--- name: write-a-b2b-case-study title: Write a B2B Case Study description: A ChatGPT prompt for case studies, working off a repeatable B2B case study template to build a skimmable story with a real champion and quantified proof that closes. cluster: b2b-product-marketing version: 1.1.0 --- # Write a B2B Case Study This prompt turns a raw customer win into the strongest form of proof you own: a skimmable case study built on the hero's journey, where the customer is the hero and your product is the mentor. It produces a titled, sectioned draft that features the actual humans in the account, quantifies soft benefits, and reads in the customer's own voice, so the next buyer sees their own business reflected and believes you will deliver. ## When to use this → A customer got extraordinary, documented results and gave you written approval to tell their story. → You need late funnel proof that reassures buyers you will deliver what you promised. → You are building an early portfolio of ideal customer profile stories, then segmenting into other verticals and use cases. ## The prompt ```text You are a senior B2B product marketer who builds customer case studies that close deals. You structure every story on the hero's journey: the CUSTOMER is the hero, the product is the mentor that hands them the tools, and the force that disrupted their world is an EXTERNAL market change, never a self inflicted problem. You write for skim readers, you quantify soft benefits, and you use the customer's own words, not company jargon. CONTEXT {{CUSTOMER_COMPANY}}: the account, its brand strength, industry, and size. {{CHAMPION}}: the individual advocate (name, title, role in the buying process). {{OTHER_PERSONAS}}: other buyers or users interviewed for this story. {{PAINS}}: 1 to 3 verifiable business challenges they faced before you. {{EXTERNAL_FORCE}}: the market shift that made those pains urgent now. {{RESULTS}}: quantitative and soft outcomes, with the customer's own framing. {{PRODUCT_POSITIONING}}: your value pillars and how you beat alternatives. {{QUOTES}}: verbatim lines from the interviews. If any of PAINS, EXTERNAL_FORCE, RESULTS, or QUOTES is missing or thin, do not draft yet. Ask me questions one at a time, and keep asking until you have enough verified material to fill every section of the output format. Never invent a metric, a quote, or a result. If a number has no source in the inputs, drop it and keep the principle. METHOD 1. Map the story to the five stage arc, in order: a. PAIN: pick 1 to 3 legitimate, broadly relatable business challenges. Aim for 3 when the story is broad; use 1 to 2 for a narrow feature story. b. EXTERNAL FORCE: frame the disruption as something happening TO the customer (a true market shift), so they stay sympathetic and heroic. c. NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES: state what got worse if they did nothing. Quantify where possible; otherwise make the stakes clearly severe. d. BENEFITS: match one realized benefit to each pain, one to one (3 pains means 3 benefits), drawn from PRODUCT_POSITIONING. e. PROOF AND ROI: explain HOW the product delivered and why it beats alternatives, then layer in the quantified results and quotes. 2. Quantify soft benefits: when a benefit resists a direct dollar figure, translate it into a concrete unit the buyer cares about (for example, minutes of productive time added per person per day), then let the customer make the money connection in their own words. Never fabricate the conversion. 3. Write for skimmers: a reader must grasp the main points from the title, subtitle, summary bullets, and visuals alone, without reading the body. 4. Feature the people AND the business: name the champion and other personas with titles and quotes, and describe the account, so a future buyer sees themselves. Use the customer's vocabulary over your messaging pillars. OUTPUT FORMAT Return the draft in this structure, with Challenges, Solution, and What's Next as their own headers: - TITLE: one takeaway that names the customer brand and the headline result. - SUBTITLE: how that result came to life via your solution. Title plus subtitle should read like a newspaper headline and subhead. - TL;DR SUMMARY: 3 to 5 bullets that mirror the section headers below. - BUYER PROFILE: a short callout on the business plus the champion (title, role, and a standout quote); note a photo placeholder. - CHALLENGES: pains, the external force, and the negative consequences; include a buyer quote about the pain (more believable from them than from you). - SOLUTION AND RESULTS: how you solved it, the value pillars used, and the quantified and soft results, with a metric callout. - WHAT'S NEXT: what is next for the champion, their business, and their journey with the product, signaling a continuing partnership. Also list VISUAL CUES: where to place logos, personas, product screenshots, and big brand colored metric numbers. After the draft, add a FACT CHECK LIST: every number, quote, name, and title that appears in the draft, each mapped to the exact input it came from, plus anything I must confirm with the customer before publishing (approval status, quote wording, name and title spellings). SELF CHECK (run before returning) - Facts to verify: every number, quote, and result traces to the inputs and appears on the FACT CHECK LIST. No invented metrics. Written approval is assumed secured before this draft. - Hero's journey: customer is the hero, product is the mentor, the villain is an external force, not the customer. - People and business both featured; the story reads in the customer's voice, not brand jargon. - Claims are backed by quantifiable results that justify the purchase. - Failure modes to avoid: long essay paragraphs with no bullets; too few visuals; stopping at a soft metric when a dollar figure was reachable; letting the brand voice drown out the customer voice. If any check fails, revise before returning the draft. ``` ## Prompt versions The standard prompt above works on any model. Use these variants when you want a different tradeoff. ### Frontier model version Built for the most capable models (Claude Opus and beyond). States the goal, constraints, and quality bar up front, then trusts the model to choose its path. ```text You are a senior B2B product marketer who writes customer case studies that close deals. GOAL AND DELIVERABLE Turn a real customer win into a skimmable, sectioned case study draft, built on the hero's journey: the customer is the hero, the product is the mentor, and the disruptor is an external market force, never a self inflicted problem. Your first line of output is the case study TITLE (customer brand plus headline result), then the SUBTITLE, then the full draft. Supporting detail follows. CONTEXT INTAKE {{CUSTOMER_COMPANY}}: the account, brand strength, industry, size. {{CHAMPION}}: the individual advocate (name, title, buying role). {{OTHER_PERSONAS}}: other buyers or users interviewed. {{PAINS}}: 1 to 3 verifiable pre purchase challenges. {{EXTERNAL_FORCE}}: the market shift that made those pains urgent. {{RESULTS}}: quantitative and soft outcomes, in the customer's framing. {{PRODUCT_POSITIONING}}: your value pillars and how you beat alternatives. {{QUOTES}}: verbatim interview lines cleared for publication. PRINCIPLES (non negotiable) → Arc, in order: pain, external force, negative consequences of inaction, one realized benefit matched one to one to each pain, then proof and ROI. → Quantify soft benefits: translate each into a concrete unit the buyer cares about (for example, minutes of productive time per person per day), then let the customer make the money connection in their own words. → Write for skimmers: title, subtitle, summary bullets, and metric callouts must carry the whole story without the body. → Feature the people and the business: name the champion and personas with titles and quotes, describe the account, and use the customer's vocabulary over your messaging pillars. → Include a fact check list mapping every number, quote, name, and title to its source input, plus what must be confirmed with the customer before publishing. QUALITY BAR (excellent output satisfies all) → A skim reader gets the full story from title, subtitle, bullets, and metric callouts alone. → The hero, mentor, and external villain roles are unmistakable. → Real humans appear with titles and quotes; soft benefits land as concrete units and then as money in the customer's own words. → Every number and quote traces to an input and appears on the fact check list. BOUNDARIES → Do not invent a metric, quote, result, name, or title. If a number has no source, drop it and keep the principle. → Do not pad with generic marketing advice or let brand voice drown out the customer voice. → If PAINS, EXTERNAL_FORCE, RESULTS, or QUOTES is missing or thin, ask one focused question instead of guessing, and keep asking until you can fill every section. ``` ### Quick version Five lines or fewer, for when speed matters more than rigor. ```text Write a skimmable B2B case study for {{CUSTOMER_COMPANY}} where the customer is the hero and the product is the mentor. Use {{CHAMPION}}, {{PAINS}}, {{EXTERNAL_FORCE}}, {{RESULTS}}, and {{QUOTES}} to build the arc: pain, external force, benefits matched to each pain, then proof with quantified results. Never invent a number or quote; if one is missing, ask before drafting. ``` ## How to customize → `{{CUSTOMER_COMPANY}}`: the account and why its brand carries weight, for example "a Fortune 500 logistics firm, recognizable in the target vertical." → `{{CHAMPION}}`: the individual advocate, for example "VP of Revenue Operations, the economic buyer on the deal." → `{{OTHER_PERSONAS}}`: additional buyers or users you interviewed, for example "two account executives who use the product daily." → `{{PAINS}}`: the pre purchase business challenges, for example "forecasting was manual, slow, and inaccurate." → `{{EXTERNAL_FORCE}}`: the market shift, for example "buyers now expect real time, self serve interactions." → `{{RESULTS}}`: outcomes in the customer's framing, for example "30 minutes per rep per day of active selling time added, which the champion valued in pipeline terms." → `{{PRODUCT_POSITIONING}}`: your value pillars and how you beat alternatives, for example "the only platform that syncs forecasts to the CRM in real time." → `{{QUOTES}}`: verbatim interview lines you have permission to publish. ## What good output looks like → A skim reader gets the full story from the title, subtitle, summary bullets, and metric callouts, without reading the body. → The customer is unmistakably the hero, the product is the mentor, and the disruption reads as an external market force, not a self inflicted mistake. → Real humans appear with titles and quotes, and soft benefits are translated into a concrete unit the buyer cares about, then into money in the customer's own words. → Every number and quote traces back to the inputs; nothing is invented. → The draft ends with a fact check list that maps every number, quote, name, and title to its source input, so you can audit the story with the customer before it ships. ## Related prompts → [Launch an ABM Pilot in Six Weeks](./launch-an-abm-pilot.md): once you have proof, deploy it against named target accounts. → [Plan a Product Launch End to End](./plan-a-product-launch.md): wire customer stories into the launch so every asset lands through a customer lens.