DIY Success Stories | Step 1. Market Your Business

The Success Stories have helped establish credibility with clients old and new, and they are an effective way to emphasize the significant results our training can help produce. BOB CHAPMAN, SANDLER SALES COACH

Understand the Context

Success stories are one of the most popular and effective ways to market your business. The best ones help prospects and customers understand your products and services in context, and they add substance to your marketing, sales and promotion efforts.

They explain how you’ve helped a customer resolve a real problem, and as a result, help the reader more clearly recognize the results and benefits they might gain if they use you and your products/services.

Success stories are effective in every format.

Sandler sales coach Bob Chapman is particularly adept at weaving mini-success stories into discussions with prospects, and this technique helps him close sales with customers who value the results he delivers. Many top-performing sales people have this ability.

Recognize Practical Matters

Do-it-yourself (DIY) success stories are a practical way to capture your most potent success stories in a form that makes them easy to share. Not all of us are great story tellers, nor are we always able in a pinch to the most relevant examples and results. Plus, no matter how effective they might be, oral success stories reach a limited audience unless you record them (which is an option with today's technology).

Effective success stories include these elements:

• Profile of the customer or client company
• Description of the problem or challenge
• Explanation of the strategy used, the solution provided or both
• Summary of key results, outcomes or success measures
• Quotes or testimonies from the customer

Once the basics have been captured and clearly communicated, you have the flexibility to shape and reshape the basics to suit different media and formats. We often take one success story and create versions suited to print, slide presentations, video and web use. Every version retains the most critical points, but the length, amount of detail, format, language, graphics and approach are adapted to the audience, medium, venue and use.

Consider the Bottom Line

Could success stories help you build your business? They deliver on multiple levels. They drive traffic to your website, serve as handouts at client meetings, presentations and tradeshows, and form the backbone of sales and informational presentations. They can anchor internal development efforts or supplement web-based tutorials and training.

Success stories motivate you to collect performance data, stay in touch with core customers and track key indicators. They help you understand what customers value and why. They reinforce best practices. They remind you of the wonderful impact you create when you match the right solution to the right customer.

When you talk with customers to elicit outcomes, data and testimonials, you’re reminding them of the value you provide. Don’t be surprised if as part of this process, you renew a pivotal relationship or make a sale, and as a result, lay the foundation for a future success story.

Are you ready to dive in and get started? Trust me, with a little help, you can do it yourself.

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Related: DIY Success Stories
6 Easy Steps (Overview)
Step 2. Get Started
Step 3. Focus on Facts
Step 4. Write it Now
Step 5. Hone the Content
Step 6. Avoid 12 Common Pitfalls