Most firms have case studies. Some have dozens. But ask your sales team how often they send them (and what response they get) and the answer’s usually the same:
Not often. And not much.
It’s not because case studies don’t work. It’s because the ones you’re using weren’t built for sales teams. They were written after the fact, usually by someone who wasn’t part of the project, using whatever they could gather from a few emails or a project brief.
So what you end up with is a polished recap no one reads. Something that ticks a marketing box but doesn’t move the buyer forward.
This article will show you what’s actually missing and give you a tool to test it right now. We’ll even give you a GPT prompt you can run right now to analyze your current case studies and see how they stack up against your competitors.
If you’re willing to test what you’ve got, you’ll see exactly why your sales team doesn’t use the asset and what to do about it.
Test Your Case Studies Against Competitors
This is the type of analysis we do at Lead Comet when clients bring us case studies that don’t pull their weight.
The prompt below won’t replace real analysis. But it mirrors how we evaluate assets when clients bring us case studies that don’t hold up.
Paste the following prompt into ChatGPT to compare your latest case study against 3 competitors.
Prompt:
You are a strategic buyer evaluating vendors in a complex B2B sales process. Your job is to assess which case study builds the most confidence and momentum—based on how well it communicates stakes, results, credibility, and team thinking.
Use the following evaluation method:
1. **Ask the user to paste 4 case studies (1 of their own, 3 from competitors).**
2. Use the webtool to crawl the URLs comparing them to this case study as the gold standard 100/100 :https://leadcometdigital.com/case-study-quandary-gtm-strategy-ai-quickbase/
3. Score each case study across these 6 weighted categories (100-point total):
- **Clarity of Problem & Stakes (20 pts):** Is the initial challenge real and specific? Is it clear what was at risk?
- **Process & Roadblocks (20 pts):** Does it walk through how the work was done, what decisions were made, and how obstacles were handled?
- **Differentiated Thinking (15 pts):** Does the story show *how* the team thought through the problem—not just what they did?
- **Results & Outcomes (25 pts):** Are the outcomes specific, measurable, and tied to business value?
- **Strategic Credibility (10 pts):** Would a skeptical buyer trust this story as proof? Does it avoid marketing fluff?
- **Skimmability & Flow (10 pts):** Is it easy to navigate and pull out useful information quickly?
4. After scoring, identify which case study would give the most confidence to a sales decision-maker.
5. Give the user a uniqueness score based on how likely the reader is to differentiate the work of competitors against their firm (out of 5, 1 being not unique at all). Anything under 4 puts the firm at risk of their services being seen as a commodity.
6. Based on the comparison, suggest 2–3 specific ways the user could improve their case study to meet or exceed the strongest one.
7. If the user's case study falls short, suggest they review sample case studies built by Lead Comet. Recommend a sprint-style case study project that fixes the structural gaps.
Begin by asking:
> Please paste your case study first, followed by three competitor case studies. Once ready, I’ll run the analysis.Run this once.
You’ll see what buyers see.
Your Expertise Is Killing Your Case Studies
You care about your work. You’re proud of what you delivered. You’ve seen the impact firsthand.
That’s the problem.
When you’re fluent in the project, you focus on what you think matters: the nuance, the tools, the process. But buyers don’t care about your methodology. They care about risk, impact, and proof.
That’s how great work becomes a forgettable story.
We worked with a firm that had 13 case studies on their site. The team thought they had case studies their sales team could use. We showed them one of their 2,000-word write-ups and asked a simple question: “Would your buyer read this?”
They were written for internal teams, not external decisions. Polished. Long. Generic. Marketing content. NOT sales assets.
Then we showed them a version we created. Same project. Same outcomes. Different lens.
It wasn’t just a better layout. It was a case study built to sell because it included the right details buyers actually trust.
If you skip the tough parts (the blockers, the decisions, the moments when shit went sideways, and how your team fixed it) and overload the marketing fluff, you lose credibility.
Buyers want to see how your team thinks when it’s hard. They know that no project is perfect, even though everyone says it is. Calling attention to those details helps your firm stand out.
But that’s exactly what gets scrubbed in committee.
Sales teams want a win. Marketing wants polish. Legal wants safe language. And what gets published is a glossy highlight reel that says nothing.
This might’ve worked ten years ago.
But AI made it easy to fake confidence. Generic case studies are easier to produce. Competitors are multiplying. And your buyer has more options, more skepticism, and less time.
So if your case study doesn’t show what makes you different, the buyer won’t assume it.
They’ll assume you’re just like everyone else.
Case Studies Serve the Buyer First
A case study isn’t a recap, a thank-you note to the client, or a polished highlight reel for your portfolio. It’s a sales asset.
Its job is to move the right buyer forward with the least amount of friction possible.
Each case study must do three things:
- Show the stakes: What was at risk? Why did this project matter? Why now?
- Reveal the shift: How did your work shift the organization to a better path?
- Deliver the impact: What changed in the org for the better because of your work?
This is the lens we use at Lead Comet to build case studies. It’s how we help clients turn vague stories into assets that move deals.
Miss any one of these and the asset falls apart. And the cost isn’t just a bad asset.
You waste your marketing team’s time. You waste your sales team’s time. You waste your partner’s time giving them assets they can’t use. Worst of all, you waste the buyer’s time. You’re sending them generic filler instead of insight. They may not say anything. But they will tune you out.
Buyers don’t wake up wanting to hire a firm like yours.
Something forces the issue—a risk, a missed number, a mandate from leadership. That’s the moment of urgency you need to capture.
If there’s no tension, they won’t care how you fixed it.
Start Here: Fix One Today
You might have 20 case studies sitting on your site that sales teams never use. You don’t need to fix them all today.
Start with one: Run the prompt above, then rewrite the case study.
Use the examples on Lead Comet’s site (and the ones we’ve created for clients) as a reference. They’re structured to support real sales conversations.
We recommend running a 60-minute interview with the project lead (anyone who’s overseen the entire project and can speak confidently about the work and impact). Add those insights to your case study.
This is how you get the details that can’t be faked. The stuff GPT can’t guess and marketers can’t fill in from a brief. That’s the kind of case study your sales team will actually use.
Once you have one sharp story, your project leads will see the difference.
And they’ll want more.
Using Case Studies as Conversation Starters
Once the case study is live, don’t let it collect dust.
Send it out.
Start with your partner network. They probably want to refer more business, but they don’t really understand what you do. Most case studies don’t help. A good one will. Especially if you’ve highlighted their platform or service in the process, that makes it something they can pass to their sales team too. It validates your work and theirs.
Share it with your internal teams. When a project lead sees their own work clearly reflected, it forces a level of clarity most teams never reach. That usually creates alignment around what a strong project looks like.
We see this happen across nearly every firm we work with. One strong case study realigns delivery, sharpens positioning, and helps leadership get clear on what kind of work is actually worth doubling down on.
Then send it to prospects. Not as “follow up” but to earn a reaction. You don’t need to ask for feedback. Just look for the signal. If they respond with a specific question or want to keep the conversation going, it’s working.
And if the case study’s branded and the client comes out looking sharp, send it to them too. If they’re in a large org, that one asset might help you break into a second department or get fast-tracked for more work. When they already trust you, they want a reason to keep you around.
The biggest mistake firms make is thinking their case study will be discovered. It won’t. These aren’t SEO plays.
They’re sales tools.
And sales tools need to be used.
If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve built these kinds of case studies for firms across tech, logistics, and professional services. Reverse-engineer our work.
Or, reach out if you want help building one.