How to Write Success Stories that Sales Uses and Buyers Read
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Have you ever tried to pick your way through a poorly planned, poorly written customer success story? You know, one of those stories filled with vague benefits and jargon few can relate to?
Such stories usually feature sentences and paragraphs that don’t quite connect. They have challenges buried in the results section, and results in the challenges section. They give you a sickly feeling that the publishing company lacked someone on the team with editing skills. Or even someone to provide strategic editorial oversight on briefs before they wound up in writers’ hands.
Been there. Experienced that.
The problem is that generic customer wins leave buyers yawning. Bland success stories leave all but the most determined readers clicking “X” before arriving at the solution part of the story. Buyers don’t relate because the stories fail to speak to the headaches they’re experiencing now. Poor stories fail to tap into late-night anxieties and the urgent goals everyone in your target market understands. For your stories to carry those elements and have those effects, you need a laser-like focus on buyers—through your personas.
Personas help you visualize your buyers so you can bring their tales to life. They’re your blueprint for compelling, relatable success stories, the kind sales reps like to share—and buyers like to read. Understanding how each persona feels, their goals, and the unique struggles that frustrate them daily is the secret sauce that transforms generic wins into stories buyers can't help but engage with.
But… there’s a common obstacle people trip over when working with personas: They get sidetracked by the fluff, wasting time and missing the true strategic gold.
The persona trap: When details distract
Depiction of a persona trap by DALL-E CRAIG GREGOIRE
It's easy to get bogged down in persona minutiae – favorite sports teams, life-long hobbies, pet peeves, and even stock photos purporting to remind you that, yes, your persona is, indeed, a real person. But all that extraneous detail is unnecessary fluff that can cause you — and your buyers — to miss the forest for the trees. You’re not writing fictional biographies but unlocking the secret anxieties and hidden aspirations that fuel business decisions.
What truly sparks action for buyers? The answer lies in dissecting:
Workday disasters — Those pain points that derail smooth operations, cause lost revenue, and keep KPIs stubbornly out of reach.
KPI worries — The specific benchmarks haunting your ideal buyers, metrics that affect bonuses, promotions, and perhaps even job security.
Solution triggers: What's the tipping point? It may be a quarterly review gone awry or a rival's success story. Triggers are events that light a fire, making slow burns turn into an urgent needs.
It's within this problem-outcome space that your success stories gain traction. When the opening paragraphs depict relatable chaos, buyers don't just nod along; they lean in, hoping for a tale of danger, escaped.
Let's look at how this approach translates in practice through the lens of an example — a SaaS company specializing in robotic process automation (RPA). A winning success story strategy for that company might target these key personas:
The CIO, who struggles with IT backlog, efficiency demands, and pressure to reduce costs.
The operations manager, who battles customer complaints, delays, and bottlenecks that affect the overall customer experience.
The business analyst, who drowns daily in manual data manipulation and reporting with limited time for valuable strategic analysis.
So, how do you write lead-generating, sales-enabling success stories tailored to your unique personas? The secret is to write like a columnist.
Anatomy of a sales magnet: Writing success stories that resonate
Great columnists do more than inform and report facts. They transport. They draw you in with relatable characters, rising tension, and satisfying resolutions. Your success stories can do the same.
Imagine yourself as an experienced columnist for your company. You have a scoop on a customer's transformation. You interview them using questions that shape the story you want to tell. (The success story interview is a separate article for another time.) Then, armed with your interview insights, use this winning organizational structure to write your story:
The painful hook
The messy middle
The “aha!” moment
The aspiration-raising results
Why that structure? Because each element in it mirrors the reader's own emotional journey from frustration to aspiration. Let’s look at each story element more closely so you can see how to use the structure to appeal to your personas.
The painful hook
The hook is a powerful, short statement of what’s most likely to capture your audience's attention. It’s what’s most compelling about the story. Use the hook to capture your reader's attention by opening your story with a painful scene in your customer’s daily life. Show their pre-solution struggles as they attempt to execute a use case but can’t because of some pain or challenge. This is where your persona insights come alive.
What might a painful hook look like for each of your personas? Let’s return to our example—a SaaS company specializing in RPA. In the table that follows, I outline what a hook might look like for a success story about Acme Corp, one of our SaaS company’s customers.
Note that this exercise isn’t about the writing; it’s about the elements to include when writing your success stories. In other words, don’t expect to be able to tack together a seamless story using the hook, middle, aha, and results presented here. You’d still need an expert writer to accomplish that.
The messy middle
Prospective buyers might run across your success story when they’re in the messy middle. At this point, they’re thinking deeply about problems and exploring solutions—yours included.
What happens when they read about others with their pains and challenges? What’s the decision process like? Do they have obstacles or competing technologies to consider? Are there IT hurdles to overcome? By injecting such challenges, you show that your solution didn't magically appear as a quick fix, which is, sadly, how many success stories present the customer story.
Here’s how our sample SaaS vendor might write about the messy middle for various personas.
The 'aha!' moment
The “aha!” moment is when your prospect hits a trigger—the pivotal moment when the prospect moves into action and decides to purchase your solution. Share their words about this golden moment, as powerful customer quotes speak more loudly than any words you might write.
Here’s how our hypothetical RPA vendor might talk about the ah-ha moment for its various personas.
The aspiration-raising results
The results section is all about proving your value. Use metrics that tie back to your persona’s KPI goals, whether cost savings, improved efficiency, or faster insights. And frame those results in terms of your customer’s daily life after your solution.
Here’s how our hypothetical SaaS vendor might present the results its customer achieved.
Isn’t that a lovely ending to the story? The CIO is relieved, the operations manager breathes easier, and the analyst is beaming. Now, I’ll give you a few additional tips for writing powerful success stories that appeal to readers and drive sales.
Secrets of success story success: Additional tips for elevating your stories
Now you understand the core anatomy of a compelling success story. But how do you make them visually appealing and ensure each story feels unique to the reader? Use these proven tactics to make waves with your success stories.
Use customer quotes as design power. Incorporate powerful quotes as pull quotes or place them in a sidebar for emphasis. Let the customer's words grab attention and reinforce key pain points or results.
Create a story snapshot sidebar. A quick-reference sidebar (alternating from left to right on subsequent stories) is an instant orientation for busy readers. Include the company’s name, the buyer’s title, the industry, and a summary of pains and benefits.
Interview with messaging enabled. Don't approach customer interviews as simple fact-gathering missions. Weave elements of your brand messaging into your questions to draw out the stories you want to tell and the messages you want out in the market.
Appeal to multiple stakeholders. A winning solution affects various roles. Interview those directly touched by the change. If you can, interview your customers’ customers, too, to show just how far the benefits reach. Doing so lets you offer powerful proof points at multiple levels.
Avoid using same-same templates. Although templates ensure consistency, the same look on each success story can make each story feel just like the last. Rotate visuals like sidebar placement, quote styles, and subheading colors so each story isn't a cookie-cutter replica.
Ditch generic and passive phrases. Choose action verbs that vividly capture the transformation your solution offers. Tailor verbs so they resonate with each persona's anxieties and desired outcomes. For example, a CIO might respond to words like fortified security and and turbocharged innovation, while an operations manager might be drawn to phrases like transformed customer experience and salvaged employee morale. Using an active writing style makes your success stories more engaging and forceful.
Include compelling visuals. Infographics, screenshots, data visualizations, and customer photos and quotes add visual interest and reinforce key points. A carefully selected image or two can break up text blocks and highlight powerful statements and metrics.
A final note
This article provides a solid foundation for your success story practice. As you create success stories specific to each offering, collect a library of 'gold star' customer quotes and metrics that resonate most with each of your personas. Doing so will help you to infuse proven content into future stories with ease—and for maximum impact.
Originally published on Forbes.com.