The Real Currency Of Business: The Power of Testimonials & Reviews

Speaker 1 Hello and welcome to the UCAM podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Jolly Drivers, and today we're talking around why testimonials and reviews are the real currency within your business.

Speaker 1 The thing is here is, wow, that's like, that's a bit of a claim, you know, like really, you know, to keep the lights on, you need revenue. Yes, you do.
But what actually can drive that revenue?

Speaker 1 What can help people feel confident in making that decision to work with you? That can be your testimonials.

Speaker 1 You can't buy them they're they're things that are genuine well as long as you don't make them up but that's a totally different story and I 100% advise you not to do that but you know they are your proof that what you are saying actually you can deliver on and those testimonials you know the more like clients now come to me and I'm like Google reviews get your feedback get that feedback onto platforms which is easily accessible for potential clients people want to do their due diligence they want to feel confident that they're making the the right decision and i do not blame them there are so many claims going around on the internet particularly with online businesses um the claims that they're making particularly within that sort of coaching world are so unsubstantiated and so extreme that you know it makes a lot more sense um to make sure that every scrap of evidence you've got that actually you can deliver on what you're saying is there for them to to take note of and to feel reassured by

Speaker 1 So, you know, whenever somebody is working with me, whenever they start off working with me, we look at what resources they already have. And one of those key things is always testimonials.

Speaker 1 Have you got proof that what you want to sell, you can actually deliver on, you can actually provide.

Speaker 1 If they don't, and if that's what you're thinking, then we're going to go into that in a little bit more detail in a minute. But if you don't have that evidence, all is not lost.

Speaker 1 There are ways to get them.

Speaker 1 That generally... means working with people in return for testimonials, but not always.
But as I say, we'll come on to that in a minute.

Speaker 1 So I'm going to share with you how to get those testimonials whether you have had clients or not what to ask where to store them and how to use them effectively because i bet you a lot of you are going you know what i have testimonials i don't really know how to use them where to use them and so we're going to be sharing all that in today's episode so why do they matter they are social proof if i've already talked around they are they're proof that you are able to deliver on what you're promising.

Speaker 1 It helps people trust you. Okay.

Speaker 1 Beyond that, I believe that actually it can be a great way to access and to engage your audience for example you know people always remember stories and so it's easier to provide information in story format I have a client who is very high-end considering what he does and so people come to him they're expecting him to be paid by the hour ad hoc and instead he puts together packages which provide the outcome that they're looking for and within that he provides them straight from the get-go.

Speaker 1 As soon as he finds out what problem they're experiencing, he provides them with a case study with evidence that this can happen. Now, he does that for a number of reasons.

Speaker 1 He does that because it shows that person, it gives them belief that actually this problem can be resolved. They've got long-term problems.
And so, you know.

Speaker 1 how can they over time your belief that actually this can change your circumstances can change begins to waver and so he gets them right up there with going you know what here's the evidence that actually you can go from where you are actually you can go from a position which is worse than what you are and you can be fully recovered and so that sets that belief off and but it also means that that individual is able to relate to that story rather than feeling accused so what I mean by that is when you put out social media posts again I'll come on to this in a bit I love just jumping ahead don't I but when When you put out social media posts and you share with them that this individual went from this problem, they did this and they got this outcome.

Speaker 1 Um, it's much, much better, it's more powerful, it gets rid of the uh any emotion around that person feeling accused.

Speaker 1 You know, if you were to say, Hey, you, I believe that you are this, this, this, and this, you know, you're not confident, you're not at your best.

Speaker 1 They're probably likely to start feeling a little bit on their guard, um, a little

Speaker 1 bit like they are being got at. And so they're going to get defensive.
And with defensive, they stop listening because they start getting offended.

Speaker 1 They're not taking on the information in a positive way. They're seeing it as a dig at them.
And you want to avoid that as much as possible. You don't want to be calling out your clients.

Speaker 1 You don't want to make them feel bad. You want to give them hope.
And that is what you can do with testimonials. You can be that ray of sunshine on that bleak outlook.
You've also got...

Speaker 1 it's a conversation starter and it's a point of reference i talk about my ideal client jenny a lot she isn't a testimonial but she is an example of a situation that people are in when they come to me my ideal client is Jenny because I talk about ideal clients a lot my ideal clients Jenny and this is the the scenario she's been in and the amount of people go oh you know what I'm just I'm basically Jenny and so being able to for people to relate to that it starts that conversation I know when they say that exactly the situation they are in there are also SEO benefits to testimonials and because you know Google Google my business trust pilot they help your business appear in searches If you are feeding that Google My Business, if you are feeding your Google profile, then obviously you're going to get more hits.

Speaker 1 You're going to appear higher up when people search on those search terms, which are relevant to your business. So well, well worth it.
The other thing is, is testimonials are essential.

Speaker 1 If you are in it for the long term, okay, because they will deliver for you time and time again.

Speaker 1 Now, I do meet people, sadly, who they are in it to make as much money in a short period of time, deliver as little as possible, and then make a run for it to another little lucrative pool which they will do the same thing in um i don't like working with those people i don't work with those people but they do exist and if you are in a position where you're not wanting you just want to make a quick buck um then you know testimonials

Speaker 1 they're not going to be reaping the benefit they could be your testimonials are there they are your foundations they are the bricks that you can keep drawing upon and pointing to um time and time again um They are an amazing way to engage your audience and

Speaker 1 something that you don't want to overlook, particularly if you are building, hopefully you are building for the long term and you're wanting to stick around in this space.

Speaker 1 Building up that testimonial bank

Speaker 1 is priceless.

Speaker 1 So when do you start collecting testimonials? Because I've had people say to me, well, you know, I'm not quite finished. My offer isn't quite right.

Speaker 1 Or I haven't got testimonials for this offer, but I've got testimonials for other things and I will come on to that in a moment.

Speaker 1 The best time to start is now. Okay, if you don't have any then don't beat yourself up about it.

Speaker 1 Do think though if you don't have any right now but you've had clients, you've had good experiences, think about who you could just you know get in contact with again and ask for a testimonial.

Speaker 1 Now people don't like

Speaker 1 to do video testimonials. Okay, and actually when that people are doing testimonials in general They're a bit like oh, what do I say? What don't I say? How do I put this?

Speaker 1 And so providing them with a bit of a framework, a bit of guidance is a great way of helping them to know what to put and to create a testimonial that is going to do your business justice and

Speaker 1 really get the result.

Speaker 1 I've had it time and time again with clients where they've gone away, they haven't used the format that I've suggested because they haven't had the resource with them or something else has happened.

Speaker 1 And so they've kind of just let that client go off and do their own thing. And it hasn't hit home.
It hasn't been as good as it could have been from that client. They're like, this person did amazing.

Speaker 1 They did this, this, this, and this. And none of that was included in the testimonial.

Speaker 1 If you find that, if you have that challenge, the best thing you can do is go back to that person and say, hey, you know, would you mind if I put this in for you?

Speaker 1 Or would you mind if you included that? And either do it for them and get them to approve it or ask them to add that in.

Speaker 1 And then you can always have a conversation. You can think, oh, gosh, I don't want to be pushy.
Okay, you don't. But this is a really, really...
vital bit of resource for you.

Speaker 1 I'm just saying to them, you know, I don't want to be pedantic.

Speaker 1 It's just that, you know it's really i was really pleased with the work that we've done together it really helps my business to have testimonials um from people like yourselves and provide the context and i'm sure they'll be more than happy to help um when is the right moment to ask so if you assuming that you're not back dating and going back to people that you finished working with the a really good time is when a client has just had a big win okay so you're on a call with them and they're going yeah i've done really well i've been really pleased with this they're buzzing they've got that positive energy that's going to come across in any video and in any testimonial that they do.

Speaker 1 What I would do, what I tend to do is because I have calls with clients over Zoom, is it's being recorded anyway, is to be like, Hey, would you mind if I stop the recording, restart it?

Speaker 1 Because that's cleaner for me. Um, and we can go through and I can record a quick testimonial from you.
It doesn't matter if you think, oh gosh, but I'm only on week three with this person.

Speaker 1 You know, I've got another eight weeks. So, what I should really do is wait till the end.
The problem is, is that the biggest change happens in the first few weeks.

Speaker 1 You are a new thing, you are creating change quite quickly.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 the effect is quite, there's quite a steep learning curve to start off with, and then people tend to plateau a bit because they've picked up that information, they've learned that information, and then it's consistency.

Speaker 1 It's the consistency of implementing it, and particularly in my case. So, the problem is, then, is that person's got into kind of consistent mode, it's not so exciting.

Speaker 1 You know, even the big wins, multiple big wins later, it's become a bit of a new normal, and and they're hungry for more.

Speaker 1 And so, even if at week two or three, they get a big win and you take a testimonial from them, you can go and get a testimonial from them later on.

Speaker 1 You could get them on week five or eight or whichever week it is that you're working with them, and you could get, you know, a testimonial two years down the line from them.

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter, people don't really mind. There's not a limit on it, and it's not you know a socially acceptable number.

Speaker 1 I probably wouldn't do it weekly, uh, but if there's been a massive win, I'd be like, oh gosh, would you mind? Um, and just have that open dialogue with them

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 you can also ask

Speaker 1 if they are sharing a positive message with you privately I tend to make it very clear it's in my T's and C's that I will use what people send as messages

Speaker 1 I can use in marketing and what I do though is anything personal I remove it I also

Speaker 1 if I want to keep that person's name in I'll check do you want this done anonymous

Speaker 1 anonymously? Or would you like me to,

Speaker 1 or is it okay to keep your name in?

Speaker 1 So that is how I kind of navigate that. But if you have it in your T's and C's to start with, obviously, if there's anything personal in there which could clearly identify them, I would always check.

Speaker 1 If you haven't had clients yet, then that's when you can offer free or low-cost trials, depending on where you are, depending on where with your audience.

Speaker 1 I was speaking to somebody earlier today and she was saying, oh, I'm not even actively promoting my mentoring. People are still coming, which is lovely.

Speaker 1 And so I was having a conversation with this lady today and she has a massive audience already. It's just about monetizing them.
And so I wouldn't go out there for her with a free offer.

Speaker 1 She's done stuff for free before. It needs to be, you know, kind of setting out her store and creating that awareness that you need to pay me, guys, for the value that I'm providing.

Speaker 1 You can also, if you haven't had client check, you can speak to past colleagues, mentors, people you've helped on an informal basis, which have kind of led you to doing what you do now.

Speaker 1 And you can ask them for

Speaker 1 feedback. You can ask them for testimonials.
And that's the thing, really, guys, is people get really hung up on, oh, well, I haven't had anybody through this specific program.

Speaker 1 If that specific program is,

Speaker 1 you know, relevant. directly relates to for example like my programs I've done sprint programs I've done private client programs I've got a startup program.

Speaker 1 I've got a course that a one-to-one, which helps you to set up courses and establish courses into your own business.

Speaker 1 I have those. If people approached me about those, then I would offer what was relevant to those individuals.

Speaker 1 I didn't have, for example, the...

Speaker 1 the Courses course. I didn't have testimonials for that because it was new.

Speaker 1 I made people aware this is new, but I had testimonials on there with people saying how great my course was how great it had been working with me one-on-one before because it's a course it's a program which helps you to create courses so therefore evidence that my courses are actually decent is helpful

Speaker 1 and they've been working one-to-one with me and so the testimonials on working one-to-one with me cover that off as well so you know she's good at creating courses and she's not weird and she's actually quite enjoyable to work with and come over with those testimonials and that's what you're trying to do with these testimonials is it's not specifically about that program that you're currently offering or the offer that you've got on that page.

Speaker 1 It's about you as a person, you as an individual, you providing those credentials. Now, if I was to start marketing my skills for

Speaker 1 I'm a qualified riding instructor, horse riding instructor.

Speaker 1 If I started to use my client testimonials from my business mentoring for a landing page for my equine coaching, then I would absolutely feel that that would be wrong because that isn't about me in the same setting.

Speaker 1 It's not me on Zoom, it's me working with somebody with their horse and that's very, very different.

Speaker 1 And so if I needed testimonials, if I wanted testimonials, if I wanted to reignite that element of my

Speaker 1 skill set, then I would provide free sessions so that I would get testimonials that way.

Speaker 1 So as long as it's relevant, I don't feel it's an ethical. If you don't feel comfortable with it,

Speaker 1 you can make it very clear. If you still don't feel comfortable with it, then don't use them.
Go out there, get some free or low-cost people trialing and then get their feedback in.

Speaker 1 So what are you going to ask them to say? Well, I have a free download for structuring testimonials and those kind of those key sort of testimonial questions that you want to be asking people.

Speaker 1 So in the show notes, you can click a link and get those downloaded. So do do click that link, do download those free of charge.

Speaker 1 The sort of thing you want to be looking for are, and what is detailed in this download, are questions around the sort of circumstances prior to working with you,

Speaker 1 any hesitations they had before working with you, the change, the transformation that happened with by working with you,

Speaker 1 specific results they got,

Speaker 1 whether they'd recommend, what they would say to somebody is always a good one and is one that's actually actually on the the download is you know what would they say to somebody thinking who was kind of on the fence thinking about working with me so you know all those are available in that free download click the link in the show notes for that download for me and you can get that for free where do you store them what do you do with these testimonies once you've got them well you know i've said about using them on social um you can obviously use them on websites your social media posts your email marketing in a kind of case study style.

Speaker 1 You can use it on Google My Business, on Trustpilot.

Speaker 1 You can use it for those

Speaker 1 landing pages for your various courses or products or offers.

Speaker 1 So, you know, having those testimonials and also checkout pages, guys.

Speaker 1 So, not just the landing pages, but also if you're just sending them to checkout, I'd have a brief bit of information on what they're going to get with that in the on the checkout page.

Speaker 1 And then I would have testimonials, at least one or two testimonials on there.

Speaker 1 As far as storage is concerned, long term, i actually have a screenshots um well i have a folder in my i'm all appled so in my photo section on my phone um which is like business um brag and in there are all my screenshots from things that people have sent me um i will normally i'll put them out almost straight away onto or or even yeah almost or actually straight away onto my stories and then i will also save them in there then they can be used by the team for all sorts of different reference points and Google Drive is what we use you can obviously use notion or you can use notes or whatever else or over notes to store them we use Google so we have different Google Drive sections and I keep them in a brag section I tend to have them just in there

Speaker 1 and then I'll potentially date them I'll potentially put them by offer but I tend to just have them in there now because I've found that otherwise you're rooting around way too much.

Speaker 1 So, you know, how often should you be using them? I would say that

Speaker 1 one in every sort of three to four posts should have something in there of social proof, making reference, telling stories. If you're thinking how much, how often?

Speaker 1 Then what you can do is you can look to use them. You use them as snippets.
You can reference the person's full name.

Speaker 1 You can reference, you know, initials so that you can feel like you're not just having to put out the exact same testimonial.

Speaker 1 There's ways to switch it up while still feeling like you're using your integrity.

Speaker 1 If you're using a combination of formal testimonials plus screenshots, then actually you'll surprise yourself with how often, you know, even with a sort of handful of clients, you can get some decent evidence and resources to use on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 The thing is, is it's consistency with testimonials like everything.

Speaker 1 Not sexy, but really effective so keep collecting keep updating them and we can all get out of the habit um so don't beat yourself up you can always go back to a client and say hi would you mind um if you haven't started yet then set yourself a goal collect your first three testimonials this week okay

Speaker 1 do something take action to get yourself into that better place if you haven't got anybody yet then reach out to three or four people and see if they'll do something with you in return for a testimonial so once again if you want that testimonial question guide, then click that link in the podcast description.

Speaker 1 And as ever, thank you for listening. And please do support this podcast by going and reviewing, and following, and subscribing, and encouraging others to do the same.

Speaker 1 That would be really appreciated. So, that's it for me this week, guys.
In the meantime, have a great rest of your week, and I will speak to you again next week. Bye for now.