You know about testimonials – those little blurbs from customers that tell prospects how great a product or service is.

But did you also know that over 70% of customers look at product reviews before buying? And 90% of participants in a Zendesk survey say they were influenced in their buying decisions by positive reviews.

According to research firm McKinsey, customers that come in through the advocacy of other customers actually stay longer and pay you more over time.

And it gets even better, because according to Influitive, customers who advocate for you will actually stay longer and pay you more.

Talk about a win-win-win, with YOU coming out as the biggest winner of all.

But getting testimonials can be a problem. Business people don’t want to ask for them or don’t know HOW to ask for them. And customers, while they might want to give them, don’t know how.

That’s why we’re going to show you exactly what to ask to get testimonials, how to use the testimonials to overcome the biggest objections of your prospects, and even how to get testimonials without asking.

First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room – that is, the problem with 90+% of testimonials out there right now…

“I don’t believe it!”

The problem – and it’s a big problem – with testimonials is they tend to be too sugary. Too positive. Too… unbelievable.

“Since I bought the ABC Super Scooper Money Making Machine, I’ve made so much money I dumped my wife of 22 years and I married 18 year old super model triplets. I now own 16 homes, 83 cars and my own personal rocket ship to Mars. Plus my skin rash cleared up real nice and I’m about to buy a big yacht and an island and become president of a South American country. Let me tell you, that was the best $19.95 I ever spent!”

Yup.

Uh-huh.

You believe that, don’t you?

Me neither.

Testimonials are a lot like resumes…

What happens when you hand your snazzy jazzy resume to a hiring manager? Sure, they read it. But do they BELIEVE it? Nope. If they did, they wouldn’t do all that digging into your past, your social media accounts, your previous employers, your college records and your references.

Why don’t they believe what they read in resumes?

Two reasons:

1. A lot of people ‘pad’ their resume, making themselves sound better than they are. And since they don’t know you, they just have to assume you’re padding until proven otherwise.

2. It’s all positive. Nearly nobody every puts anything negative on a resume. “That company canned me because I didn’t do a darn thing for 8 months but play video games on the computer and play with the company dog.”

And what does this teach us about why people don’t believe testimonials?

1. A lot of testimonials are fake, or at least people perceive them as being fake

2. The reason they think they’re fake is because they’re all positive – sometimes ridiculously positive – like the example at the beginning of this article.

With those two strikes going against you, how do you get real testimonials that people BELIEVE?

By getting believable testimonials.

Which brings us to the question:

What makes a testimonial believable?

If the testimonial starts out on a negative note, people’s defenses go down and they your credibility goes up. In fact, not only does a bit of negativity ring true and become believable, but there’s a second benefit as well:

Because the testimonial starts out negative, people are captivated into reading it from start to finish.

Let’s say a friend is recommending an auto mechanic to you. What might they say?

“You know that repair shop on 5th and Vine, the one in the tacky yellow building? Well I went in there the other day because something was wrong with my car.

The place came highly recommended, but I gotta tell you when I walked through the door, I wasn’t too sure. It didn’t look nearly as modern as the repair shop at the dealership.

But they took great care of me and my car. They diagnosed the problem in minutes, told me exactly what was wrong and how long it would take to fix it.

It cost way less than I thought it would, and they had me back on the road in 40 minutes. I was so impressed.

The last time I went to the dealership they tried to upsell me on a bunch of stuff and I know they overcharged for what I let them do. I’ll never go back to the dealership again.

That repair shop might look a little funky, but the mechanics are top notch, fast and friendly, and they don’t try to rip you off.”

Notice how different this testimonial is from most of the testimonials you see online. This one starts out negative, talking about “the tacky yellow building,” and “it didn’t look nearly as modern as the repair shop at the dealership.”

And near the close it gets negative again, saying “That repair shop might look a little funky.”

But there is no doubt the author of the testimonial is thrilled with the service he received and the price he paid.

THIS is a testimonial people will believe.

In fact, if you have several of these kinds of testimonials, half your job of selling will be done for you.

That’s because your customers will be overcoming prospect’s objections for you, in a way you alone could never do.

Just imagine, you haven’t written one word of your sales letter or sales video yet, and you already have half of your selling done.

How sweet would that be?

We’re going to teach you right here and now how to do this in your own business for your own products, with REAL life customers and real life testimonials composed by your customers.

Your prospect’s mindset:

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that your prospect is skeptical. She’s skeptical of your product, your claims and possibly even your industry. She’s been scammed before and she’s heard of numerous other people buying products that didn’t do what they said they would do.

In a word, she doesn’t believe you.

Not yet.

That’s why when you hit her with “This is the world’s greatest product ever!” type of testimonials, you’re not getting through to her.

You’ve got to start where she is in her thinking, take her hand, and lead her to where you want her to go.

And she’s thinking, “I don’t believe this!”

That’s why testimonials that start out with some variation of what she’s already thinking are so powerful.

“I was skeptical this could even work so imagine my surprise when… ”

“I had tried so many things before, I didn’t think this would work either. But it was the only thing I hadn’t tried yet, so I gave it a shot and… ”

“I was sure the investment was too high, but when I got the results I realized it was the greatest bargain I’d gotten in years… ”

“I thought the whole process would be too difficult for me, but once I tried it… ”

“I hated the product name, I didn’t like the way it looked, but the first time I used it I became a believer because… ”

So how do you get testimonials that answer the objections of your prospects?

By asking your existing customers a very specific set of questions. Here’s how:

Testimonial Questions:

Whether you’re writing to your customers or calling them on the phone, you’re going to ask them the following questions, in order (feel free to adapt these to your business as you see fit.)

1. What was your main concern when deciding to buy this product?

2. What did you discover as a result of buying and using this product?

3. What is your favorite feature of this product, and why?

4. What are 3 other benefits of this product?

5. Would you recommend this product to others? If so, why?

6. What else can you tell us about your experience with this product?

Let’s break down the reasoning behind each question:

1. What was your main concern when deciding to buy this product?

This is where you’re going to uncover the main objection the customer had to purchasing your product.

As you do more of these, you’ll likely notice a pattern of just a handful of objections buyers had. This tells you what the issues are and how to handle them in your sales copy. And it often provides you insights you may not have considered.

2. What did you discover as a result of buying and using this product?

This question is the flip side of the objection. “I had this (objection) but when I bought the product I discovered that the purchase was worth it because… ”

For example, “I thought it was priced too high, but once I got it I realized it gave me 10 times the value of any competitor. I’m amazed they don’t charge more.”

3. What is your favorite feature of this product, and why?

You want specifics here, which is why you’re only asking about that ONE favorite feature. For example, saying the product is great isn’t going to make any sales. But saying the secret revealed on page 44 made them an extra $1000 a week is going to sell your product like hotcakes.

4. What are 2 or 3 other things you like about this product?

You’ve got their favorite feature, so why not see what else they like about your product? You might be surprised by some of the answers you get.

5. Would you recommend this product to others? If so, why?

Now you’re asking your customer to put their own reputation on the line. If they’re willing to, then it’s clear to prospects they really do believe in your product.

6. What else would you like to tell us about your experience with this product?

This is a wild card because you never know what they’re going to say. They might reveal something that could be improved, a feature you didn’t consider important that they love, or a unique way of using your product that you haven’t even thought of before.

From the answers you get from these six questions, you can compile a testimonial that rocks. When you do, be sure to send it to your customer for their final approval. Yes, they did say every single thing you’ve compiled into the testimonials, but you still want to get their final approval to use it.

Answering Specific Objections

This is an advanced technique that is a slight variation of what you did above, and it goes like this:

Let’s say you keep getting the same objection from prospects – for example, your product costs too much.

You might already have some testimonials that cover this objection, but if you don’t, then you can go to your customers and ask them directly, “Did you think the investment in the product might be too high?” If they say yes, ask follow up questions. If not, that’s okay.

So let’s say they said yes, they initially thought the price was just too much. Ask them why they went ahead and bought anyway. Do they now feel it was worth the investment, and if so, why?Knowing what they know now and after getting the value or benefits from the product, do they still think it was too high, or did they make a good decision / return on their investment?And so forth.

In just an hour of phone calling or emailing, you can accumulate a half dozen testimonials that strike right at the heart of an objection. And you can do this for every single objection that you repeatedly get from prospects.

Do you see how powerful this is?

“But what if I don’t have any customers yet?”

The fastest way to get some great testimonials is to give your product away to people in your niche, in return for their feedback.

This doesn’t mean randomly giving it to every person you can find. Instead, hand select your ‘guinea pigs’ to try your product.

Ideally you want people whose opinions are respected and trusted. For example, if your niche is online marketing, you can go to established online marketers and ask them to review your product. Some will, some won’t, and that’s okay.

And if you need a specific objection answered – such as price in the example above – be sure to ask a question such as… “Do you believe this is a terrific deal, considering everything the customer gets for this price? Why?”

For those watching closely – yes, that was a leading question. We didn’t ask what they thought of the price, we asked if they considered it to be a terrific deal. Not a good deal, or an okay deal, but a great one. Remember, they are still free to answer any way they choose. But it doesn’t hurt to help them just a bit by pointing them in the right direction.

“HELP! I’m afraid to ask for testimonials. What should I do?”

First, if you go back to those 6 questions above, you might notice something missing. Never did we ask for a testimonial. Never. We are simply asking for feedback.

And if the feedback is positive, we’re going to use it as a testimonial. If the feedback is negative, hopefully we’re going to correct the situation and make it right with the customer. (Unless, of course, if the feedback is ridiculous. Like, “This $20 sweater didn’t get me an A on my algebra test!” or some such.)

So you’re not asking for a testimonial, you’re asking for feedback. If you like what they wrote, THEN you ask permission to use it as a testimonial.

That’s part one to my answer on how to get testimonials without asking for testimonials.

Part two is kinds sneaky, and it works like this:

Sometime in your product’s life span, there are likely some milestones built into it. For example, if it’s a course on how to build an online business, the first milestone might be to build a website.

Now then, how does your customer feel when they’ve reached this milestone? Probably pretty fantastic.

So why not build a questionnaire right into your course at that point that asks for feedback?

Simply ask them about their experience with your product or service.

“Hey Joe, congrats on building your first website… what’s your experience with (this course) been like so far?”

This is really easy to do if you’re providing online courses. But in almost any form, there is a way to build it into the product.

And here’s the kicker – you might want to offer an incentive to get them to respond. In my experience, this will double and even triple the number of people who answer your questions.

Offer something that directly correlates with the product itself. Something useful that they likely want. And all they have to do is answer a handful of questions (six, perhaps?) and they get the reward.

If your career has gone off the road, take control and drive back to job satisfaction with a direct approach.

When you’re looking for that new job or a career move it’s easy to think that ‘they’ hold all the cards.

But if you can change the way you think about it, you can get back in the driving seat, and after all, this is your career we’re talking about.

Remember ‘they’ don’t hire you for the sake of it; they hire you to help them make a profit!

So two things first – how you are (attitude) and how you react (the way you see things)

1 Attitude

Everyone goes on about positive mental attitude, don’t they? But what does it mean?

To some extent we can all have some influence over what happens to us. I don’t mean to say that we can make everything go right all the time, but we can hold an attitude of expecting things to go right

If we expect things to go well they’re more likely to.

If we expect things to go badly they probably will.

So even if everything doesn’t go right we can get past the things that go wrong so much easier. This is what I mean by positive mental attitude.

2 The way you see things

o Instead of thinking they’re in charge, why not try ‘I’m in charge’

o Instead of waiting to be chosen, decide what you want and present some proposals;

o Instead of dreading interviews, think of yourself influencing key decision-makers;

o Instead of scouring the adverts, read them as sources of inside information;

o Instead of worrying about vacancies, think of them as needs waiting to be met;

o Instead of having to accept the offered terms, think how you can negotiate;

o Instead of them getting what they want, you both get what you want.

Job banks, search engines, job listings, and job guides are all useful tools in your employment search; however they won’t find you the unadvertised jobs. Statistics show that perhaps up to 60% of all jobs are unadvertised and are found informally – that is to say through networking and the direct approach – so the unadvertised jobs are what you really need to uncover.

You can uncover these unadvertised jobs and get back into the driving seat by putting together a carefully crafted direct approach letter.

This direct approach is no more and no less than a ‘marketing’ exercise to a specifically qualified target audience. It is NOT a mail-shot and certainly NOT ‘speculative’ letters that some people would have you waste your time writing.

Compared to a direct approach letter, the speculative letter or mail-shot is a complete waste of time, effort and possible opportunity. So don’t do it!

Why do I say that?

Because:

o A speculative mail-shot aims to cover as many possibilities as you can, so inherently it’s not specific to any particular reader.

o A speculative letter labels you as a jobseeker and gets sent to the Personnel Department (if they have one and it gets past the waste-basket).

o Unless you want to work for the Personnel Department (if they have one) that’s the last place you want your letter to go.

o Mail-shots in general usually have less than 2% response rate so to generate some interest, (even before an interview is offered) you’d have to spend maybe £300 on postage alone.

o This approach at best will bring you what ‘they’ think you should have, not necessarily what you want for yourself.

And the most important reason:

o Because you try to cover all the possible employers you then make it virtually impossible to approach them again or in any other way. (Oh yes, you already sent your details in to us didn’t you?)

So what should you do?

- Each direct approach must be tailor-made for the reader;

- Your letter must include a business proposition;

- Only address to the decision-maker who can employ you;

- Research the organisation in detail;

- Be businesslike and professional;

- Do NOT include your CV

You should also:

- Make it clear you would like to arrange a meeting;

- Be prepared to follow-up quickly once sent;

- Be persistent – they need you.

You already know there is so much more to job or career change than waiting for the right advert to appear so if you want to get back in the driving seat prepare a good direct approach.

Remember – fail to prepare – prepare to fail

Use your research and personal achievements to pack real benefits into your letter; the research you do will show you exactly what proposition you need to develop.

When a need exists because of…

o expansion or new locations;

o departure or retirement of employees;

o new product launches;

o new markets at home or overseas;

o downsizing (businesses often lose people they’d rather keep);

o change in legislation.

…somebody has the problem to solve.

You simply present yourself as the solution, and so remove their headache.

Use this direct approach as one of the main tactics in your overall career change strategy; your time is better spent on this and networking than scouring the papers for adverts to reply to.

With over 25 years running businesses; as a Career Coach and Consultant in many sectors; Peter Fisher is well placed to guide job seekers through the steps needed in order to achieve that all important new position.

Direct mail can be one of the most effective tactics to reach your target audience. Developing a strategy for direct mail is critical to obtaining the best ROI. If you just roll out any piece without a clear plan you are throwing your good marketing money away.

Here are some tips I recommend:

Get Direct Mail Sales Leads…

You can’t go wrong with these Brand-Aid tips:

1) Less is more- Sell the sizzle not the steak.

2) A package works better than a self mailer- A well crafted package can out pull a self mailer by a ratio of 4/1.

3) Personalize it- Computer personalization of the targets name will result in a higher response and deliver your brand in a more professional way.

4) Make it a no risk offer- Let your prospect know that they will receive free information with no risk or obligation.

5) Set a deadline- This will create urgency within the prospects mind.

6) Always use business reply postage- You pay for the return.

7) Call to action- A statement such as “receive our free XYZ analysis” to help solve the prospects problem.

Include a reply card, web-site address, and phone number- you can potentially double your response if you include a business reply card or other vehicle for written response.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding and Branding Research firm in Boston, MA.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Franklin Sports and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

The Building Blocks to Successful Marketing

It’s More than Sales and Advertising

By Julie Chance

Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a one person shop, to be successful, you must have a marketing strategy and you must implement it consistently. However, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune and you don’t have to be a creative genius.

The key is developing a marketing strategy that forms a solid foundation for your promotional efforts. Implementing promotional activities such as advertising, direct mail or even networking and one-to-one sales efforts without a marketing strategy is like buying curtains for a house you are building before you have an architectural plan. How would you even know how many curtains to buy or what size they needed to be?

You can develop a strong marketing foundation by:

Defining your product or service: How is your product or service packaged? What is it that your customers are really buying? You may be selling web-based software tools but your clients are buying increased productivity, improved efficiency and cost savings. And if you offer several products or services which ones are the most viable to promote?
Identifying your target market: Everyone or anybody might be potential clients for your product. However, you probably don’t have the time or money to market to Everyone or Anybody. Who is your ideal customer? Who does it make sense for you to spend your time and money promoting your service to? You might define your ideal customer in terms of income, age, geographic area, number of employees, revenues, industry, etc. For example a massage therapist might decide her target market is women with household incomes of $75,000 or more who live in the Uptown area.
Knowing your competition: Even if there are no direct competitors for your service, there is always competition of some kind. Something besides your product is competing for the potential client’s money. What is it and why should the potential customer spend his or her money with you instead? What is your competitive advantage or unique selling proposition?
Finding a niche: Is there a market segment that is not currently being served or is not being served well? A niche strategy allows you to focus your marketing efforts and dominate your market, even if you are a small player.
Developing awareness: It is difficult for a potential client to buy your product or service if they don’t even know or remember it exists. Generally a potential customer will have to be exposed to your product 5 to 15 times before they are likely to think of your product when the need arises. Needs often arise unexpectedly. You must stay in front of your clients consistently if they are going to remember your product when that need arises.
Building credibility: Not only must clients be aware of your product or service, they also must have a positive disposition toward it. Potential customers must trust that you will deliver what you say you will. Often, especially with large or risky purchases, you need to give them the opportunity to “sample”, “touch”, or “taste” the product in some way. For example, a trainer might gain credibility and allow potential customers to “sample” their product by offering free, hour long presentations on topics related to their area of specialty.
Being Consistent: Be consistent in every way and in everything you do. This includes the look of your collateral materials, the message you deliver, the level of customer service, and the quality of the product. Being consistent is more important than having the “best” product. This in part is the reason for the success of chains. Whether you’re going to Little Rock, Arkansas or New York City, if you reserve a room at a Courtyard Marriott you know exactly what you’re going to get.
Maintaining Focus: Focus allows for more effective utilization of the scarce resources of time and money. Your promotional budget will bring you greater return if you use it to promote a single product to a narrowly defined target market and if you promote that same product to that same target market over a continuous period of time.
Before you ever consider developing a brochure, running an ad, implementing a direct mail campaign, joining an organization for networking or even conducting a sales call, begin by mapping a path to success through the development of a consistent, focused marketing strategy.