Harnessing stories of success: How customer win wires amplify your brand narrative

Customer stories – or case studies – are one of the most powerful types of marketing content. What’s better than the words of others to give social proof for your capabilities and role in supporting transformation and positive business outcomes?

Unsurprisingly, case studies are also one of the most challenging assets to get published because of the level of buy-in and approval needed across all the various stakeholders and departments of your customers, your partners, and your own organization.

When the opportunity presents to do a customer story, it’s always advisable to jump on it. But in the absence of immediate customer buy-in, win wires – a detailed internal document of a customer story and project win – are a tool marketers can use to shape brand narrative. 

The strategic value of documenting customer success 

Success stories provide concrete examples of how your solutions solve real-world problems. As an internal tool, this documentation of success can be leveraged in a variety of ways throughout organization, such as: 

• • Building awareness of the positive impact to customers at the leadership, executive, and employee level 
  • Supporting the selling process and problem solving with evidence of real-world applications of products/services 
  • Developing new use cases for products/services 
  • Providing better understanding of the customer, their needs, challenges, and desired outcomes to integrate into marketing narratives 
  • Training materials for employees 

This practice of documenting customer success is a strategic initiative, even if the details are never able to be made public.  

Craft compelling customer win wires 

We’ve found that the best win wires are those that tell a story. They should highlight the problem, the process, and the payoff. Frame your win through a narrative lens by utilizing a clear, active voice and focus on the human elements of the story. 

1. 1. Who is the customer? 
   2. What was the objective or problem to solve?  
   3. What challenges did the customer face? What were internal challenges your organization faced? 
   4. What was the solution?  
   5. What was the outcome?  

Include as much detail as possible, including quantified outcomes. Because this is an internal and confidential document, you can include details that would not go into a public case study.  

To successfully capture the evidence and tell a story, it’s a good idea to use the Hero’s Journey framework. Need a refresher? Here’s a few blog posts to help: 

The outside in approach to marketing messaging 

How to use the Hero’s Journey 

Creating your customer win wire repository 

As a strategic practice, you can build a win wire repository in something as simple as a slide deck. 

Here’s how you can get started: 

1. 1. Identify the owner of the initiative; a person who can take responsibility for collaborating with Sales and Solution Engineering to compile win details and build the narrative. 
   2. Determine what you’d like your output to be and where you’ll store it. Find a location that is easily accessible for others. 
   3. Create a template for your win wire outlining the key information needed for every win to ensure consistency in style and format.  
   4. Decide how you want to collect the information from Sales. Consider building an intake form that Sales can complete on their own. If individuals prefer a call, rather than self-serve documentation, the form serves as a question guide to help capture information. 
   5. Audit existing customer wins and document new ones as a place to start and build on. You never know which stories might eventually be able to go public. 
   6. Spread awareness of the initiative within the company: make it clear how to participate and what to expect.  

Leverage your book of customer wins 

Each win wire is a proof point that demonstrates your company’s capabilities and success. Even when you don’t have customer approval to go public, you can use past wins internally – and even externally, with a bit of creativity. 

Employing creativity for external uses

Anonymity is key when you don’t have approval for public use. Many of these stories can be used anecdotally within pitches, presentations, blog posts, award submissions, and social posts to highlight transformation and innovation. You’ll need to remove customer names and focus on general attributes of the company, such as industry, size, category, and net worth. The reader should remain unsure who the customer is, while resonating with the story that’s told. Readers pursuing similar business should be able to see themselves in the customer’s shoes.  

Want help to get started on a customer evidence and win wire program? Reach out.