Tips for Engaging Public Sector Customers in Case Studies and Events

Susan Bell · 2025-08-01 22:57:57.686389+00

Hi all, has anyone worked with pub sec customers and had luck getting them to do case studies, be a reference, or webinar/event speaker? This is an area we are struggling with, and incentives don't work with this audience since they cant accept any kind of gift. Looking for any thoughts/ideas!

Tips for Engaging Public Sector Customers in Case Studies and Events | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

11 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Daniel Palay
·
🙋 i have lots of experiences with this as at my Job -1 we had a yearly Public Sector conference in DC where we needed to supply speakers.
Daniel Palay
·
So my recommendation is to concentate on two places:
Speakers -> Fed/Public Sector folks are generally more open to speaking as they can take a 'just the facts' approach to their presentations. This allows them to not seem like they are endorsing any one tool over another, but are instead just telling their story on how they did it for their department, etc.
Awards -> Public sector folks love applying for/receiving awards as it's a game of oneupsmanship against their fellow govys. Plus it's a sneaky way of highlighting use cases and logos from folks who wouldn't normally speak or be on the record.
💜1
🙌3
Dan Kalmar
·
Daniel Palay love those approaches! Curious if you then do anything after that? For example, do you create some sort of internal-only case study or sales slide that sales reps can speak to (anecdotally) on calls?
Evan Huck
·
Susan Bell this is a good thread that answers a similar challenges - https://cmaweekly.slack.com/archives/C06JXSTARJR/p1738680535717609 Blinded/Anon is definitely oen way to reduce the friction in addition to the approaches Daniel Palay suggested Here's a blog we published on this topic: https://userevidence.com/blog/what-to-do-when-your-customers-wont-go-on-the-record/
1
Sarah McCoy
·
I have experience with this and I'll just say it's a challenge no matter what! But totally agree that Daniel's ideas are spot on. I've been fortunate to work for companies where Pub Sector is a big priority so they actually have an event similar to the main US event but its a Gov version so it was a lot easier to convince them to speak and be engaged. Def speaking is a great way to build the relationship and eventually get permission for a case study, video, etc. At the end of the day, some just won't be able to get permission, but we had a lot of success w/ SLED because of relationships and having advocates who had enough clout within their org they could get it through. They really saw us as a technology partner, not just a vendor, which made all the difference.
Sarah McCoy
·
(Oh and we settled for some pretty big GOV customers to do anonymous case studies - no one's favorite, but Gov prospects totally get it, of course.)
👍1
Cassie Stevenson
·
This is always a tough one. On the federal side of things, I’ve had luck securing smaller agencies such as the postal service vs the Department of Defense. At the time they let us do a press release rather than a case study. It’s also easier to get SLED customers than federal. While your federal sales team will always prefer those customers, state and local references can still help them as you build things out. We had a public sector-focused logo slide the sales team used under NDA that was quite powerful. I agree with Sara about events and speaking too—although everything is so tumultuous right now it would be tricky to plan something and (sadly) compile a solid invite list.
👍1
💡1
Susan Bell
·
TY everyone, this is great information. It sounds like anon stories and webinar/event speaking are the best bets. And TY Evan Huck,I hadn't seen the other thread! As a follow up question, how do you thank these customers other than a written note or phone call? Has anyone found anything they can accept?
Lauren Turner
·
+1 on Daniel Palay’s suggestion! Donations to a favorite charity in the customer’s name may potentially be accepted, since nothing is being handed to the customer personally. Though I’d say with what’s going on with DOGE, be sensitive to folks in the public sector right now—they may likely be stressed about their job security. Connect with them as humans first.
👍1
💯2
Evan Huck
·
In my experience Susan Bell in incentivizing pub sec to take surveys, leave g2 reviews etc s lot of them appreciate and are comfortable w a donation to a charity of their choice on their behalf
👍1
Daniel Palay
·
Dan Kalmar to answer your question, we record all of our conference sessions and post them online afterwards. So we don't really need to write anything up even anonymously to make it available for folks to share. That said, we did build slides out of them to make it easier for the sales folks to use them in their presentations.
👍1

Daniel Palay
·
🙋 i have lots of experiences with this as at my Job -1 we had a yearly Public Sector conference in DC where we needed to supply speakers.
Daniel Palay
·
So my recommendation is to concentate on two places:
Speakers -> Fed/Public Sector folks are generally more open to speaking as they can take a 'just the facts' approach to their presentations. This allows them to not seem like they are endorsing any one tool over another, but are instead just telling their story on how they did it for their department, etc.
Awards -> Public sector folks love applying for/receiving awards as it's a game of oneupsmanship against their fellow govys. Plus it's a sneaky way of highlighting use cases and logos from folks who wouldn't normally speak or be on the record.
💜1
🙌3
Dan Kalmar
·
Daniel Palay love those approaches! Curious if you then do anything after that? For example, do you create some sort of internal-only case study or sales slide that sales reps can speak to (anecdotally) on calls?
Evan Huck
·
Susan Bell this is a good thread that answers a similar challenges - https://cmaweekly.slack.com/archives/C06JXSTARJR/p1738680535717609 Blinded/Anon is definitely oen way to reduce the friction in addition to the approaches Daniel Palay suggested Here's a blog we published on this topic: https://userevidence.com/blog/what-to-do-when-your-customers-wont-go-on-the-record/
1
Sarah McCoy
·
I have experience with this and I'll just say it's a challenge no matter what! But totally agree that Daniel's ideas are spot on. I've been fortunate to work for companies where Pub Sector is a big priority so they actually have an event similar to the main US event but its a Gov version so it was a lot easier to convince them to speak and be engaged. Def speaking is a great way to build the relationship and eventually get permission for a case study, video, etc. At the end of the day, some just won't be able to get permission, but we had a lot of success w/ SLED because of relationships and having advocates who had enough clout within their org they could get it through. They really saw us as a technology partner, not just a vendor, which made all the difference.
Sarah McCoy
·
(Oh and we settled for some pretty big GOV customers to do anonymous case studies - no one's favorite, but Gov prospects totally get it, of course.)
👍1
Cassie Stevenson
·
This is always a tough one. On the federal side of things, I’ve had luck securing smaller agencies such as the postal service vs the Department of Defense. At the time they let us do a press release rather than a case study. It’s also easier to get SLED customers than federal. While your federal sales team will always prefer those customers, state and local references can still help them as you build things out. We had a public sector-focused logo slide the sales team used under NDA that was quite powerful. I agree with Sara about events and speaking too—although everything is so tumultuous right now it would be tricky to plan something and (sadly) compile a solid invite list.
👍1
💡1
Susan Bell
·
TY everyone, this is great information. It sounds like anon stories and webinar/event speaking are the best bets. And TY Evan Huck,I hadn't seen the other thread! As a follow up question, how do you thank these customers other than a written note or phone call? Has anyone found anything they can accept?
Lauren Turner
·
+1 on Daniel Palay’s suggestion! Donations to a favorite charity in the customer’s name may potentially be accepted, since nothing is being handed to the customer personally. Though I’d say with what’s going on with DOGE, be sensitive to folks in the public sector right now—they may likely be stressed about their job security. Connect with them as humans first.
👍1
💯2
Evan Huck
·
In my experience Susan Bell in incentivizing pub sec to take surveys, leave g2 reviews etc s lot of them appreciate and are comfortable w a donation to a charity of their choice on their behalf
👍1
Daniel Palay
·
Dan Kalmar to answer your question, we record all of our conference sessions and post them online afterwards. So we don't really need to write anything up even anonymously to make it available for folks to share. That said, we did build slides out of them to make it easier for the sales folks to use them in their presentations.
👍1