Nobody Believes You. They Believe Him.

A buddy of mine runs a commercial roofing company. Last spring he lost a big warehouse job to a competitor who, by his own account, does worse work and charges more.

He couldn’t figure it out. So he did something most guys never do. He called the property manager and asked why.

She was honest with him. “Their website had a story about a warehouse almost exactly like ours. Same size, same leak problem, same kind of tenant who couldn’t shut down for the work. The owner of that building talked about how they did the whole roof in phases on weekends and he never lost a day of rent. I read it twice. Then I sent it to my boss.”

My buddy had done that exact job. Not once. About forty times.

He’d just never written any of them down.

That’s the problem with most service businesses. Your best sales pitch isn’t on your website. It’s sitting in the heads of your happiest clients, and every month that goes by, the details fade a little more. The “before” gets fuzzy. The numbers get rounded. The emotion goes flat.

This is the month to go get it.

Gartner surveyed hundreds of B2B buyers about how they spend their time making a purchase. The answer is humbling. Buyers spend only about 17 percent of their buying time meeting with potential suppliers. And that’s all the suppliers combined. If you’re one of three companies in the running, you might get 5 or 6 percent.

The rest of the time they’re researching on their own, comparing options, and talking it over with their team.

So what are they looking at during all that time? Your website, your reviews, whatever you sent after the call. And when they’re comparing three companies that all claim to be “trusted” and “experienced,” they’re looking for one thing. Proof that you’ve solved this exact problem for someone like them.

You saying you’re great is noise. A client saying it, with specifics, is evidence.

Three reasons.

The results are fresh. Whatever you did for clients this year, the numbers are still sitting there. In March, they won’t remember what things looked like before you showed up.

Your clients are in a reflective mood. It’s year end. They’re doing reviews, looking at what worked, and feeling grateful heading into the holidays. People are more generous with their time and their praise right now than any other point in the year.

Things slow down. Most of us have a few more open spots on the calendar between now and Christmas. Twenty minute interviews fit easily.

And here’s the payoff. The case studies you capture in November will be working for you every day of 2027. On sales calls, in proposals, in follow ups, in ads. Three interviews this month could be your best sales hire next year.

Don’t ask everybody. Pick three.

Make a list of every client you worked with this year. Then circle the ones that check all three of these boxes:

Pick the three best. If you’re feeling ambitious, pick five. Three good ones beat ten mediocre ones.

Keep it short, make it about them, and make it easy. Here’s the text I’d send:

“Hey Mike, quick favor. You’ve been one of my favorite clients to work with this year, and I’d love to tell the story of what we did together. Would you be up for a 20 minute call in the next couple of weeks? I’ll do all the writing. You just talk, and you’ll see and approve everything before it goes anywhere.”

Notice what that does. It compliments him, tells him exactly how much time it takes, and promises him control. Most people say yes to that.

If they hesitate about using their name, offer to keep it anonymous. “A 40 person logistics company in Ohio” still works. Specific beats famous.

Do it on video. Zoom, Google Meet, whatever. You want to be able to see their face and keep the recording.

I run Fathom on every one of these calls. It records, transcribes, and saves everything, so I’m not scribbling notes while they talk. That matters more than you’d think. The best stuff in these interviews comes out in their exact words, and you’ll never capture those words writing by hand. Later I pull the quotes straight from the transcript.

Here are the nine questions I use. In this order.

Question four is the gold. Whatever almost stopped your client from buying is exactly what’s stopping your next prospect. Too expensive. Worried about the disruption. Burned by the last guy. When your client answers that question, he’s handling your future objections for you, in his own words.

A few rules while you’re on the call:

Shut up. Your job is to ask and listen. If there’s a pause, let it sit. People fill silence with the good stuff.

Say “tell me more about that.” When they say something interesting, don’t move on. Dig. The first answer is usually the polished version. The second answer is the real one.

Ask for numbers gently. “Roughly how many hours a week was that taking?” “Ballpark, what did that cost you a month?” People will give you a rough number when you make it okay to be rough.

Let them talk like themselves. If he cusses, he cusses. If he tells a story that wanders, let it wander. You’re editing later.

Most case studies are terrible. They read like a press release. “Acme Corp partnered with us to deliver best in class solutions.” Nobody has ever read one of those to the end.

Write it like a story. Here’s the structure:

The headline. Use this formula: How [type of client] [got a result] in [amount of time] without [the thing they were afraid of]. For example: “How a 60,000 square foot warehouse got a new roof in six weekends without losing a single day of rent.”

The before. Two or three short paragraphs. What was broken, what it was costing them, and how it felt. Use their words.

The hesitation. What almost stopped them. This is the part most people skip, and it’s the part your prospects relate to the most.

What you did. Three to five steps, kept simple. Not your whole process. Just enough to show you had a plan.

The after. The results, with numbers and a timeline. Be specific. “Saved about $4,200 a month” beats “significant savings” every time.

The quote. One or two lines, straight from the transcript, that sum it up. Bold it. People skim, and the quote is what they’ll read.

Keep the whole thing between 400 and 600 words. Then write a one paragraph version for proposals and emails, and pull a 30 to 60 second video clip from the recording if they said something great on camera.

This part matters, so don’t skip it.

The FTC has rules about testimonials and endorsements, and they updated their guides in 2023. The short version:

Always send the finished draft to your client for approval before it goes anywhere. Get a simple yes in writing that you can use their name, company, logo, and video. It protects you, and honestly, it makes them feel respected. Most of them will share it on their own once it’s published, because it makes them look smart.

A case study sitting on a “Results” page nobody visits is wasted. Here’s where to use it.

After every sales call. Send the case study that matches the prospect. “Here’s a company that was in almost the same spot as you.” That one email does more than three follow ups.

In every proposal. Add the one paragraph version right before your pricing. Proof right before the price makes the price easier to swallow.

Against every objection. Build a simple proof library. Write down your five most common objections, and next to each one, the case study and quote that answers it. “Too expensive” gets the client who calculated his payback in four months. “Bad timing” gets the client who almost waited a year and wishes he hadn’t.

On social. Break each case study into five or six posts. The before. The quote. The number. The video clip. I load them all into Buffer in one sitting so they roll out over the next month without me thinking about it.

In your email list. Send the full story. People love stories about people like them.

“My clients won’t want to be named.”

Some won’t. Fine. Anonymous still works when it’s specific. “A family owned HVAC company outside Atlanta with 22 techs” tells a prospect plenty.

“I don’t have big impressive numbers.”

You don’t need them. Hours saved, headaches gone, a deadline met, a boss who stopped yelling. Real results told specifically beat big numbers told vaguely.

“I’m not a writer.”

You don’t have to be. The transcript does 80 percent of the work. Your client already said the good stuff. You’re just arranging it.

“I’ll do it after the holidays.”

You won’t. And by then your client won’t remember the “before” nearly as clearly. Do it now while it’s fresh.

By Christmas, you’ll have three stories doing your selling for you while you’re eating leftovers.

Sunday, with Veterans Day coming Wednesday, we’re talking about the words some men say out loud once and then spend the rest of their lives living up to. And the ones the rest of us said and forgot.

Refined. Relentless. Unapologetic.

Marcus