Using Testimonials Will Turbo-Charge Your Online Sales

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. Discover some ideas on how to get the most out of them in this article..

Before getting into the practical side of gathering and using testimonials, let's take just a moment to understand why they're so effective. There's an incredibly powerful book by Robert Cialdini called Influence: The Science of Persuasion. 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 a book that's worth studying in order not only to help you improve your own sales processes, but also so that you can see when other people are using them to sell to you. When you demonstrate the value of your products to real people, using testimonials, you are employing one of these core influence strategies.

It's important to gather a testimonial that has the desired effect - not just a bland statement of trading together. Commonly, a testimonial will be along these lines, "Bill's a great baker and somebody I like to call a friend." A testimonial like this, while genuine, offers little comfort to a new customer because it doesn't tell them anything about why you're good. 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 a new customer to buy, you need testimonials that quote specific aspects of your service and why they love it.. A much better testimonial would be, "We all know about Blogg's reputation for baking the best tasting bread in town. In the many years we have been trading, Bill has always delivered on time. Their prices remain very competitive and they are always willing to bring us extras if we have a rush job. I'm not sure what else a commercial caterer could expect from a baker, they really give us what we need."

Can you see the difference? Somebody reading this second testimonial will see immediately that the message has some details and identifies factors that matter. These factors really help to sell your business. You're no doubt getting the idea of just how much of a difference you can make with the right kind of testimonials.

To get things running for you, you'll want to gather some strong testimonials from your existing customers. First thing to do is ask! You'll receive very few testimonials if you fail to ask for them. Some of your customers might be a bit tight for time and ask you to write it for them. 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.

 

Think of testimonials as ornaments that should grace every single piece of marketing you ever do. Adverts can be embellished with a few customer comments. Use them on your business signature, have a few choice comments in your sales presentation materials, brochures and newsletters etc.