More than a few readers who listen to our podcast have asked me, “Why do you hate testimonials?”
Meet Dave, my good friend who is a marketing consultant. For years, I’ve been ribbing him to nix the testimonials on his website. Each time, Dave hemmed and hawed, but the testimonials remained.
Now then, in addition to being a consultant, Dave is also a restaurateur. And it just so happens that last week, to improve operations at one of his restaurants, Dave reached out to an expert: a restaurant consultant.
Typically on the seller side, now Dave found himself on the buyer side.
In their initial conversation, Dave was interested. So he requested to speak with a few of the consultant’s past clients. She responded flatly:
“You can go look at the testimonials on my website.”
At this, Dave was incensed. Retelling the conversation to me, he said,
“In my mind I was like, seriously? I don’t want to go look at your $&^%# testimonials!”
Dave felt her suggestion was most unhelpful.
Then it clicked. As a marketing consultant – on the seller side – he was guilty of making the very same mistake.
So it turns out, I don’t hate testimonials. Rather, I hate when most creative firms use them. Because when you are selling elite, premium, high-ticket services (which you are, right?), testimonials on your website are wasted.
However, if introduced at just the right time in the Creative Firm Sales Cycle, testimonials are powerful.
So using testimonials is a question of when, not if.
Cheers,
Joel
P.S. For more info about the Creative Firm Sales Cycle, listen to our podcast episode Everyone Has a Sales Problem.
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