If you don't regularly showcase customer testimonials in your advertising, you are missing a major trick. To get started, you need to have a bunch of great comments from your clients that show off your services and products to best effect. Using testimonials is probably the easiest way to increase your sales. Keep reading to learn more. We all know the power of having a product or service recommended by friends and relatives - it makes us far more likely to buy, but why? Professor Robert Cialdini spent many years researching the way that sales people influence us to buy from them, writing a book about it that's become a top seller amongst savvy marketers. For a period of some 36 months, Robert applied for sales jobs with various organisations, received their training and then watched the psychological strategies employed to turn prospects into customers. From his research, he discovered that all of the different tactics could be condensed into just 6 broad strategies for persuasion. It's worth reading the book just to prepare yourself for the next visit to a car dealership! When you demonstrate the value of your products to real people, using testimonials, you are employing one of these core influence strategies. So let's now explore what you need to gather for testimonials. You need to avoid the kind of testimonial that states, "Bill's a great baker and somebody I like to call a friend." The problem with this testimonial is that there's nothing very tangible or solid to hang your hat on. In fact it sounds almost like you've paid somebody to write something nice about you, rather than having a genuine comment from a client. To be effective at persuading your a new customer to buy, you need testimonials that quote specific aspects of your service and why they love it.. A stronger testimonial might say, "Bill's bread has the most incredible crust that doesn't go thick and hard as it ages. We have been customers for 17 years and they have always delivered on time. Bill is also very responsive if we run out and need a top-up delivery due to busy lunch trade. In the past, other bakeries have not really understood what we need as a commercial customer and that's what makes Blogg's stand out for us." It's the details that make the second testimonial so much more powerful than the first. Somebody reading this second testimonial will see immediately that the message has some details and identifies factors that matter. It's customer feedback like this that can really help to get new customers to come on board with you. You're not doubt getting the idea of just how much of a difference you can make with the right kind of testimonials. So how do you get testimonials to use in your marketing? It's starts with asking them! You can probably get a testimonial from around 25-50% of your customers just by asking. Many of your customers will probably tell you to write it for them and they'll sign it. Most just use whatever you write as a prompt to remind them about what you value, and they'll write it in their own words and almost certainly be a lot more generous in their praise of your services than you were. Now you have a bunch of testimonials, be sure to make use of them effectively. Use a strong phrase from a testimonial as a headline or sub-heading in a sales letter, use them on your business signage, include them underneath the signature in your email messages Now you've got the strategy, I recommend you take action and go do something with it!
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Do you systematically use testimonials in your marketing and sales presentations? With around 8-10 testimonials, which can be written, audio or even video, you are in a position to get started. This is an easy way to improve your sales and conversion rates. Keep reading to learn more.
The following links provide some powerful samples of testimonials. One's from a member of the Chris Cardell VIP membership forum. There are other examples too on a business coaching site.
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