If you don’t like to sell your services, there is some good news! Your testimonials can do the selling for you. That’s because testimonials are considered as excellent social proof – i.e. if someone else is saying how good you are, then it must be true.
This type of social proof reassures prospects that you deliver on what you promise in your marketing materials and conversations. It instills trust and adds to your credibility which ultimately makes it easier for potential clients to start working with you.
But how do you get those awesome testimonials that sell?
Here are my tips.
#1 Make It a Routine to Ask For Testimonials
Most of the time when you don’t have enough testimonials is because you don’t ask for them! There is nothing wrong to ask a client to give you feedback on the work you’ve done together. They will be more than happy to do so.
The best time to ask is when clients are full of praise for you; you’ve just completed a project or program with a client or just right after an event when they are full of enthusiasm and excitement. You can have a formal “testimonial/feedback” form ready to send to clients or you can ask them to give feedback while you are on the phone.
The important thing is just to ask. Then depending on your work together and the time they need to get results, you can schedule a reminder to follow up with them on their progress and ask them to compare their situation before to where they are now. When you can compare the before and after on paper it reinforces the results and successes they received from working with you.
#2 Make Your Testimonials Results Orientated
For a testimonial to do the selling for you, it needs to say more than “You Rock!”. It needs to say why you rock. Just think about TV infomercials and how impressive it is when you see the before and after photo of someone who says they dropped 20 pounds in just 5 weeks! Well, you can do the same with your testimonials when you show your clients’ before and after stories.
So when you ask for a testimonial encourage clients to share what their situation was before they worked with you and what it is now in terms of e.g. increased revenue, more clients, more confidence, more time, better health, more happiness etc. If they can state it in measurable results so much better, e.g “As a result of ABC, I doubled my income over the last 2 months”.
#3 Make It Easy For Clients to Give a Powerful Testimonial
Clients want to give testimonials and praise you for what you’ve done for them, but often they don’t really know exactly what to say. Then they provide a really “nice” testimonial on how great YOU are, but forget to state what you’ve done for THEM. And although it can boost your self-confidence to get these “nice” testimonials, they are not the ones that get the sales. You want a powerful testimonial that outlines the results a client received from working with you.
To ensure you get what you want and in the process also makes it easier for clients to formulate their testimonial, ask them to answer a series of specific questions so you are able to extract the results of working together from their answers. Answering a few questions is much easier for clients than writing a testimonial. Afterwards, you can edit their answers into a formal testimonial and give it to them for approval.
Then showcase your testimonials on your website for potential clients to see and to be inspired about what you can do for them too!
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In the comments below, let me know if you are currently using testimonials in your business and what you’re going to do this week to create some client chemistry with this piece of your marketing!
