EXPOSED Millionaire Wealth Secret #3
The most powerful and valuable form of advertising you can do for your business is the advertising that other people do for you!
Let me set up a little scenario here to help explain.
A client and friend of mine, Ric Isaac, has become increasing well known amongst the health and fitness industry largely due to the amount of publicity he has been able to generate for a weight loss concept, the 50 Day Challenge.’ Ric created this concept from scratch which simply explained, offered people a $50,000 incentive for losing weight – the most amount of weight/body fat etc… over a set period of time. If you’re from my home town, Perth Western Australia, you may have seen it around or heard about it. It was splashed all over the media here.
In total I would guess the amount of PR and free advertising that Ric was able to generate around his idea would be around the six figure mark. Now, apart from the obvious benefits this brought such as huge exposure ending in more sign-ups, Ric was also able to set himself up in the long term for something even bigger.
An abounding, plethora of PROOF! From ‘A Current Affair’ (which Ric appeared on not once, but twice!) to local newspapers, Ric had journalists knocking his door down to get on board with the ‘Challenge.’
All up and down WA, the media was telling the public what an amazing ‘Weight Loss Guru’ Ric was.
In addition to this, as the ‘Challenge’ progressed, media crews covered the weight loss of contestants, right through to the winner who lost, I think from memory, in excess of 50kgs and looked fantastic at the end result.
The media in this case catapulted Ric to ‘celebrity’ or ‘guru’ status, and the main vehicle for this was through their continuing, and rapturous tesitimonials. Through creating an ongoing, flood of proof, both verbally, in print and through footage of Ric’s success and the amazing results achievable through his programme.
Now just take a moment to consider the impact of this over Ric himself standing in front of you trying to convince you, without any evidence, that he was the man you needed to shift those extra kilos! Not quite as compelling.
You see we are a nation of born cynics and justifiably so. Every day we’re being told to do this, avoid that, take this, pop that, move here, see this, don’t listen to that, do listen
to this… no wonder we don’t know where to turn and approach most things with a degree of calculated caution and disbelief.
These days, it’s just not good enough to insist that you are a trustworthy, honest person, possessed of too much integrity to even contemplate ripping anybody off! Don’t invest your ego or your self-esteem in the perception of the prospective buyer. Instead, assume that every statement, every claim or promise, every assertion and even every fact, will at best be questioned, at worst disbelieved.
What I am about to reveal to you is the most powerful selling weapon that exists!
Oh, I know that’s a big statement… and I wholeheartedly believe it! In fact, if my life depended upon one single strategy, this would be it…
PROOF! PROOF THAT WHAT I SAY IS TRUE!!!
So… to give you a kick start here’s a list of ways to get that proof you need to skyrocket sales:
#1. The obvious way is to do what you do so well, exceed clients expectations and turn them into raving advocates. Frankly, you’ll get them as I do without any prompting. Hey… but it wasn’t always that way. You’ve got to start somewhere. Here’s another way…
#2. Offer your product or service for free to a prospect on the basis that the recipient will give you an honest written evaluation that you can use in your marketing.
#3. Include a survey form when someone uses your product or service with an incentive to ‘turn it in’. Don’t forget to put on the form a box for them to tick giving you permission to use what they have to say.
#4. Include a questionnaire with your product or service. The questionnaire should ask what you got right, what you got wrong and how you can improve your product or service. This is a very powerful strategy and also allows you to customise your product or service to your customers needs. Remember, ask them to be honest, not kind.
#5. Everyone has clients who are advocates of what they do, people that continue to rave about your product or service and continue to do business with you. Simply call them up on the phone and ask them, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
A few more tips about getting and using testimonials…
TIP #1: If you get testimonials for GODS SAKE make sure you use them, after all the number one barrier to business is lack of trust.
TIP #2: The best testimonials are the ones that are meaningful and specific not vague and general. For example…
“Income Increased Immediately By 100% Then a Further 298%”
“I immediately put into action one of your ideas that increased my income by 100%. From there, the first 20 minute telephone consultation with you, sent me into further immediate action to improve my returns to my business by 298%.”
TIP #3: Use your testimonials strategically to deal with objections buyers would have. Here’s an example from the printing industry. Here the prospects objection would be, would their prices be competitive, would the finished product be up to scratch and would they finish on time.
“Our printing jobs were on time, on budget and the quality was guaranteed.”
“I’ve been dealing with Mr. Print for 4 ½ years, in that time, they’ve never let us down and on occasion we’ve set them some very difficult tasks. They’re always prepared to do whatever it took to get our job done on time, and we’ve found their rates to be very competitive. Better still, they guarantee to replace free of charge anything we’re not absolutely happy with”
TIP #4: Ask to be able to use their full name, company name, suburb, state and telephone – the more the merrier. Even their initials are better than nothing. A full name dramatically improves believability in the mind of the prospect and strangely most will never call a telephone number. They’re satisfied with the mere fact that there is a number there.
TIP #5: Put a bold sub-head which is an abbreviation of the main points of the testimonial on top of the testimonial. Put the testimonial itself in italics but not bolded. And as I said, include the full name and address of the testimonial provider on the last line as above. Even better still, have a photograph of the person giving the testimonial. The only exemption from this rule is not to put the actual testimonial in italics especially if the font is small as it becomes
difficult to read.
TIP #6: Don’t be shy in using testimonials in your advertising and in your copy. You can use sub-heads to introduce them like…
- Here’s what our clients say about us
- To prove my point here are some real life examples
- Real life comments and case studies from satisfied clients
- Read what others have to say
Finally, don’t forget to get WRITTEN permission to use the testimonial you get and make sure you use them liberally and strategically. It will dramatically affect your sales.
By the way, if you personally don’t like or believe testimonials, it doesn’t matter what you think. All that matters is how the prospect thinks. REMEMBER! YOU ARE NOT YOUR CUSTOMER.
If we’re going to come out on top in the coming recession, then we need to be using every marketing strategy in the book!! Giving a PLETHORA OF PROOF is the best way I know how.
Look out next week for ‘Millionaire Wealth Secret #4′
Best Regards,
Mal Emery
P.S. For real-life examples of testimonials in action, then visit my website: www.MalEmery.com and follow the links to the ‘testimonials’ page to see how it’s done! Good Luck!
