Advance Your Reach does an awesome job helping entreprenuers build their businesses through public speaking. So I thought I’d check out their success stories page to see how they’re doing sharing those stories.
They’ve got some extremely high-quality case studies videos. Plus loads of great testimonials.
But there are a few changes they could make that would help them get even sales from their success stories.
Here’s a brief breakdown of what they do well and a few things that could make their case studies even better.
AdvanceYourReach.com/success-stories
What’s great about this page
They start off with 4 case study videos from leaders in the online business world. Showing how they helped top leaders gives them huge credibility. The people at Advance Your Reach know this, and that’s why they took the time to create fantastic case studies featuring these people.
They used a high-quality camera, got b-roll, and took the time to get the person’s story. The result is case studies that are far more compelling than mere testimonials.
The videos are fairly similar so I won’t break them all down. Instead, I’ll focus on the one by Stu McLaren — who I’ve seen speak and is awesome on stage.
Stu’s video starts off with him talking about his passion for helping people. This is great because it connects with the deeper reason beyond money that causes entreprenuers to get into speaking. The viewer likely has a strong passion for helping others as well, so this speaks to that desire.
Right after that, Stu goes into his problem: He didn’t want to be a “road warrior” and constantly leave his family to give talks.
This is great because many of the people watching will have that same objection. They may like the idea of speaking but don’t want to leave their family. Right now, entreprenuers who are passionate about helping people and care about their family are able to see themselves in Stu. And they’ll want to know how he handled this problem.
From there, Stu goes on to talk about the speaking strategy he got from Pete Vargas, founder, and CEO of Advance Your Reach. Stu talks about how he learned it’s not about getting on a lot of stages — it’s about getting on the right stages. And Stu backs that up by saying he only speaks 6 times a year.
What’s so great about this is it gives the viewer a new way to think about their problem. It helps them see that fear of “I don’t want to be on the road all the time” is easy to overcome if they have the right strategy. So this removes that big objection by teaching them something useful and valuable. And because they are learning valuable insight, they’ll be more compelled to consume the rest of the case study and even buy the program. (Teaching people triggers “reciprocity” and makes people want to give you things — like money.)
Finally, they re-establish WHY speaking is so important for growing a business. Stu talks about how speaking helps you quickly build a relationship with people. And how many of his best high-end customers have come through speaking engagements.
What’s great about Stu’s case study is it’s going to attract people with similar values. Stu talks a lot about family, helping people, and getting the audience to “feel your heart.” That’s going to attract caring entrepreneurs who have similar values. People who are just in it for ego and money won’t be as interested in this case study as people who genuinely care about helping their audience.
Most case studies don’t do this. But talking about shared values is a powerful way to connect with readers. If they see you and your audience care about the same things they do (helping people, family, etc.) then you’ll be the one they turn to when they decide they need help.
As awesome as these case studies are, there’s a few things they could do that would help them close even more sales…
What could make this page even better
1) Call out your audience directly.
People who look through a Success Story page want to find someone like them who got the same results they want for themselves.
They want to see someone with a similar demographic background… someone with the same doubts and fears they have… someone with the same business problems they face… and someone who got the same results they want.
Unfortunately, this page makes it hard to do that. All the case studies and testimonials are videos with no copy explaining what the video is about. So you basically have to click around and hope you find someone with a story like yours.
In the case studies I create for clients (here’s an example), we add headlines and crossheads that call out different types of avatars. This way people immediately know which story is like them.
We also call out specific pains, fears, and objections throughout the case study pages. This way, people who are skimming will see “Oh, that’s exactly the problem I have…” and will get sucked into the story.
2) Show what makes your product different/better than the rest.
Stu brings up a very cool concept that it’s not about getting on a lot of stages — it’s about getting on the right stages. It would be great is they went into more detail here. This could be a big eye-opener for the reader if it was fleshed out more.
This is also a great chance for Advance Your Reach to flex their Unique Selling Proposition. They could go into detail on how other programs merely help with XYZ parts of speaking — but their program includes this special strategy/technique that is critical for getting maximum leverage from every engagement.
You could even include Stu’s doubt and fears about using their program… all the things he tried that didn’t work… and what it was about this program that made it work when everything else failed.
Doing this can eliminate all other options for your readers and prove you are the best choice for them.
3) Share more stories.
The four video case studies they have are fantastic. But those stories won’t resonate with everyone. Remember, people want to see someone like them have success with the program. So you want a wide range of people.
You want to show off people with different backgrounds, experience levels, fears, objections, types of businesses, etc. The more the better. Ideally, you want anyone who finds you to be able to see a success story of somebody just like them who had success with your product. When you have that, you won’t have to deal with objections or doubts because they’ll have hard proof this can work for them.
At the moment, Advance Your Reach doesn’t have this.
They do have a ton of solid testimonials. And having all that social proof is fantastic…
…But it would be far more powerful to share the full story of these people.
Sharing the full story means you can:
- Call out specific pains/desires/fears/avatars
- Show what makes you unique/better than the competition
- Overcome objections
- Show how their business/life will be better because of this program, etc.
4) 4 ways to use the case studies to close sales
Looking through the rest of the site, it looks as though Advance Your Reach uses sales calls to get people to join their higher-ticket programs.
Having a stable of in-depth case studies would be super valuable for them here. Because after the calls, if the client says “I’ll have to think about it“, they could send them a case study of someone just like them who had success with the program.
They can also give those case studies to their customer support team. When people email in and ask about the program, they can say something like “You sound just like this other person we helped…” then send a case study showing how they helped someone just like them.
And of course, in-depth case studies would be super valuable for launches. And you can keep them on your site so when people find you they immediately see how you helped someone just like them.
If you want awesome case studies for your business…
There’s a lot more I could say on how to create compelling case studies that close sales.
That’s why I wrote a book about it. It helps you weave in everything we covered today plus shows you a bunch of other great techniques for creating awesome case studies.
The book is called Case Studies That Close Sales — A proven formula to attract great customers. You can get a copy here.
In the book, you’ll learn the full formula I use to create case studies like the ones I do for my clients (here’s an example.)
And if you want these case studies done for you, shoot me an email at [email protected] to get on my waitlist.