by Sean D'Souza
3) What specific feature did you like most about this product/service?
Now you’re digging deeper. If you ask the customer to focus on the entire product/service, the answer gets waffly. It’s therefore important to focus on one feature/benefit that the customer liked most about the product/service. This brings out that one feature in explicit richness and detail.
4) What would be three other benefits about this product/service?
Having already got one big feature, you can now go a little wide, and see what else the customer found useful. You can substitute the word ‘three’ with ‘two’ or simply remove the number. The number allows the customer to focus on ‘two’ or ‘three’ things, and then give you those ‘two’ or ‘three’ things that were useful.
5) Would you recommend this product/service? If so, why?
You may not think this is an important question, but psychologically it’s very important. When a customer recommends something, there’s more than your product/service at stake. The customer’s integrity is at stake too. So unless the customer feels strongly about the product/service, they won’t be so keen to recommend it. And when they do recommend it, they’re saying to prospective buyers: “Hey, I recommend it, and here are the reasons!”
6) Is there anything you’d like to add?
By this point, the customer has said all he/she has to say. But there’s never any harm in asking this question. The questions before this question kinda ‘warm up’ the customer, and sometimes you get the most amazing parting statements, that you simply can’t imagine. [9]
And this detailed construction of testimonials brings us to a very interesting observation. That in fact, the testimonial is the flip side of the objection.
Notice the first question we asked the customer?: 1) What was the obstacle in your mind that would have prevented you from buying this product/service?
And that ‘obstacle’ the customer is talking about is really their ‘biggest objection.’ So what does this tell us about how we should plan our testimonials?
What’s the biggest objection? Don’t always assume it’s price. It could be a fear of aliens, you know!
We should plan our testimonials to directly defuse each objection.
So let’s say you’re keen to sell a trip to the wildlife on the Galápagos Islands. Obviously, the trip is an exciting idea for travellers seeking to explore the wildlife on the islands. But even thrill seekers will most certainly have their objections. So if you did your homework and interviewed the potential customer you’d get objections such as:
1) It’s too expensive
2) It’s too far to travel
3) There’s no comfortable accommodation.
Now let’s assume these are the three main objections.
What are the testimonials going to say?
1) I thought it was too expensive, but (here’s what I found)
2) I thought it was too far to travel, but (here’s what I found)
3) I thought we’d have to rough it out, but (here’s what I found).
Each of the testimonials are mirror-images of the objections.
Sure you have already defused the objections earlier in your message, but this defusing is now being done by the customer, who is a third party. And you know what that means, right?
A third party is always far more believable to your prospective customers. And because each testimonial is specifically linked to an objection, it systematically reduces the risk not once, but twice.
But how do you go about controlling the angle of the testimonial?
You may want the customer to talk about expense, or distance travelled, or relevance. And the customer may want to talk about ‘an overdose of workshops.’ So how do you control the angle?
You don’t. You’re in the business of helping the construction of the testimonial. This means you’re giving the testimonial structure. You don’t need to control the situation. So here’s how you go about attempting to get the angle you desire.
Mirror, mirror on the wall…what’s the biggest objection of them all?
Let’s say you have three main objections that you need to defuse.
And let’s say you call up the customer. Ask the customer if ‘expense, or distance, or comfort’ was one of their big issues. If they say yes, continue down that track, and they’ll give you the specifics of why ‘expense’ or ‘distance’ or ‘comfortable accommodation’ was an issue. But if they disagree, and come up with a completely different issue, e.g. they say, ‘I thought the bad weather was going to be a dampener’, then hey, keep following that customer’s train of thought.
Because that train of thought is now revealing an objection you hadn’t considered. It’s talking about something you hadn’t considered. And it may be a valid objection that hasn’t come up before.
However, you may decide that the stray objection isn’t worth pursuing. And that you can’t use the objection and corresponding testimonial. Well, no problem. If you decide you can’t use the testimonial, you can always call other clients to get the angle you’re looking for.
Sooner, rather than later, you’re going to get the exact objections, and the exact testimonials, that help to defuse those objections.
A testimonial angle is like one flavour of ice-cream on your ice-cream cone. It’s best if you stick to one angle, instead of tackling too many. One angle allows the prospect to focus on just one aspect of proof.
Which means that the testimonial isn’t something we just throw into our marketing. It means the testimonial is doing some real grunt-work in defusing objections. The factor that makes the testimonial so much more powerful, is that it’s doing so from a ‘third party’ perspective, and doing it in a way that the seller could never do.
You could never bring out the detailed specifics that a client brings out.
You could never paint the imagery and the emotion. And even if you could, it would sound like a whole lot of puffery. But when the client comes up with all that detail and emotion, the testimonial becomes rich, complex, but mostly very believable. And that’s the main job of the testimonial.
Each product or service has many testimonial angles. Make sure you use several angles in your testimonials.
Which brings us back to our two recurring examples. Let’s see how we can use the testimonial in the examples.
Example 1: Website strategy workshop
Example 2: An allergy clinic
Website strategy workshop
Target Profile: Howard R.
Problem: How do I grow my internet business, without compromising on my ethics?
Solution: Here’s how to create a website strategy that’s ethical, yet extremely profitable.
Objections:
- Not sure if I have time to implement more information
- Travel always takes time and energy
- I’ve just got myself a project manager which leaves me with fewer discretionary dollars
- Not sure if there’s an overlap of information from other courses
- I don’t need more tactics. What I need is a strategy.
Testimonial:
“I figured the Website workshop would be a rehashing of older material.”
Before the Website workshop, I had my doubts about what I could learn. I have been on 5000bc for more than a year, read The Brain Audit - I’m even in the Protégé program. So I was a little skeptical about hearing anything new; I figured it’d be a rehashing of older material.
I also didn’t know how I would swing the time away - I’ve been so busy implementing the Protégé teachings, and I was concerned that this might take me off-target.
And here’s what I found:
I don’t think I can really put into words how comprehensive and integrative the class was. We learned amazing material. We learned how to apply it to our businesses. We discussed and shared with others, so it wasn’t just direct learning, it was tangential - we were ‘cross-pollinated’ by everyone else’s epiphanies, so the learni
ng was exponential. It was pretty darn amazing! [10]
An allergy clinic
Target Profile: Tricia M.
Problem: How do I get rid of my allergic reaction to wine?
Solution: Here’s how you can get rid of the allergic reaction in less than 24 hours (and without any pills or medication whatsoever).
Objections:
- I’ve tried these anti-allergy clinics before and it didn’t work for me
- The treatment seems to be quite expensive
- Will I have to go for several treatments on a recurring basis?
- What if the treatment doesn’t work for me?
Testimonial:
“I thought the treatment would be quite expensive. And I was right!”
The treatment was quite expensive. But was it worth the expense? Let’s see. I’ve had this allergy for well over twelve years. And no matter what I did to get rid of the allergy, nothing seemed to work. In fact, when I really think about it, I may have spent far more money popping some kind of anti-allergy pills that only brought me temporary relief.
And here’s what I found:
The allergy clinic treatment on the other hand, worked like magic. It’s been six months since I’ve sneezed. And I can tell you I’ve been enjoying my red wine. I no longer have to rush home early with my face all puffy and red-eyed. I can stay and enjoy the company of my friends. And of course, when my husband and I spend a romantic dinner, I can enjoy a glass or two of fine wine, and the evening doesn’t end up with me having to drink tomato juice instead!
As you can quite clearly see, the objection plays a critical role in developing a testimonial that’s not only rich in detail, but is extremely relevant to the potential customer.
Testimonials don’t exist to do the rah-rah.
They’re not there to make your page look sweet and sugary. The job of testimonials is to reduce the customer’s fear of buying the product or service. They’re there to build trust. They’re there to make your product and service believable. And when testimonials are structured correctly, that’s exactly what they do: they reduce risk.
And talking about risk actually takes us to the sixth bag: Risk Reversal.
Summary: The Testimonial
Testimonials are like résumés; they’re not entirely believable. Which is why most customers tend to view testimonials skeptically. Even if we don’t say it out loud, we view testimonials as one-sided.
It’s the seeming lack of reality in a testimonial that makes us doubt its genuineness. So the way to pump back the reality is to give a testimonial a before/after effect. And voilà, we get the ‘reverse testimonial’.
The ‘reverse testimonial’ is nothing but a testimonial that brings to the fore how the customer was feeling before they made the purchase. The doubts; the slight discomfort; the pain; the frustration. These all run through a customer’s mind right before they buy a product/service. These doubts need to be brought up front, because they bring a massive dose of reality to the testimonial.
To get this factor of reality, we need to ‘construct’ our testimonials, instead of just ‘getting’ testimonials. Construction doesn’t mean you’re faking a testimonial. Construction means you’re using parameters to build a structurally sound testimonial.
It’s not just a matter of asking the questions to construct a testimonial. Testimonials play an important role in removing objections. Therefore the objections must be listed. And it’s important to then get testimonials that defuse the core objections that stop your customer from buying your product/service.
This of course, doesn’t mean that you don’t accept a testimonial that’s given by a customer. Hey, a testimonial is a gift. And sometimes you get the most incredibly powerful testimonials from customers. Sure they may not have the awesome structure you’re hoping for, but these testimonials still work. So don’t go about being uppity and rejecting testimonials that don’t fit the structure of the ‘reverse testimonial’.
Testimonials tell stories. Stories rich in colour and detail. Stories that you could not have dreamed up in a squillion years. And yet, these stories are totally believable, because they come from the customer. And more importantly, because they have a solid dose of reality at their very core.
Bag 6: The Risk Reversal
One of my most favourite dishes in the world is a rice-dish called biriyani.
And so there I am sitting at an Indian restaurant we used to frequent almost weekly. At which point, the owner comes up to me and says he’s got something special. Something that’s not on the menu. Ok, no prizes for guessing, but yeah it was a biriyani.
Do I want my money back?
No, I most certainly don’t! I want my biriyani back. And preferably without the extra chilli!
Now I want you to get into my brain for a second, and think what I was thinking. So here’s what I was thinking. They’ll bring the biriyani. Of course, it will be too hot and spicy. So I’ll complain. Then they’ll take it back to the kitchen, and water it down with some yoghurty kind of mixture. And I’ll hate it even more.
You see that’s not what my brain is thinking about at all.
Instead I’m all ready with a big smile, and waiting in great anticipation for my dinner. But guess what happens next?
Yes, it was too hot and spicy (even for me). And yes, they took it back into the kitchen. And like some bad dream, they brought it back watered down with some yoghurty type of mixture, that made the biriyani absolutely horrid. And predictably, the restaurant owner comes up to me and asks if the biriyani is to my liking?
Of course it’s not.
So guess what he does. He’s hurt. He’s confused. And the words that come out of his mouth are: “Oh, that’s too bad. I guess I won’t recommend any dishes to you in future.”
Decaf: Check!
Soy: Check!
Latte: Check!
Can you believe that statement?
You don’t believe it, do you? Well neither did I. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to say: “You dope! I’m not here to ask for my money back. I’m here to spend my money. I’m here to have a wonderful dinner—that’s why I’m here. I don’t want my money back. I want to get what I paid for. I wanted you to make the finest biriyani in the world, and I wanted to show up twice-a-week, instead of just once-a-week, to eat this fabulous dish.”
And yet, it would be nice to have my money back. And hey it’s fair isn’t it? I don’t care if I spend $2 or $2000. When you spend your hard-earned money, you expect to get what you ordered. And if you ordered a decaf-soy-latte, you expect it to be decaf, and soy, and a latte. So if they can’t provide you with the goods, then hey, they should—at the very least—make up for the gaffe. And ideally have a risk reversal policy in place.
Like the company Granite Rock has, for instance.
Now you may never have the need to buy concrete, sand or asphalt, but let’s imagine you actually needed the stuff. And because you’re a construction company dealing with a rock company, you’re not overly impressed with all this marketing stuff. You want your concrete, your sand, etc. You couldn’t care a hoot about any risk reversal policy.
So let’s say you did decide to work with Granite Rock. And at the end of the transaction, you got an invoice. Nothing different about the invoice, except a few lines at the bottom that state: “If you are not satisfied for any reason, don’t pay us for it. Simply scratch out the line item, write a brief note about the problem, and return a copy of this invoice along with your cheque for the balance.”[11]
Notice something. It isn’t a money-back policy. You don’t have to complain. You don’t have to do the rhumba to get your money back. You simply scratch out the item on the invoice, and send in the balance.
Now hey, it sounds like a nice story, right?
All warm and fuzzy, but surely this company must now be out of business. Quite the contrary. To quote Jim’s research: [12]“The little company—it has only 610 employees—has consistently gained market share in a commo
dity business dominated by behemoths, all while charging a 6% price premium.
It won the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1992. And its financial performance has significantly improved—from razor-thin margins to profit ratios that rival companies like Hewlett-Packard, which has a pretax return of roughly 10%.”
And I would have paid a 6% premium for that biriyani.
I would have most certainly given the chef an award.
I would be most happy to drive every one of my friends, relatives and customers to that restaurant, from now ‘til the gas prices no longer make it feasible to drive long distances.
All it would take is a little risk reversal.
Yet the restaurant had no such policy. And most businesses on the planet have no such policy either. They expect their customers to take on all the risk. Yet when the tables are turned, and they become customers, they fully expect to get what they paid for—and a little more on top.
So how do we go about constructing a risk reversal policy?
There are two stages to creating risk reversal.
1) The obvious risk
2) The hidden risk.
Decaf: Check again!
Soy: Check again!
Latte: Check again!
The obvious risk: This is obvious, because it simply accepts that there may be a flaw in the product or the service. Or that the product or the service is not suitable to the customer’s specific needs. So either the customer needs to test out the product/service in advance e.g. Test-drive the car; try before you buy. Or there’s a flaw in the product/service, and there’s a straightforward money-back guarantee or warranty.
