Case Studies: A Sure Fire Way to Sell Your Services

It is common knowledge that every business owner is constantly on the lookout for ways to effectively sell his or her services. As entrepreneurs, business owners and company managers, we do our utmost to provide our services and products with professionalism and style, hoping that we can convince people we have what they need. In fact, marketing is often at the top of our list, as it is the way we get our name out to potential clients and customers. However, one tool that few business owners utilize and in my professional opinion is one of the best, is writing case studies. The reason I feel so strongly about writing case studies is because I have seen the results and they work. Rather than simply promoting, marketing and selling your services through press releases, articles and advertisements, a case study demonstrates your success. In other words, when writing a case study, you have the opportunity to illustrate how your services are of real value to a particular situation, client or customer.

What is a Case Study?
A case study is a written or recorded analysis that defines the efforts, attempts and conclusions based on a service or product used for education, research, planning and growing a business. For the purpose of this article, a case study is a way of showing the true effectiveness of a product or service. Basically, it can be presented on a website or in a portfolio and is used to demonstrate the association between your product and service and the outcome of using your product or service. For this particular instance, the case study records precisely what happened to a business during a specific time period and how your services or products helped the company change and progress.

What the Case Study Achieves
Let’s say that you have a particular service that you provide to a wide audience or even to a limited group of people. For the sake of this article, you want others to know how your product or service became an invaluable tool to your client and how it can benefit potential clients and companies in the future. You also want to show that it was your particular product or service that did the job effectively. So, in this case study you will include the initial objective you have for the company, the challenges you faced as you progressed, the amount of time it took you to achieve your goals, the results of using your services or products and any recommendations you might have for the client or customer at the end of the project. Basically, your case study gives you an opportunity to present a detailed account regarding how you handled a particular company’s situation and what happened by the time you completed your assignment.

An Example of a Case Study
Recently, I had the good pleasure of working with a company that wanted me to help them write a strong case study. The company had been very successful in creating software, which they promoted to a particular industry. To show potential clients what their client achieved using the software, they provided me with a lot of good information based on their working history with a few different companies. As a result, I cohesively wrote a case study that explained in detail the purpose of the software, why they created the software, the industry it was targeted towards, how it helped their particular client, how long it took to achieve results, and the various challenges they faced along the way. As a result, nothing could have demonstrated more powerfully how this software worked and its impact on their client’s success. Seeing the results in black and white conveyed their message strongly and effectively and brought them the business they hoped to achieve.

Where to Begin a Case Study
For a case study to have a strong impact, the first thing you should do is create an analysis regarding the specific needs of the client or company you’re using in your case study. Show the stage of the company when you began working with them and state clearly what the company had set as its future goals. In other words, what did they want you to help them achieve. This step is very important because you want to show how you were able to move the company towards success. You also should include what you learned as a result of working with the client as this allows you to evaluate the solutions you applied and demonstrates how you helped the company deal with their particular problems. In addition to showing future clients what you achieved, this also helps as you prepare to work with future clients.

The Benefits of a Case Study
In short, a case study helps you unearth what really happened as a result of your efforts, how you helped the client or company reach their future goals and how by using your services or products they arrived at their desired destination. When you identify how you implemented specific strategies to reach your goals and how long it took you to see results, it shows your ability to be a strong problem solver. In the process, you learn as much as your potential clients; so don’t hesitate to identify the company’s strengths and weaknesses when you first started, as this information can further support your role for future clients.

In Closing
When presenting a case study, remember to use an organized system. Your ultimate goal is to show how your product or service is invaluable to people, so don’t hesitate to demonstrate how your product or service does the job. Be sure to include your initial objective, the challenges you faced as you progressed, the amount of time it took you to achieve your goals, the results of using your services or products and of course how it became a financial asset to the company. Don’t forget to show how your product or service empowered the company, and how by the time the project came to an end you had ultimately changed the company, client or customer for the better.