When it comes to selling a book or a product, testimonials from respected industry experts are pure gold for your marketing campaign. Here are five simple steps you can follow to keep testimonials flowing into your business like a river. 
STEP 1
Always keep your eye out for testimonials. For example, when you receive a nice e-mail about your book or product, ask the sender if you can turn his or her kind words into a testimonial.
Don’t be shy about this. When people are nice enough to send you a compliment, they will almost always be willing to have it turned into a testimonial.
STEP 2
When you receive a raw testimonial from someone, always ask permission to smooth it out and polish it (Example provided in Step 5). This is a very common practice. It also takes the pressure of off people to word their testimonials ‘just right.’
Every time I’ve asked clients if I could polish up the testimonial they provided me, they have always said, “Yes.”
STEP 3
Ask for testimonials. If you have a strong sense that someone is willing to say something nice about your book, product or service—go ahead and ask them for a testimonial.
Don’t be shy about asking industry experts with whom you have good relationships for testimonials. A testimonial in your book, on your web site or in your other marketing materials gives them free publicity. So it’s a win/win situation!
STEP 4
Write the testimonials yourself! This is a perfectly acceptable practice. When you ask people to give you testimonials and they say, “Yes,” the first question they usually follow up with is, “What do you want me to write?”
In this moment, never give them a homework assignment. Instead, say this: “To save you time, how about if I write the testimonial and run it past you for your approval? When I do you are free of course to make any changes or edits you’d like to make.”
Every time I have proposed this idea the answer I have received is, “Yes, that sounds good.” This is great because you get the exact testimonial you want, your customers/clients get some free publicity—and you save them time because they don’t actually have to write the testimonial.
STEP 5
Whether you write them yourself or polish raw ones that have been sent to you—keep your testimonials tight and concise.
You may love reading long testimonials about yourself (I know I do!), but nobody else is going to take the time to read them—simply because they look like they’ll take too long to read—which really defeats the purpose of having testimonials.
So keep your testimonials tight. Here is an example of how you can turn a raw, rambling testimonial into one that is sharp, concise and quick and easy to read.
EXAMPLE
“In the last 15 years I’ve found Jimmy’s to be very effective for my patients. I’d say that it has completely eliminated the sore throats of…Oh, I’d say at least 95% of all my patients. And those other five percent usually have a problem that requires a treatment more invasive than an oral medication. I haven’t come across anything that works better.”
–Dr. Fast Heartbeat, MD.
Here is how you might take this raw statement and shape it into an effective testimonial:
“Jimmy’s Sore Throat Syrup is very effective. For 15 years it has completely eliminated the sore throats of 95% of my patients. In my experience, nothing works better.”
–Dr. Fast Heartbeat, MD.
Testimonials are great to use as social proof to support the marketing claims you want to make about your book or product.
Follow these five steps and I am certain you will always have a nice long list of punchy testimonials that do a lot of your selling for you.
If you got a knowledge boost from this post I encourage you to share it with your crowd!
Want to learn more? Feel free to give me a call at (303) 697-4793.