“You’ll be so happy with us!” To a cynical ear, that statement may sound fake and self-serving when your sales team says it. It’s no wonder 75% of people don’t accept advertisements as the truth. However, when your customers make this statement, it has a lot more marketing power.
Traditionally, companies used the cookie-cutter case study format to outline:
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- Problems the customer was facing
- Solutions they deployed
- Ultimate outcomes
In such cases, the customer agrees to be a reference, answers a standard set of questions and then the company produces a case study. The problem with this method is that it often ends up as a bullet list and lacks a compelling story that will take the customer on a journey.
Today, customers want relatable, interactive resources that spark their curiosity and answer their questions.
Customer stories are more effective at persuading your prospects by allowing your current fans to deliver the message for you. They explore different narrative approaches that use audio and video to get your message across.
In this article, we’ll explore how customer stories provide your sales team with social proof. We’ll also share three ways you can get content to sales for easier outreach.
Customer Stories Enable Your Sales Team with Social Proof
Picture this: you need a quick snack and head down to your nearest local shopping center.
While you’re there, you find two bakeries. You peer into the empty one and quickly conclude their cakes must be terrible.
The one next door has crowds of people out front waiting anxiously for their turn to get in. Must be the best of the two.
This powerful dynamic is called social proof, and it has the power to grow your business. In fact, 83% of consumers say they’d rather buy a product or service because a family member, friend, or even a stranger recommended it.
Customer stories are a rich source of social proof for your sales team. They’re also more powerful and impactful than user reviews, influencer marketing, or placing your customers’ business logos on your company website.
That’s because customers are more than just transactions, they’re your best megaphone for selling your product or service. They’re also your best generator of new sales because you’ve already wowed them with an outstanding product and great customer experience.
Customer stories can get your message into the market. And when people hear or watch good reviews from your existing customers, they’re more likely to buy from you.
The challenge in many companies is that marketing and sales operate in silos.
Sales have excellent insights into your core industry's needs, challenges, and desires. Marketing, on the other hand, takes more responsibility for revenue pipeline and customer-facing content. Silos are outdated, hinder the massive growth you’d otherwise enjoy from a unified team, and hurt your bottom line.
Aligning your marketing and sales teams ensures you deliver the same message and experience across the board. The result: more powerful selling.
3 Ways to Get Content to Your Sales Team
There are many ways you can get content to your sales team, but we’ll share three of our favorite strategies.
1. Video and Audio Content
As a marketer, you’re used to setting up salespeople with content to nurture relationships and build trust. It can be daunting considering sales are ditching the same old whitepaper for newer and greater stories to tell prospects.
Have you ever considered using videos and podcasts?
Research shows that 54% of podcast listeners are more likely to consider the brands they hear advertised on podcasts.
Sharing customer stories through webinars or podcasts increases opportunities for your sales team to reach and capture new audiences.
Give your sales team video, audio or podcast clips they can share as quick snippets to pique interest and generate buzz. You can create a video or podcast library so it’s easier for them to find specific clips and content to draw prospects in or close deals.
Each podcast episode or video can be used for sales outreach and to draw plenty of insights you can use to understand your audience better.
We’ve shared before how the sales and marketing team at Lev used podcasts for their outreach efforts. Their salespeople started a podcast to share customer-related stories with their audience. The marketing team, on the other hand, provided the topics to keep the conversation going. In Lev’s case, the alignment between sales and marketing proved beneficial as they both had quality content relevant to their core audience.
Video content also provides several benefits including:
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- Heightening brand awareness and helping customers make buying decisions
- Creating a more thorough and personalized experience
- Providing backend analytics to help salespeople qualify and prioritize unresponsive or cold leads
- Getting you more leverage than an email or marketing-authored blog post would. It’s a great way to amplify the best of what’s already being said
Whatever medium you choose, start with the fans who love what you do and rave about you online.
But get to know them first — who they are, what they do, where they work, and how long they’ve been your fan — before asking them to appear in a video or podcast for you.
2. Use Cases Are Powerful Content
Besides your video or podcast content and the topics you discuss there, use cases are the fifth most popular type of content used by 13% of marketers in their content strategy, but they are perhaps the most powerful kind of content you can create.
Use cases are an invaluable asset to sales teams because they:
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- Establish social proof by demonstrating quantifiable outcomes
- Provide relevant value to prospects who may be on the fence
- Paint a picture of what success would look like for your prospects
- Give buyers the context to determine whether they’re making a good choice
- Prove that your product, service, or process can solve a problem because it has worked in the past for your customer
The key is to create use cases that show customers in different business verticals or those who have used your product, service, or process in different ways.
Having a variety allows your sales team to customize their outreach based on cases that are relevant to the prospect company. In most instances, the prospect may be on the fence or just needs proof that a similar company trusted you and succeeded.
3. Wring It Out
You have your content library of podcasts and videos. What next?
Podcasts and videos offer creative, fresh, and evergreen content your salespeople can use to engage new audiences. They also help grow relationships as they feature your prospects and customer audiences.
You can repurpose your podcast or video content into:
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- Blog posts
- Infographics
- SlideShare presentations
- Email content
This way, you breathe more life into your content, grow your audience, and set your sales team up for success.
Bridge the Marketing and Sales Gap
Every customer has a story to share, so it’s up to you to find the right way to tell it. Each customer story will highlight how your solutions helped them solve their own clients’ problems.
Not sure where to start? Let Casted help make it happen!
We use human connections and authentic conversations to close the chasm between marketing and sales.
Find out how by scheduling a demo today!
