The first thing we're going to do in this post to try and showcase the value of business storytelling. Sometimes people who run companies will think of “storytelling” as “something that marketing does,” instead of seeing the value of it. What if the value is truly there, though?

In a Wharton interview, Carmine Gallo, author of a book called The Storyteller's Secret, shares the value of storytelling:

“Vinod Khosla, billionaire venture capitalist here in Silicon Valley, where I live, tells me that the biggest problem he sees is that people are fact-telling when they pitch him. They’re giving facts and information and he says, “that’s not enough, Carmine. They have to do storytelling.”

Let’s start with the basics. Some field service and manufacturing companies (who we primarily work with) are B2B -- while some are B2C. (Some also might be both.) Each side will want to understand, “Hey, why would case studies matter for our marketing?” Thankfully, we can tackle that in about one paragraph each.

The B2B Side

If you work in an FSO primarily doing or searching for B2B business -- usually meaning you will get a service-level agreement (SLA) with another company to fix their machines and devices -- then case studies are essential. B2B buyers tend to base almost everything on reviews and research, and in the B2B world, that tends to come in the form of case studies. Seventy-seven percent of B2B companies across multiple industries use case studies, per MarketingProfs research; 69 percent of B2B companies in a 2014 study said case studies were their best tactic for creating new customers.

In field service work, the actual service being provided by a technician -- say, a plumber -- is essentially the “product” of that company. Now, maybe the company has an app or a website or other elements we might call “products,” but in reality the quality of the service is the product.

So, when we work with field service organizations (FSOs from now on), we want to find ways to make their future customers understand the quality of service they provide.

There are obviously a lot of different approaches to this. The colors used in the branding matter. Social media matters. Videos matter. Helping them with networking and trade shows matter. Everything that goes into developing their businesses and brands matter.

But here’s one thing a lot of people overlook: case studies.