This case study interview framework helped my client generate $750k sales in 4 weeks. Here’s Part 1 of 2 of the secret sauce.

Em Downham
3 min readJan 9, 2022
Photo: Unsplash

If you’re in sales or marketing you already know how powerful a case study or testimonial really is. They’re a key piece of your arsenal that gives your prospect peace of mind that you can deliver on your promise.

Honed from my days of journalism and years of experience in marketing I’m giving you the secret sauce framework I use to create conversion-worthy testimonials.

Psst — this isn’t just for my b2b folks. Testimonials following this framework once contributed to a b2c client banking AU$750,000 on the launch of her signature course offering, a 275% increase from the previous year. Buckle in for part 1.

Only ask after providing immense value

Happy customers make good testimonials. Sure, there will be some who are somewhat dissatisfied or unhappy, but it goes without saying, work your butt off to be the most customer-centric business you can be and deliver on your promise.

Only when the customer experiences true value do you then go in for the ask.

Use this framework to create case study that resonates

Your customer’s agreed to participate in an interview, fantastic. Now, what the heck do you ask them?

Case studies are key pieces of storytelling in your buyer’s journey. Storytelling is what helps people retain and understand information more than the straight facts you memorised for your high school history test.

Most case studies will tend to follow this structure:Problem > tipping point > your product/service saves the day/results

The length depends on your business type. Short videos are very effective for some personas and long written testimonials for others.

Here’s a quick framework fora quick-ish video testimonial that you can use as a baseline for your own testimonials.

Introduction 👋Ask the person to say their name, location and job/place or work, if relevant

Frustration 😖

  • The why: What did you want to achieve, or was the problem that you were facing that led you to (product/service)?
  • The what: What would happen if you didn’t use or engage (product/service)?

Impact 💡

  • From the problems and challenges you just mentioned, what impact has our (product/service) had?

Results 📈

  • And what results has the product/service helped you achieve? How has this impacted you? What impact has it had on the business?

Objections ✋

  • Were there any objections to getting our (product/service)? With this question we want to put all the fears in everyone’s mind at ease. For example, I almost didn’t buy X as it was quite expensive in comparison to other vendors, but after reviewing all the proposals we could see the support provided by X was going to be more beneficial for our team.

Recommendation 💬

  • Who would you recommend our (service/product) to and why?

Close 🤔

  • Is there anything else you think I should know that we haven’t talked about today?

This case study storytelling framework will give you a short and impactful video interview. Of course, there’s likely going to be tangents and chatter and hopefully, you’ll also muster up some incredible questions on your own that will make it unique to your business!

Tune in tomorrow when I share my tips to how to facilitate a great interview. Plus, I’d love to know if you found this helpful. 👇🙏🏻

Hello there, I’m participating in #Ship30for30 on Twitter. It’s a writing program with the aim to produce content people actually want to read. You can learn more about it here*. This is essay 2 of 30.

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Em Downham

Hi. I’m Em 👋. I write about b2b SaaS marketing, ideas and thoughts 💭, all the way to learnings from business & productivity books ✏️.