Hello - it’s me, Kev - The Case Study Guy
The Best Way to Use Your Proof? Say It Out Loud.
After a hiatus of almost six years, I delivered a webinar this week.
The audience was a specialist marketing team that solely focused on the accounting market. We covered a lot of ground in our short session - case studies, testimonials, and what I call the magical middle: that extended testimonial that becomes a mini case study.
One conversation stood out as a timely reminder of how to repurpose case studies. And it led me back to something I’ve believed for a long time:
One of the best ways to use your proof is to deliver it verbally.
Not with slides. Not with a script. Just naturally via your word hole.
So when would you use a case study verbally?
With a prospect - to show expertise and build trust
With a prospect - to directly respond to an objection
With a prospect - to defend your pricing
With a prospect - to introduce yourself and the value you bring
With a customer - to encourage product or service adoption (think upsell)
With a customer - to share the story of your work together (think QBR or annual review)
There are so many ways to use your success stories in a far more conversational context.
So why isn’t this standard?
I think it’s because we assume that everyone is comfortable telling a story. Most aren’t. And that’s one of the reasons I now recommend that sales teams - and their broader commercial partners - get trained on how to deliver these stories naturally and with confidence.
I’ll go further. For each case study, someone should be able to demonstrate the conversational version of it. Sales leaders and coaches should role play with their teams until they have the skills and confidence to take it out into the field.
Storytelling isn’t just a marketing or sales skill. It’s a fundamental professional skill that is so often taken for granted.
What this looks like in practice
Once you have a full case study, you should, as a bare minimum create:
- A summary version of the story
- A single slide or single page version of the story
- A script or outline for the spoken version
If you have that combination, you’re already doing more than most. Because most people simply publish their case studies on their website, share a LinkedIn post, and consider it done.
But to truly get the value from these stories, you need to be reusing them, resharing them, repurposing them.
And my argument today is this: the best way to do that is to prioritise the development of your storytelling skills. Do that and you’ll be sharing your proof in the most natural way possible - in conversation.
Thanks for reading,
Kev - The Case Study Guy
PS - If you want a trimmed down version of the deck I delivered to the marketing agency, hit reply and let me know. In it I share 30 different ideas to repurpose your case studies alongside my storytelling model.