The high value of persuasive testimonials

Getting a testimonial from a client is as easy as a phone call. Photo / Thinkstock

Persuasive testimonials from a number of your delighted clients are an excellent way to encourage new clients to use your various products and services.

The reason that testimonials work so well is simple:

"What other people say about you, your company, your products and services is at least ten times stronger and more convincing than anything you can possibly say on your own behalf."

This is sometimes called 'Social Proof'.

Which just means that people are strongly influenced by what other people similar to themselves have experienced.

So when they see that other people have used your business and have enjoyed excellent results this greatly increases the chances of them using your products and services themselves.

This principle relies on people's sense of "safety in numbers."

For example, we're more likely to work late if others in our team are doing the same or eat in a restaurant if it's busy.

Here, we're assuming that if lots of other people are doing something, then it must be OK.. We're particularly susceptible to this principle when we're feeling uncertain, and we're even more likely to be influenced if the people we see seem to be similar to us.

(That's why commercials often use mums, not celebrities, to advertise household products.)

Here is a very simple strategy to collect 1-3 persuasive testimonials in the next day or two.

1: Set up a time to have a short chat with one of your best clients on the phone.

Pick a client was delighted with what you did for them.

Let's say that you are a mortgage broker and a client used your services to refinance an existing mortgage so they had extra money that they could now use to make some home renovations.

2: During the phone call ask your client three questions

• What do you like most about using our mortgage service?

• What benefits have you enjoyed from using our mortgage service?

• Why would you highly recommend our mortgage service to other people?

3: Record the phone call (with your client's permission) or take notes during the call.

4: After the call review the recording or your notes.

Then write up what your client said and then email it to them for their approval.

Then use their testimonial in a variety of situations.

For instance you might be discussing your mortgage service with another person.

This is a perfect opportunity to show the person the positive feedback from your existing client.

You can use this testimonial strategy to collect great testimonials about any of your products and services that you would like more of your clients to use.

Let's say for example that you are an insurance broker and one of the services you offer is Income Protection Insurance for business owners.

You would like more of your business owner clients to invest in Income Protection Insurance.

So phone a business owner client who took out Income Protection Insurance on your recommendation and was delighted that they made this investment.

Ask this client the same three questions. (Just modify the questions slightly to suit the service you want feedback on.)

So your three questions might sound like this:

• What do you like most about investing in our Income Protection Insurance?

• What benefits have you enjoyed from investing in our Income Protection Insurance?

• Why would you highly recommend our Income Protection Insurance service to other business owners?

Write up the answers you received from your client and email it to them for their approval. Then use this positive feedback with other clients when appropriate.

Persuasive testimonials are easy to collect and work very well to create brand new sales.

If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Take Action:

Use this simple phone call strategy to collect some persuasive client testimonials for your various products and services.

If you would like some more ideas on how to collect persuasive testimonials you may like to watch a short online video I created called The Marketing Advantage Volume 1. It's only 9 minutes and 35 seconds long and explains two super effective strategies that you can use to collect persuasive testimonials from your best clients and customers. You can watch this video (no registration required) here.

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com