A great customer story (or several) is one of the best selling tools at your disposal. However, most customer stories lack one key ingredient – the before data.
If you remember from my previous blog/vlogs/etc., one of the key triggers for the decision making part of your brain is CONTRAST. When you tell a customer story with contrast, when you talk your prospect through the before and after – you tap into that decision-making trigger in the brain.
Another key in your customer story is sharing metrics. Let me show you what I’m talking about. Below are some customer stories that I’ve either seen on a web page or experienced in a presentation (the name of the selling company has been removed or covered up). Check them out and tell me if they move to you action.
This is from a customer story on a webpage:
Here is another one – included in a proposal recently sent to me:
Here is another one that was on a web page:
Did any of these move you to action? My guess is no. And why not? Well, if you’re like me, you probably thought – “Nice statements, but nothing I can sink my teeth into.” They looked pretty much like every other customer story – or testimonial – you’ve seen. Some nice words, but no real substance. No results.
Now I know some of you are thinking that these sorts of statements are important. Your customers need to know what other companies think of you. And while I don’t totally disagree, my guess is your customers aren’t spending their valuable time and money to feel good. They need real, tangible results. They need to know that they are going to reduce costs, increase revenues, or mitigate risks as a result of investing in your product/solution/service.
Finally – how many of you produce really cool looking case studies and send them to your prospects, or including them as downloadable PDFs on your website? Do you think they get read? Do you read the boatloads of PDFs that get sent to you? Probably not. Why, then, would you assume your prospect is any different?
So, what if you could create a great story, with contrast, that you tell in the moment, using a whiteboard, flip-chart, or virtual whiteboard? What if you highlighted the before and after, so your prospect would understand, immediately, how your solution could impact their business? If you did that, you’d sound unique, you’d demonstrate clear measurable value, and you’d likely move your customer from indecision to decision.
If you’d like to see an example of a customer story with contrast that resulted in an immediate sale (this usually doesn’t happen, but it did in this case) see the video below
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