Showing Customers That You Understand Their Needs - the Power of Testimonials

Greetings,

Welcome to my second BLOG on the subject of marketing for professional companies.  I hope that you find it useful.

In my first BLOG, I talked about the importance of making current and future customers believe that you understand what they need.  

This is key to driving sales, and should be the main driver in our marketing.

So how do we do it?

The obstacle we face is that all of our competitors will tell the client that they understand the client’s needs, even if they demonstrably do not.

Clients therefore find it hard to differentiate between professionals, and can easily assume that we are “all the same” leading them to differentiate purely on price.

So if clients don’t believe us, who do they believe?

To be honest, because they cannot tell us apart, and think that we all work to the same standards, level of expertise and business acumen, the only people they truly believe is each other!

That is why testimonials are so powerful – our social behaviour is under pinned by gaining knowledge and recommendations from people just like us.  Trip Advisor has built a whole business around customer recommendations and the success or failure of hotels, restaurants etc are decided by customer reviews in the virtual World.

How many have you collected from your happy clients? Do you include them in your prospecting e mails and letters? Are you maximising the power of the third party voice to promote your business?

Prospective customers are far more likely to get validation from a testimonial from Mr. X saying how brilliant you were at taking care of his problem (particularly if it is the same problem as your prospect)

Make sure you ask your happy customers if you can share their views, and then use it everywhere you can in your marketing – web site, letters, e mails, flyers, presentations.

It really will set you apart from your competitors.

Happy hunting, and feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any of this in greater detail.

Colin Mico

colinmico@astonscott.com