Testimonials - how many sales people earn them?
Posted Tuesday, February 14, 2007
Here’s a challenge from one avid reader of my blogs and articles, Allan Heller:
Allan says:
“If the client truly "loves you" will he or she put it in writing and recommend you?
In my humble opinion, testimonial letters from clients ‘in love with you’ are worth their weight in gold.
BUT how many sales people ask for them? I always do and I proudly carry my testimonials every time I go on sales calls!
They are great to point to and show proudly - and they provide instant credibility, reinforce your product or service quality, differentiate you and give you a competitive edge.
How many of your readers have at least 3 testimonial letters from clients in love with them?
Allan has thrown down the gauntlet, I’d say! And I know that he has a whole binder full of client kudos to show for his effort and his focused customer service – I’ve seen it!
Hey, but what if you go ahead and actively pursue testimonials as he recommends… but then have a hard time getting anything BACK from your clients in writing?
Don’t’ worry, it seems everyone does. (Except probably Allan!)
No matter how much they say they love and cherish you, I haven’t seen too many clients volunteer to heap public praise upon a salesperson or vendor. It’s not a power play. It’s not forgetfulness either. That hesitancy is something else altogether. It’s this in a nutshell: they don’t like to write.
Now if you would deliberately interview your clients, the outcome might be completely different. That way they won’t have to put words on paper. You will.
My theory is that this client reluctance to write is the reason that you get ho-hum testimonials when they finally do respond (or should I say, succumb) to your entreaties.
You call and cajole until they know they have to write SOMETHING – but what?
Usually the paragraph they come up with has all the zippy life of a freshman book review. “Nick is a good speaker and I would recommend him to anyone who is looking for a speaker at their speaking event.”
Yawn.
What’s missing is all the particulars. People are moved by specifics, not by generalities. The only way to get a bunch of testimonials onto your website, ones that will MOVE people to engage your services or buy your product, is to volunteer to write them, yourself.
Hey, don’t say you’re going to put words in their mouths (corporate staff will really shy away from that since everything has to be approved by legal before it’s published). Instead say you’d like to interview them about their experience working with you and that you’ll write the testimonial for their approval. Set a time to call and then talk to your client just like a journalist would.
How do you compare to other service providers? How did your product perform versus your competitor’s? What is the single word that comes to mind when the client thinks about YOU. What are 4 things you provide that she values highly? Ask her not to edit her thoughts but to speak candidly. (You can always edit this yourself before submitting for approval!)
Encourage clients to let their thoughts FLOW but give them lots of openings and hit on several topics before the call’s over.
Finally, ask pointed questions about the comments they just volunteered. Like a newspaper reporter would.
Can they put numbers to the improvements they have noticed since hiring you or buying your product? Can they quantify their happiness with you? Could they give a percentage to that satisfaction even? That’s an unusual question, maybe, but won’t it be eye-catching on your website when ‘100% of our customers are 100% satisfied with our product’ is your banner headline!
Do they have any reservations though? Is anything holding them back from a full ‘Atta Boy’? Ask now for two reasons: a) it will get it off their chest and you can then seek to make improvements in the future and b) you can include that little touch of ‘clay feet’ to make your published testimonials seem all the more credible.
Doing the interview yourself and then writing the testimonial for the client’s final approval, takes the burden off the beleaguered client AND let’s you in on her true feelings. (You’ll probably be happy with what you hear.) And when the time comes to write it all down on paper, you can make the most out of what the client told you and play back to her your ‘best and brightest’ moments.
Since you’ll be asking the questions, you can also skew them to make each testimonial cover entirely different aspects of your service provision or product features, so that a prospect or web visitor gets a full perspective on your powerhouse performance.
Now how about that challenge that Allan threw out –WHO has at least 3 testimonial letters from clients in their possession now? How about on their website? Are they recent? AND are they interesting to read? For every one of you who sends feedback this month saying you went out and followed Allan’s advice and got 3 raving testimonials and did it by interviewing the clients directly (and you have the dated & signed letters to prove it!)--- I will give Allan $5 earmarked for his favorite charity and you KUDOS on this blog and in my next newsletter.
Let’s show Allan how much we appreciate this sort of advice and challenge!
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