Strategies for Getting More Enterprise Case Studies: Overcoming Common Hurdles

Large companies understand the pivotal role their enterprise case studies play in empowering their sales and marketing teams.

They provide tangible proof of their problem-solving prowess for customers.

Recent research underscores this, revealing that all of the top fifty SaaS companies feature customer case studies on their websites, averaging around 130 case studies per company. But how do these enterprises churn out case studies at such scale? And how do they navigate common obstacles like hesitant sales teams, reluctant customers, and sluggish approval processes?

Here’s a breakdown of four effective approaches to overcoming these challenges and producing enterprise case studies at scale:

1. Motivating Sales Team Engagement

Getting sales or account reps to nominate customers for enterprise case studies can be an uphill battle. Understandably, they’re protective of customer relationships and wary of jeopardizing them. Additionally, they perceive the additional demands on their time as a deterrent. To counter this reluctance, consider implementing incentives tailored to motivate your sales team. These incentives could range from non-monetary rewards like internal recognition to monetary perks such as gift cards or even cash bonuses. Streamlining the case study creation process and providing templates can also alleviate their workload. Additionally, partnering with experienced case study creators can offload much of the burden, garnering more support from your sales and marketing teams.

2. Facilitating Customer Self-Nomination

While encouraging sales teams to nominate customers, concurrently encourage customers to self-nominate, preferably through a structured customer reference program. Platforms like Citrix and GitHub have adopted this approach successfully. Such programs not only streamline the identification of success stories but also mitigate issues of customer hesitancy and reluctance.

3. Incentivizing Customer Participation

While some customers might participate altruistically, others may need additional motivation. Incentives can range from practical perks like equipment or training to intangible benefits such as industry recognition and networking opportunities. Hosting contests or awards can also incentivize participation, offering winners opportunities like speaking engagements at conferences, all-expenses-paid trips, and enhanced brand exposure.

4. Leveraging C-Suite Champions

Appealing to the ambitions of C-Suite executives can be a compelling motivator for customer participation. Given the transient nature of their roles, C-Suite leaders are often eager to showcase successful projects under their stewardship. Incorporating brief quotes or endorsements from these executives can add weight to case studies, providing them with tangible evidence of their achievements for future career endeavors.

Yes, enterprise case studies can be done

By employing these strategies, enterprises can navigate common hurdles, produce compelling case studies that showcase their problem-solving prowess, and drive sales and marketing success.