Building Trust
Overcoming a Potential Client’s Lack of Trust with Customer Testimonials
Customers today are way more savvy than when I entered the world of marketing nearly 40 years ago. Then the marketers were in control and we broadcast our message to the masses. We were telling and selling.
Today, just because you say your product or service is excellent, it doesn’t mean they will believe you. In fact usually they won’t, we are all a lot more skeptical.
In marketing a small business, it is not sufficient to simply proclaim that you are trustworthy and that you provide a valuable service, you need to provide proof. And every unsubstantiated claim you make is likely to be questioned by a prospective client before they part with their money. Even if you have never done a poor job, or would never dream of “ripping off” a client, your integrity will be questioned.
As one of my mentors in direct marketing used to say, “the loneliest place on the planet is the person sitting at their computer thinking of entering their credit card details” (thanks Mal—that’s a great way to put it). Even if your clients don’t pay by credit card, they still need help to get over the line, to make the decision to buy—they need to believe in your value.
So how can you prove your integrity to your prospects without sounding far-fetched? The most powerful solution is incredibly simple:
Provide testimonials from satisfied clients that you’ve worked for
It’s a fundamental truth of marketing that potential clients will always find what others say about you way more believable that what you say about yourself. It is that simple. This is because most consumers know that you will promote and protect your own self interest above all else, so anything you say will be taken with a grain of salt. This is where the hierarchy of credibility comes into play, which we’ll discuss later in the chapter.
What others say about your small business is more believable as their answer will more likely give a balanced view of the product or service you provide. Think of client testimonials as witnesses testifying about the value of your product or service in a courtroom—more believable than you if you are the defendant!
So because testimonials are so valuable in terms of marketing, getting them becomes an integral part of small business marketing (and particularly internet marketing). And the single key to getting testimonials is to ask for them. You’d be surprised how many happy clients are willing to do so if you simply ask.
In Marketing, it’s all about Them, not You
In order to encourage new clients to trust you, you must avoid the common marketing mistake of adopting an ego-centric ‘Me, Myself and I’ mentality. What customers are really interested in (as we all are) is themselves, and not in you or anything you want to sell them. So accordingly, you need to shift the focus of your marketing away from yourself and your company, and onto your prospects—what they want and how they will greatly benefit through using your product. When you provide testimonials, you show the potential client that you’ve worked with people similar to them (because you’ve defined your niche), and have provided measurable and substantial benefits. You’re giving evidence to prove your claims.
So, to change the focus of your marketing from you to them, you need to invest some time and energy into seeing things through the customers’ eyes. How are they going to interpret what you say? Always assume a level of doubt from your prospect. You need to address any worries or objections a potential client may have when they first become aware of your products and services—and write these rebuttals directly into your copy. You need to make the prospect feel as comfortable as possible if they’re going to commit to using your company. Good testimonials help you achieve this.
The Most Powerful Selling Weapon is Providing Proof that what you say is True
Marketing works when you successfully convince a person that they will greatly benefit if they use your product or service—that their life or business will be improved in some way, and that the gains will far outweigh the outlay of money and/or time and energy. You can prove your case with testimonials, facts, physical demonstrations, guarantees, pictures and references. The most powerful amongst these, however, is the testimonial.
And since what others say about you is many, many times more effective than what you say about yourself, testimonials are the key to creating successful copy that leads to people taking action. Including testimonials helps customers to do a cost/benefit analysis of your product in a more favorable light for you. This is because testimonials increase the credibility of your product and small business. They can transform potential scepticism and mistrust into advocacy, making people more confident to deal with your company.
Testimonials therefore = increased sales
Remember in the Business of Getting Results, it’s Not about you—It’s about Your Customer
There is a limit as to what you can say about yourself and your product without sounding egotistical. However, when someone else says complimentary things about your product, it acts as a very positive review. As a result, sales to prospects who’ve heard testimonials about you, are easier to make and, very importantly, more likely to be on your terms.
At Lead Creation, we know a lot about gaining testimonials because as a part of our marketing service, we help our clients find advocates amongst their own client base. We also provide a ‘how to guide’ to help our clients get great testimonials and how to record or video them. Then we show where and how to use these testimonials in their marketing to improve sales lead generation. You’ll learn the most important aspects of that service later in this chapter.
Testimonials Don’t Work… When You’re Not Using Them!
More often than not, businesses have not yet effectively utilised testimonials for a number of reasons. When Lead Creation staff work with new clients, we commonly discover one of the following situations:
- The company has not collected many or any testimonials
- The testimonials are just plain and boring, and are rarely used or not at all
- They have written testimonials, but no video or audio ones – which are much more powerful
- And worst of all – they have a lot of great testimonials or clients who are willing to give them, yet they are not being used!
So these small business owners and managers have been working hard and spending money to convey their marketing message to their prospects, while at the same time keeping their very best salesperson locked out of sight and out of mind! This is what you are doing when you leave testimonials unused. Clients who are willing to be advocates for your small business will convince potential customers better than any other kind of marketing as you only have a limited budget (it goes with the territory when you are in small business!). ‘Word of mouth’ recommendations spring from this, and this type of viral marketing is incredibly powerful and best of all, it’s free! So how can you put your testimonials to good use?
If Your Company Provides Fantastic Service, Flaunt It!
It is difficult to overdo the use of testimonials in your marketing. You should use them a lot, and in as many different ways as possible. Why not record testimonials and put them onto a CD or Podcast to send out to prospects? Or you could film them and put them on a DVD or Vodcast. And of course put them on YouTube and on your website. The possibilities are endless.
These are all surprisingly cost-effective and simple ways of using testimonials. They work because people will listen to or watch far more than they would ever bother reading. It’s also effective because people can’t skim through a CD or a DVD in the same way they might a letter or email. This means that with these formats, you can effectively control the order in which the potential customer gets the testimonial or your pitch. And this makes this kind of marketing far more convincing and effective.
You can also make audio or video testimonials more interesting by dramatising them—use multiple voices, inflection, emphasis, music, sound effects and so on to make the content more interesting and engaging. CDs and DVDs of testimonials are also good because they can be passed on between people—and are still less likely to be thrown out than a letter because they have perceived value (though the perceived value of CDs is falling). People also will often watch them out of sheer curiosity, so here you have a valuable opportunity to present a good testimonial that sells your business effectively.