Case studies

What a sales case study is

A sales case study is a short document that tells the story of one client engagement, from the problem they had to the result they got, using numbers and quotes the client has approved in writing. It exists to answer one question a buyer asks late in every sale: has this worked for someone like me? It is sent by a salesperson, attached to a proposal, or handed across a table.

It is not the case study page on your website, though the two are often built from the same interview. The page is written for a stranger who has never heard of you and needs the whole context. The sales version is written for a buyer who already knows you and needs proof, so it is shorter, more specific and shaped for forwarding. If you want both, I write the interview once and produce both versions from it.

Who this is for

A business that sells something expensive enough that a buyer checks before signing: professional services, software, equipment, anything with a contract. It suits a firm that has good clients and no written proof of the work, or whose existing case studies are three paragraphs of adjectives with no numbers. It also suits a firm about to answer a tender that asks for references.

It is not for a business with no completed engagements to describe, or one whose clients will not be named or quoted. If the story cannot be attributed, a success story or an anonymised before-and-after narrative is the honest alternative, and I will say so on the first call.

What goes in it

The document follows the decision the client made, because that is the sequence your next buyer is in the middle of. It has six parts.

1. Who they are. Two sentences: the trade, the size, the situation. Enough that a reader can tell whether this client resembles them.
2. The problem, in their words. What was going wrong and what it was costing. Quoted from the interview, not paraphrased into marketing.
3. What they considered. The options they weighed, including doing nothing, and why they chose you. This is the section most case studies leave out and the one buyers read twice.
4. What was done. The work, described concretely and briefly. Dates, quantities, who was involved.
5. What changed. The numbers the client agrees to publish, with the period they cover. Where a number cannot be published, the change is described in words and labelled as such.
6. What they would say to someone considering it. One closing quote, approved, that a salesperson can read aloud.

Every figure and every quote is traced to the interview transcript, and the client sees the full draft before anyone else does.

What you get

The case study. Two pages, in an editable document and as a PDF laid out to your existing template, or plain if you have none. It is written to be printed, attached or forwarded without explanation.

The short version. A single paragraph and a pull quote, about 120 words, for a proposal appendix, a slide, or the bottom of an email.

The interview transcript and the approval. The recording transcribed, and the client's written sign-off on the exact text published. You keep both. The transcript usually contains three more stories than the case study used.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A commercial cleaning company with 40 staff has lost two bids in a row to a larger competitor and wants proof it can handle a multi-site contract. It has one: a chain of six dental clinics it has cleaned for three years. I interview the clinic manager for 40 minutes. She says the previous cleaner missed rooms, the clinics failed an inspection item twice, and she chose the smaller company because the owner answered the phone himself.

The case study leads with the failed inspection, gives the six sites and the three years, quotes her on the phone call, and reports what she agrees to publish: zero inspection findings since the change and one complaint in three years. She approves the draft with two word changes. The company attaches it to the next bid and puts the short version on the second slide of its deck. That is one document, one interview, and the answer to the question that lost the last two bids.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. Which client, what the story is, and what you need the document to do. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. One case study, or a batch, with the number agreed before anything starts.
3. The introduction. You ask the client and introduce me by email. I book a 30- to 45-minute recorded call at their convenience.
4. The interview and the draft. I interview, transcribe, and write. You see the draft first for accuracy, within five working days of the call.
5. Client approval. The client reads the exact text. Changes are made until they sign off; nothing is published without it.
6. Delivery. The two-page version, the short version, the transcript and the approval, together.

Two to three weeks from first call to approved document is typical. The client's diary sets the pace more than the writing does.

What it costs

Case studies are not a published band on the pricing page, so each is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many you want, whether the interviews are already recorded, and whether you also want the website version written from the same material. A batch of three costs less per study than three ordered separately, because the template and the approval process are built once.

What happens next

Most firms put the case study to work in three places. It goes into the reusable proposal as an appendix, it is summarised on a slide in the pitch deck, and the same interview becomes a page on the website for buyers who have not spoken to you yet. If you want a steady supply, one interview a month is a manageable programme, and I can run it.