Business Tips: How to get and use testimonials

Copyright 1998 Bob Leduc

One of the most valuable marketing tools for a business is the testimonials it receives from satisfied customers. Yet, many businesses never use these testimonials in their sales efforts.

Testimonials are valuable proof to prospective customers that your product or service actually delivers the benefit you claim it will. In some ways, testimonials are like referrals. A customer coming to you by referral from one of their friends or acquaintances is already pre-committed to
do business with you. You don't have to convince them that your product or service will provide the benefit they seek.

Your ability to deliver is already "guaranteed" by the person giving the referral. Testimonials from satisfied customers provide that same assurance to a potential customer coming to you without a
referral. In every test I performed using the same messages with and without testimonials, those with testimonials increased sales, often by as much as 65% or more.

HOW TO GET GOOD TESTIMONIALS

Satisfied customers will occasionally call or write to you expressing their appreciation without any prompting from you. If you've been in business for some time you probably already have a file of these. However, if you're new in business you may have few or none of these "spontaneous
testimonials". How can you get some... and get them fast?

Here's a simple procedure any business can use effectively.
A short time after completing a transaction, send your customer or client a personal postcard asking what they liked best about your product or service. You'll be amazed at some of the glowing comments you'll get. When you receive comments you want to use in your advertising, simply ask the customer to sign a release giving you permission to quote those comments in your promotional material.

The release form I use includes the full text of the customer's comments. I request permission to use the comments "in complete or edited form" so I can shorten the text when it's too long. I also request permission to use the customer's name, city and state so it appears as "Ann Smith, Austin, TX" instead of "A.S., TX". The customer's privacy is protected by omitting the street address.

HOW TO USE TESTIMONIALS EFFECTIVELY

My online and print sales letters usually include 3 testimonials. Each one is only 2 or 3 lines plus the
customer's name, city and state. Be sure to select testimonials stating a specific benefit gained by using your product or service. A testimonial saying, "I bought your widget and am very happy with it" won't motivate anybody else to buy your widget. Instead, use testimonials like this actual testimonial I received from one of my customers:   "Hi Bob. I purchased your manual and used one of the ideas to do a mailing which received about a 10% response rate." That's a powerful testimonial and I use it regularly in my promotional material. It states specifically what the customer gained by ordering my manual.

What do testimonials cost? Nothing! They're FREE! I've learned by experience that some customers get offended if I offer to pay for the right to quote their comments. Therefore, I don't offer any compensation. I simply send the release form with a pre-stamped return envelope and ask them to sign and return the form. I don't remember the last time somebody refused my request.

If you're not using testimonials in your promotional material, start using them today. Begin by looking in your customer files for comments you can use. Send postcards to some recent customers asking what they liked most about your product or service. Get permission to quote their comments
and include them in your sales material. You'll soon discover FREE testimonials have the amazing power to increase your sales and profits without increasing your costs.

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Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help
small businesses grow and prosper. For more information...
Email: BobLeduc @aol.com  Subject: "Postcards".
Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time)
Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133

Business Excellence Resources

Success in business depends on preparation. Those who wing it are those who fail. But don't prepare just in your area of technical expertise. Prepare there, yes. But also:

• Keep learning about your own field. There's a reason why state licensing boards require continuing education. Apply this same concept to whatever areas you work in. If you are licensed as, say, a CPA, then continue your education also in the areas of customer service, productivity, time management, and other areas that will help you do your job better, faster, and at more of a competitive advantage.
• Learn about related fields. For example, sales people should learn about marketing and operations. This helps you when promotions are considered.
• Network. Get to know people. Ask them about what they do. Show an interest.
• Establish your presence in your professional organizations. Join the top two or three of these organizations, and attend meetings. Become an officer in one, and take that position very seriously.
• Play nice. No matter how good you are, your career is going to stall if people don't like you. So show respect and be fair. Don't worry about popularity, worry about your reputation.
• Know your business goals. Often, people let themselves get diverted from their business goals. They start staying busy, instead of focusing their time and other resources on their business goals. Remind yourself daily about why you are doing the job you do.
• Respect your customers. The customer isn't always right, but the customer always deserves your respect.
• Differentiate. Rather than copy a competitor, offer something a little different. But make it something worth the customer's attention. For example, is there a small annoyance that's common in your industry but that you can eliminate?
• Offer value. Don't compete on price alone; that's a race to the bottom. People will pay for value, so provide that and charge reasonably for it.
• Keep moving. What worked even a few months ago may not work now. Don't change your core values (integrity, great customer service, good quality, etc.), but do examine your offerings, business processes, and anything else that affects the price of what you sell or the quality of the customer experience. Do this on a continual basis, and you won't get stale.