Case Study Ideas

I have posted case study examples here and the posts have been deleted. So don't bother trying that.

Niche down; be specific to your audience. The house painter doesn't care what happened for the retail video game outlet, and vice versa. If your case study isn't in the identical field, at least make it overlap (eg. trades).

What any business owner wants to see is results.

You could call this a Return On Investment, or ROI, though ROI is not the king many people believe it to be (in my world, it started fading around 2008). There are other measures the executives of larger businesses value over ROI. As you've pointed out, getting into a tough market and being seen as a player there could be a happy result for this prospect. This is why the discovery period at the beginning of the sales process is important: you have no idea what the true goals of any prospect are unless you take the time to uncover them.

But basically, the case study says:

1. Client A had a set of problems. Here they are. Do you recognize any of these issues? (They'd better, or you haven't done a good job of qualifying)

2. Our recommended solution was to do X, Y and Z. The client agreed enthusiastically.

3. The investment in the solution was $B, over a time period of J.

4. OPTIONAL: Here are some of the things we did (describing what you do "inside" the process; you may not want to give this away as it is the proprietary skill you bring to the table and get paid for. By sharing this stuff, you may simply educate your prospect into being able to do it for themselves)

5. Based on that investment over that time period, here are the results Client A got. Monetarily, they earned $C (and $C had better be at least 5X $B...10X $B and up if you want a good case study); if there were non-monetary goals, share them now as well.

6. OPTIONAL: Here is what we learned from working with Client A that I believe is fully relevant to your situation.

7. Any questions?

If you can get some pictures in there, rather than only dry numbers, use them! Even a pie chart or line graph can brighten a case study up.

Finally, Don't expect your case study to kick the door down, knock your prospect over and make them drop their wallet at your feet all by itself. It is ONE part of many in a successful sales process. One that you shouldn't bring out too early. One that you will have to learn when it is most effective to use.

And some people, like me, just won't care that much. It is not "one size fits all", so when you talk about videos, that makes me a little nervous. These should not be shared right up front, with anyone and everyone. Sooner or later, you'll learn that people are simply using them for price shopping and negotiating between different potential vendors if you do.

You could have a hundred of these things, but it isn't MY business...I am going to be listening to the questions you ask and how else you display your competence. Prospects are not all the same.