, resurrection of his son from the dead.

…While we’d like to be able to just say something is so and have others agree, case studies are the currency of persuasion.”

Photo credit: Athena's Pix

Go read Tom’s post here, if you like. I’ll wait…

Tom is dead on. It’s a lot easier for clients to take a leap of faith (i.e. divert precious time, resources or money) when they know they’ll land on their feet.

Case studies testify to that. Written like a three-act play, they describe a problem, the solution you offered and the subsequent benefits enjoyed. By the last act, your prospective customer has real-world proof that a past client not only landed on their feet, but actually profited from putting faith in you.

The problem is the solution
The problem is that benefits don’t necessarily close the deal.

To take Tom’s theme one loaded step further, not even God could get people behind his program by simply promising its benefits – and nobody can sell the bennies like God.*

Many case studies (i.e. those written by less rigorous and talented freelance copywriters) make a similar mistake. They briefly identify the problem, briefly mention a product solution, and then spend reams of text describing the benefits. Benefits, the reasoning goes, resonate emotionally with customers. And that’s true.

The problem, in part, is that we’re not reasonable creatures. Prospective customers may indeed recognize the benefits of your solution. They may even trust you can deliver those benefits. But they’re only human, and humans don’t necessarily act in their own best interests. They balk, analyze, consider and reconsider their options no matter how attractive the promised benefits, or credible the source…

Irrational? Yes.

Wise? Also, yes.

Your customers should question how long and difficult an unfamiliar path will be before it delivers on the promised benefits. Some of God’s beta customers might have something to say about a forty-year desert sojourn that was not clearly disclosed in their contract to be the Chosen Ones bound for the Promised Land.

By the time God began preparing to update his book, The Testament, he realized he needed to invest less in selling benefits and more in educating people about the practical, progressive steps that would lead to those benefits. (How lucky for him he had a kick-ass marketing professional in the family who happened to know some crackerjack copywriters.)

Alright… dead horse… Let’s wrap up…

My point is this: Illustrating a clear path to benefits can be just as persuasive to customers as the promised benefits themselves.

Case studies can and should address the unconscious assumptions that lead the doubting Thomas’s to balk. They should illustrate how simple and painless your proposed path toward a better world can be. Some often forgotten questions include:

• How long before I can expect to see results?
• How much time and money can I expect to invest up front?
• What trade-offs or lessons learned, if any, have past customers encountered?
• What staffing resources will I need to divert before, during and after implementation?
• How much will implementation disrupt my day-to-day business operations?
• How well did the vendor anticipate and/or overcome unexpected challenges during past implementations?

These are legitimate concerns, and none of them have anything to do with the benefits your solution has provided in the past.

When case studies rush to describe benefits, they miss an important and often critical opportunity to sell a smooth implementation process – which, regardless of what you’re selling, contributes just as much to building trust in new business relationships.

*Opinions voiced here are not necessarily reflected, endorsed or even tolerated by Tom Martin, who is,  I’m sure, an altogether professional, decorous fellow who only occasionally uses salty content to illustrate a point.