How to Use your Clients to Boost your Sales
If you were the prospect, and the sales rep said, “Our company is wonderful!” wouldn’t you maybe think: “Yeah, right!”
Because it makes you immediately suspicious, doesn’t it?
But what if, while you were looking up the company’s phone number, so you could call them, you saw they had five stars on their listing in Google, and (just for curiosity) you went to look at their reviews, and this customer in Des Moines said (in a review), “Wow this company is wonderful! They did this, and they did that, and they’re just wonderful!”
Suddenly, it’s another story, because …
If the sales rep says it, nobody believes.
If a credible testimonial or review says it, everybody believes!
Online Belief is Growing
2013 Statistic: “72% of all consumers trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation.” — BrightLocal Research.
2014 Statistic: “86% of all consumers trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation.” — BrightLocal Research.
Why the increasing buyer reliance upon online reviews?
My guess is: smart cellphones.
Half of all online shopping is now done on smart phones. Smart phones have streamlined search functions. Reviews show up well on smart phones. Quicker than calling around to survey your friends and associates. The reviews are right there — right there in your path — on the way to call the company.
And YOUR clients are using smartphones, too.
Even after a personal recommendation, on their way to look up your number, they now see your 5-star, 3-star, or no-star rating right below your name on Google.
How to make All Your Selling Easier
- Get a Lot of 5-Star reviews. Get these reviews on your Google Plus page. Haven’t developed your Google Plus business page? Do it this week. Don’t know how? Hire somebody. And get a lot of reviews on 2-5 other third-party review sites. Which ones? Simple. If you’re a mexican restaurant in Dallas, then look up “mexican restaurant in Dallas” and see which 3-rd party review sites show up. (In this example, the ones I see are yelp, dmagazine, yellowpages, 10best.com, urbanspoon, zagat, and opentable.) Every one of these can be a brand-new doorway to funnel new clients to your company … IF they see 5-Star Reviews!
. - Feature Outstanding, Believable Testimonials. Use these on a “Clients Say” page on your website. Add one to your email signature. Pepper them throughout your brochures. Spice up newspaper ads, radio ads, direct mail, flyers, and your business cards. Put them everywhere. They sell stronger than anything you can say.
The Sequence of Believability
- Somewhat Believable: Short testimonial, minimal writer identification, like: “Service was good. — JB”
. - More Believable: Detailed testimonial with numbers, detailed writer identification, like: “When I hired Voltos Marketing, our sales improved by 18% in the first 6 months.” — Jeremy Jones of Tresoro Restaurant, Shreport LA”
. - Even Stronger: An Audio Testimonial with details and detailed speaker’s identification. Intersperse an online audio player among your text testimonials online.
. - Strongest: A Video Testimonial, because it impacts all the senses and is the most “Real,” like this example — http://Voltos.us/voltos
How to Get More Testimonials, for More Sales and Easier Sales
- Ask for Testimonials. According to measured tests, the best time to get a client to give you a testimonial is within 72 hours after they FIRST sign up. Surprising but true. Add the testimonial request to your sign-up and onboarding procedure, make it a step on your checklist. Don’t have a checklist? Get one. A good script to use: “Say, I wonder if you could help me. Like you, I’m trying to grow my business, and I think a good word from you would really impact other people I talk with. Could you recommend someone in your business, almost as good as you, that I could call as a referral?”
. - Set up an Automated Review-Collection and Placement System. This is a bit more complex to try to weave into your normal operations because it takes special knowledge, but our company and a few other marketing companies offer this as an affordable service which will generally pay off big dividends, by both improving your placement in Google results and enhancing what people think about you as a market leader … even before they call you.
Reviews. Testimonials. Creating a Profound Difference in your Buyers
Even while using them ourselves as buyers, we tend to overlook their power in our selling.
We see them used on National TV by the smartest advertisers in the world — the happy couple who bought their happy house from the XYZ Real Estate Company, the housewife dancing because those pesky stains came out of the kid’s shirt with XYZ Soap, the laughing people chowing down on burgers at XYZ Burgers, the satisfied investor and his wife at XYZ Stock Brokers, and the happy family opening Christmas gifts that came from XYZ Toys.
In the USA, the success of testimonials goes back to the first US national newspaper. It wasn’t USA Today. It was Harper’s Weekly, in Civil War times. Testimonials worked then. They work today. They will still work tomorrow. Times change, but the humans, the buyers, their nature doesn’t change.
People find testimonials and reviews … believable.
Testimonials and reviews influence you, when you are buying.
Are you overlooking this certain bet to influence YOUR buyers … in your favor?
