Hi, it's Dave Lorenzo, and welcome back. It's great to be here with you once again. All right, let's talk about testimonials.

I hear from sales folks all the time that they hate them, and the reason they hate them is because they feel uncomfortable asking for testimonials, and I get it. Look, to say to your client, hey, would you mind getting in front of a camera and telling everybody how great I am? That can be troubling. Here's the thing to remember.

If you can't ask for a testimonial from a great client, then you can't ask for a referral. When I work with lawyers, and I work with a lot of lawyers, we talk about this all the time. Lawyers, CPAs, professionals, they hate to ask for testimonials almost as much as salespeople do, and I say to the lawyer, do you want referrals? And the lawyer says yes.

I say to them, you have to ask for referrals if you want them, and the lawyer goes, oh, I guess you're right, and I say, if you can't ask for a testimonial, you can't ask for a referral. Really important to understand that. So here's the script to use when you ask for a testimonial.

You do it at a time when your client is very happy with something that happened in the process. Either you got a great result for them, or you just sold them a product, or they called you to tell you how happy they are. Mr. Smith, I'm so honored that you would call to give me that feedback.

I'm grateful for your business, and I wanna thank you. And also, I'd like to ask you, if you wouldn't be too uncomfortable, would you mind just jotting down a few of the things you just told me, put it on your letterhead, and drop it in the mail? If you don't wanna do that, why don't you come by the office, and we can go to lunch, and before I take you to lunch, I'll turn on my phone, and you can just say some of the things you said in the phone call to me on a video, and we can use it in our website, and I can show it to other clients and prospective clients, because that would really help me a lot. It would be a big favor to me.

Now, that script I gave you has a lot of words in it, and you can put it in your own language, but here's the key. When someone compliments you, all you're asking them to do is just jot a few things down, jot that down in a note to you on their letterhead. Now, if it's not a B2B situation, if it's not a business-to-business situation, they can write it on regular stationery, and handwrite it and give it to you, and you can copy it, scan it, put it in what's called a brag book, which is a book that is a compilation of all your testimonials, and you mail it to people before they do business with you.

Written testimonials are great. Video testimonials are even better, because nobody can fake those. It's the person, right in front of the camera, speaking truth about the level of service they receive, and why they're so happy.

So, doing it when someone's complimenting you is great. Also, every time you meet with an existing client, if they haven't done a testimonial, ask them, especially if they're dressed up and looking good, like they're going to do a presentation at work, say, geez, Mrs. Smith, you look fantastic today. Oh, yes, Joe, I'm delivering a presentation to the CEO.

Wow, that's wonderful. You know what I'd love to do? I'd love to get you on video, talking about the last deal we did together, and how happy you are. I know this is gonna represent you well, and it would be a fantastic favor for you to do for me.

I would really appreciate it. Now, that line, every time you ask for a testimonial, has to be in there. I'd like you to do me a favor.

Would you mind doing me a favor? Would you please do me a favor? If you say it like that, a good client is hardly ever going to refuse you. My preference is for you to ask for a video testimonial first, and if the person says, oh, I'd be uncomfortable being on video, then say, oh, that's no problem. Would you just mind jotting down a few things about our relationship on a piece of paper? It can be your letterhead, and you can handwrite it, or you can type it up and send it to me in an email.

Either way would be fantastic. First ask for the video, and then fall back to the written testimonial. The easiest thing to do is to ask a client who's happy for a favor, and that favor is doing the testimonial.

Now, if it's a written testimonial, I'd like you to take out your phone and take a quick selfie with the client so that you can use the picture of you and the client together along with their written words. That reinforces the fact that they actually gave you the testimonial. And here's the other thing.

If they're willing to give you a written testimonial and they just take too long to do it, all I want you to do is jot down exactly what they said to you in an email and say, Mr. Smith, remember last Thursday we talked about the testimonial you were going to give me? You said you liked this. You said this was spectacular. You said you really enjoyed working with me because of this.

If you wouldn't mind, please take that information that you actually said and send it back to me in an email. All you're doing is taking their actual words, reflecting them back to them so that they remember, and then asking them to send it to you in an email. You never ever make up a testimonial.

Never fake it. Never ever put words in people's mouths. Always, if you're going to send them something in writing, reflect actual words they've said back to them, and you make sure that you reinforce the fact that they offered to do you a favor.

Now, let me also give you three times when you need to use these testimonials. Everyone who's going to meet with you in person should get a pile of your testimonials in advance of that meeting. You should send them out.

All the written testimonials, links in email to video testimonials that you put up on YouTube, all of those things should go before you ever, before you ever meet with them, so that in advance they know that you've got a whole army of people who are supportive of you and your work. The second time you use testimonials is after you've sent something to a prospective client, like a proposal. Always include new testimonials or different testimonials in the proposal to reinforce it.

The third time you use testimonials is when you send back the signed engagement agreement or signed contract. You send yet a third wave of testimonials to reinforce that they've made a good decision and prevent buyer's remorse. Those are the three times to use testimonials.

Of course, you should have your own website. Even if you're a sales professional, independent sales professional, or a sales professional working for a big company, you should have a personal website where you write expert articles so that you can prove that you're an expert, and it also is a place to hold your body of work. I call this your primary internet presence.

So on your personal website, you should post all those testimonials as well as on LinkedIn. People should be putting testimonials up there for you as well to reinforce the credibility that you have with people in your industry and in your profession. So that's kind of the very, very quick overview on testimonials.

Leave me your thoughts on this valuable sales tool down in the comments. I wanna hear what you think about testimonials. I wanna hear what you're struggling with.

I hope you join me right back here again tomorrow. I'm Dave Lorenzo, and until tomorrow, I hope you do this and sell more.