Results Statements Make Your Case Studies Compelling

Last week, Fire Enterprises (FEI) marketing maven Marka told savvy salesperson Zoot how to use the “Challenge/Solution/Results” formula to write successful case studies. This week, Marka shows Zoot how including results statements will make FEI’s case studies compelling. Remember, fire=print.

Spring had come to Olympus, which meant sunny days and everybody donning their short-sleeve togas. One Friday afternoon, Marka and Zoot had lunch out at Demeter’s Café—a rarity, given how busy FEI usually is—and took a quick stroll through a nearby park.

“Now that we’ve got the Challenge/Solutions/Results formula down pat, it should be easy to write an effective case study,” Zoot said.

“Knowing this formula is a good start,” Marka agreed. “But a truly successful case study will do more than just deliver the facts—it will also intrigue the reader with a compelling Results Statement. Virtually every effective case study has a powerful Results Statement at its core. The Results Statement answers a simple question that every FEI prospect reading our case study wants to know: How have we helped this client reduce their costs, improve their efficiency, or make some other quantifiable improvement to their business?”

“The ROI statement is one effective type of Results Statement,” Marka continued. “Before making a long-term investment in our bigger, more expensive kilns, for instance, our prospects want to know: ‘How long until this machine pays for itself?’ A compelling ROI statement for FEI would be ‘It took Dione’s Donuts just five months to achieve ROI with FEI’s new patented eight-torch kiln.’”

“Another type of Results Statement simply ties our solution to cost savings or a quantifiable increase in efficiency,” Marka continued. “Example: ‘Using FEI’s kiln solution, Dione’s Donuts has decreased cooking costs by 15 percent this year.’”

“Once we’ve developed our Results Statement, how do we incorporate it into our case study?” Zoot asked.