The sales process · Sales closure
The part your buyer wants to read is the part everybody leaves out.
A case study is one page telling what a customer's situation was, what they had already tried, what you did about it, and what changed. It is collected by interview rather than written from a proposal, and it is published only with the customer's permission on the finished text.
In one paragraph
A case study is one page telling what a customer's situation was, what they had already tried, what you did about it, and what changed. It is collected by interview rather than written from a proposal, and it is published only with the customer's permission on the finished text.
Four headings, in this order: the situation, what was tried, what was done, what changed. The second heading is the one almost every case study skips, and it is the one your reader is living inside at the moment they find the page.
A buyer reading about a firm that went straight from problem to perfect outcome learns nothing, because that is not how their own attempts have gone. A buyer reading that the customer first tried hiring a junior, then tried a cheaper supplier, and that neither worked, recognises himself and keeps reading.
A testimonial is one customer's sentence. This is the whole account, and it is the last step of the process, which feeds straight back into the first. A case study is where your value proposition gets tested against something that actually happened, and where the next prospect list finds the kind of company worth approaching.
Where this sits
Stage 8 of 10, sales closure. The meeting, the decision, and what you learn from the ones you win and the ones you lose.
- The stage before
- Proposal and follow-up
- The stage after
- After the order
If you want this done for you
Document the whole story of a customer's problem and result, not just a one-line quote.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The four headings, and what belongs under each”
Situation: who the customer is in the words a similar buyer would use, with the trade, the size and the town. What was tried: their own earlier attempts and why each stopped. What was done: the work in the order it happened, with the awkward parts and the one decision you got wrong left in. What changed: what they can do now that they could not before.
“Interview it, do not write it from the file”
A case study drafted from the proposal describes what was promised. An hour with the customer describes what happened, which is a different document and usually a better one. Talk to your own delivery team as well, because their version and the customer's version rarely match, and the gap is worth knowing about before the customer reads it.
“Permission comes twice”
Once to write it, which is access to their people and their time. Once to publish it, on the finished text, the name, the logo and any figure in it. Agree at the start what happens if the second permission is refused. An anonymous version, a pump maker in Peenya, is still useful in a sales conversation, and many customers who refuse their name will allow that.
“Where these go wrong”
Written by the person who did the work, so it quietly defends their decisions. Numbers improved slightly because they read better. Five case studies about the same kind of customer and none about the buyer you are pitching on Thursday. And the long ones: nobody in your buyer's office is reading four pages about somebody else.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The page itself
One page under the four headings, a second only if a drawing or a photograph earns it, written in the customer's language rather than yours.
Result: A salesperson can send it without explaining it first.
The approval trail
The dated message in which the customer approved this exact text, plus a note of anything they asked to be removed and why.
Result: Nothing is published that the customer has not read.
An anonymised version
The same story with the name and identifying details taken out, prepared at the same time rather than months later when the detail has been forgotten.
Result: A refused name does not waste the whole story.
A coverage list
A short table of which buyer type, industry and problem each case study covers, so the gaps are visible before a salesperson needs one that does not exist.
Result: You write the next one for a prospect you actually have.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every monthly report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No lock-in, no guarantees we cannot keep
Three to six months at a time. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
The offer
Start with a free audit of how you sell.
It is useful on its own, whether or not you hire us.
What you receive
- A 90-minute call with the person who will do the work
- A written, scored report on the six places orders leak, within a few working days
- Every fix ranked by what it returns and what it costs
- The one thing to do first, and why
- An honest line on whether you need outside help at all
- If you do, the scope and the fee in writing
No invoice. No obligation. No sales script.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How long does a case study really take?
Can we publish figures the customer gave us verbally?
How do we know a case study is any good?
Should we write these ourselves?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of sales closure
Or read the whole sales process in order.