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Part 1 of a four part series by Michel Neray from choice Magazine
Sponsored by:
TESTIMONIALS:
How to use testimonials as a strategic competitive advantage in your sales and marketing
Part One: The Strategic Imperative For Testimonials
From consultants and advisors, from accountants to lawyers, from keynote speakers to trainers and facilitators, from health products to books, testimonials have become a universal fixture on websites and brochures.
In fact, so many of your successful businesses have testimonials that your potential customers and clients have come to expect them.
That's why it's not enough to simply have a few, random testimonials. As a coach just as in any service business, testimonials can be a strategic, competitive advantage only when you have a lot of different testimonials, and only when they say the right things about you and your business.
So how do you know if the testimonials you've got are working for you? And, if you don't have any testimonials yet, how do you go about getting ones that say the right things? That's what we'll explore in this series.
You'll learn:
- What makes a good testimonial, and what makes a great one.
- Three ways to solicit testimonials and even more ways to use unsolicited testimonials.
- The different types of testimonials you want to accumulate over time.
- Five Believability Enhancers.
What's more, you'll also write drafts of your 'dream' testimonials so you'll recognize a great one the second you hear or read it, even when it's unsolicited.
But first, let's explore why you need testimonials in the first place!
Two Obvious Reasons Why You Need Testimonials . . .
Chances are, you can already think of a few excellent reasons to incorporate testimonials in your sales and marketing efforts. Two of the most obvious reasons for why and how testimonials help you build your business are legitimacy and credibility.
When you say wonderful things about yourself, it can sound boastful. But, when other people say wonderful things about you, they add legitimacy and credibility to the claims you make and the benefits you promise.
And when you have many testimonials, there's an overwhelming psychological effect in the reader's or listener's mind- even the skeptic can't help thinking, 'So many people say that this works, it must be true!'
This is what Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence, calls 'Social Proof'(Cialdini 2001, 98-140). It's the same reason you laugh along with canned laughter in television shows, it's the reason you look up when there's a crowd of people looking up . . . and if a lot of people say a product or service works, it's also the reason you're more inclined to believe it.
But wait, there's more . . .
If you think legitimacy and credibility are the only reasons to gather and use testimonials in your sales and marketing, read on. You may find that some of the not-so-obvious reasons are just as important, and in some cases, even more important, than the obvious reasons.
And Six Not-So-Obvious Reasons Why You Need Testimonials
- Different testimonials for different challenges
Each potential customer has a nagging, skeptical thought in the back of their heads; 'It may have worked for them, but my situation is different.'
In order to increase their level of confidence in what you offer, you want to help people relate the solution you offer to their own specific circumstances - which they will almost always see as unique.
Think of testimonials as mini-case studies. By having many different testimonials, you have the opportunity to reinforce your primary Essential Message and extend your messaging to address the many different issues, challenges and skepticisms that people within your target audience are likely to have.
- The act of giving a testimonial adds value to your client.
This may be counter-intuitive, especially if you've always thought of testimonials as being self-serving, so let's consider this for a moment.
By giving a testimonial, you are helping your clients reflect on the value they have received from your product or service, and articulate it in concrete terms for themselves. This helps them consciously realize the improvement in their life and/or business and create a new baseline for further improvement.
In other words, it accelerates the progress they themselves are seeking.
- The act of giving a testimonial strengthens your client relationship - and along with it loyalty, positive perception and willingness to refer.
To understand how this happens, I will again refer to Robert Cialdini's book, Influence. Robert describes how human beings are all wired 'to be and look consistent within their words, beliefs, attitudes, and deeds.'(Cialdini 2001, 52-95).
Even a seemingly trivial request or concession - such as giving a testimonial - can have a profound effect on future behavior. By giving you a testimonial and then signing his or her name to it, your client is implanting a positive pattern in their brain that they will want to be consistent with through ongoing loyalty, positive perception and willingness to refer.
In other words, the subconscious mind says, 'if I thought and publicly said such wonderful things about you once, then I must continue to behave in a way that makes that true.'
- Testimonials give you an excellent opportunity to research and refine your Essential Message.
Every successful business depends on customer feedback to continually improve their service, products and messaging. As you'll see later in this Essential Message eLearning Workbook, the best testimonials have several components that link to different aspects of your Essential Message. Whether you get an unsolicited testimonial or you have a deliberate conversation with a client, you may get new insights about the challenges you solve and the results you generate.
If the feedback you get through testimonials consistently highlights a valued result that you had not expected or anticipated, it may be time for you to revise your messaging!
- Citing a testimonial is a great way to answer the question, 'what do you do?'
Why not? Next time, instead of spouting off a boring positioning statement or a sickeningly clever tagline, answer, 'Maybe the best way to answer that is by telling you what a client told me just yesterday . . .'
It works.
- Getting testimonials increases your own confidence about the value you provide.
In the long run, this may be the most important reason of all. I don't know anyone who doesn't go through periods of insecurity and self-doubt.
With each testimonial I get, it's another confirmation that what I offer truly does work - and based on the fact that I have accumulated over 200 testimonials, most of them in a few short years - it works for a lot of different sizes and types of business.
When I experience a period of insecurity and self-doubt, I read the testimonials that my clients have freely given me as positive affirmations. That's why I am rigorous in getting testimonials that accurately reflect the true beliefs, results and opinions of the people who give them to me.
A 'fake' testimonial may fool a few potential clients, but it will never fool you.
Action Steps to Take Now:
Take a closer look at the list of obvious and not-so-obvious reasons to gather testimonials. Put a check mark beside each reason that you feel would be important to you in your business.
In Part 2, you'll learn the anatomy of a 'great' (as opposed to 'good') testimonial, and what key questions to ask when you're soliciting a testimonial from your clients.
ABOUT OUR AUTHOR:
In the past 25 years, Michel Neray has been an award-winning copywriter, an Internet pioneer, a tradeshow pitchman and a senior sales and marketing executive.
He created The Essential Message to help companies and individuals discover their true differentiation and communicate it in the absolute, most compelling way. Thousands of coaches, consultants, salespeople, and advisor-based businesses have used The Essential Message to turn more people into prospects, and more prospects into sales.
You can too.
Subscribe to Michel's free newsletter at www.essentialmessage.com
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