What evidence can support a claim of greater durability?
Candidates are laboratory or bench tests, third-party reports, records of service life from installed units, maintenance and replacement history, failure analyses and the technical documents of materials and design. Each has a different weight and a different limit. A claim is stronger when it can point to more than one kind, and weaker when it rests only on the manufacturer’s statement.
How do I present test results and field results, each with its context?
Keep them apart and label them. A test result says what happened under controlled conditions and a defined method; a field result says what happened in a real operation, with its own variables. Neither replaces the other. Give each its method or operating context, the period, the sample, and what was not measured. Mixing them in a single sentence makes both harder to trust.
Which conditions must accompany a performance figure?
The method or applicable standard, the load or regime, the environment, the maintenance applied, the period observed, the reference it was compared with and the date. Without these, the number cannot be reproduced or compared with a competitor’s. Where a standard applies, cite it as “the applicable standard” with its identification only when you can confirm it. The same discipline underlies the comparison in comparing industrial proposals.
How do I use an application case without implying the result will be the same in any operation?
Describe the operation first: the application, regime, environment and period. Then give the result as observed there, and state which conditions would change it. Close with what the buyer should check in their own operation to know whether the case is comparable. A case with permission from the customer and its limits stated is evidence; a case presented as a guarantee is a promise the supplier cannot keep.
A claim without a source is a task, not a message.
For the buyer-side path, see engineering approves, purchasing asks for the lowest price.
A matrix of claims and proof, with source, conditions and limits
| Claim | Proof | Source | Conditions | Limits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longer service life (illustrative values) | Bench test report; field records of 12 installed units | Supplier laboratory, 2025; customer maintenance team | Continuous duty, abrasive fluid, quarterly inspection | Not validated above the tested temperature | Ready |
| Higher performance (illustrative values) | Measured flow at rated load | Applicable standard: to be identified | Rated load; compared with the previous model | Partial load not measured | To be verified |
| Lower maintenance effort | Maintenance records, procedure | Customer or service team | Period observed | Sample size | Ready / to be verified |
| Application case | Documented operation and result | Customer authorization | Operation described | Not a guarantee for other operations | Ready / to be verified |
Fill it in with engineering and sales together. Every row marked “to be verified” generates a task before publication: find the document, run the measurement or remove the claim from the material. If the company still cannot prove a claim, the commercial speech should change to what it can prove today. Once a claim is verified, publish it where a buyer and an AI system can read it, as in HTML datasheet versus PDF.
Frequently asked questions
We promise more durability and performance. How do we prove it to the customer? +
What evidence can support a claim of greater durability? +
How do I present test results and field results with their contexts? +
Which conditions must accompany a performance figure? +
How do I use an application case without implying the same result everywhere? +
What should change in the sales pitch if we cannot yet prove a claim? +
Who should build the claims and proof matrix? +
Can I cite a standard without naming its number? +
Which of your claims can already be proven?
Bring a product line or priority application and the claims you use most in proposals. We map which ones have evidence and which need verification first.