Small Business Tips For Terrific Testimonials And How To Get Them

Testimonials are a critical part of effective copy to help build credibility and to reduce objections to purchase.But many of my clients have been asking lately how do we go about getting terrific testimonials?

Here are my top 5 pre-requisites before getting great testimonials.

1.Do great work.This should go without saying, but unless you do exceptional work you will not get people commenting about your exceptional quality or service.

2.Do what you say you will when you say you will do it.If you promise something, you need to deliver it either before or on time.It does no one any favours to promise much in order to get business and then under-deliver.

3.Be open and honest in your dealings with people.Give people your honest advice even if that means you do yourself out of an immediate client.They will remember the honesty and tell their friends.

4.Be consistent.Don't be brilliant one day and so-so the next.Keep your standards consistently high and you will get great results.That means if you promise you will deliver a newsletter weekly, quarterly or monthly, then stick to that schedule.Don't only send information out when you are trying to sell something.

5.Be friendly and warm.If you do great work but have the personality and warmth of a vanilla ice-cream you will not be memorable.Be friendly and warm with all of your clients.Discover the great things about each person you work with as this makes a huge difference in how you approach them.Focus on what you can do for them and not what they can do for you.

Before you go out and hunt down some testimonials here are a few rules to remember.

Ask!People mean well and may think great things about you, but unless you ask them they generally will not tell you what they are thinking.You need to ask for feedback.

Get consent.NEVER use someone's words without their recorded consent.

In their own words.This is a hard and fast rule.Never never never write a testimonial on behalf of someone else and get them to sign it.For starters it is not in their language style so it stands out a mile.If someone asks you to write it, these are great candidates to talk with them on the phone about what they like about your service.By talking with them and then jotting down their answers you can get around their writers block.

Don't make them up.It is illegal and will get you into very hot water with companies such as the ACCC.

Keep it current.The best testimonials come immediately after purchase, or within a short space of time after purchase.Don't leave your testimonial gathering too late after the event.

Specific is better than general.Mrs Mary Smith of Littletownship in North Stradbroke is much more powerful than MS, Brisbane.

Film is the most powerful.All testimonials are great but film is more powerful than recordings, which are more powerful than words.

Now, assuming you have the pre-requisites and the rules down pat, here are my top ways to actually get testimonials.

Systematize the process.Build in asking for testimonials as part of your process for purchasing.Send a follow-up email through your auto-responder program 7 days after purchase asking for feedback on the product or service.

Client satisfaction doubles as testimonial gathering.Finding out what your customers like and dislike about your product or service through a client satisfaction survey serves two purposes.You get early warning of things that need to be improved with your business as well as potentially some great testimonials you can use in your marketing.

Make it easy for them.Contact your best customers and ask them to "jot down a few words" about what they liked about your business.This could be in an e-mail or on a postcard.

You need to be clear that you only want them to "jot" rather than "write a testimonial".Jotting is much less confronting for people than writing a testimonial and you are more likely to get a favourable response.

Call them.Telephones are not dead in the age of email.You can call your top customers to ask them for feedback on your services both good and bad.As they are talking, jot down what they say.Action the things they mention that need to be improved (and tell them when you have actioned them).

If you get someone raving about you on the phone say "wow - thank you!I am so glad you loved our service.Would you mind if I used some of the things you just said in a testimonial for our business?" Email them the words they used and ensure you get written consent before using the words.

Use a tick sheet or scale.People often are more willing to fill in a tick-a-box survey, or circle their satisfaction with your service on a scale.This allows for some great statistical compilation data "98% of all our customers say we give great to exceptional service".

So now you have some great ways to get terrific testimonials.Use them everywhere in your copy, your website, your brochures, your flyers and all marketing.

Remember - words have power!

About the Author

Ingrid Cliff is a freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - a writing services studio that helps put your business into words.

For a free copy of the "7 Secrets of Compelling Copy Powerful Words" visit her website http://www.heartharmony.com.au "> www.heartharmony.com.au .

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If High Fuel Bills Are Squeezing Your Business, Turn Towards Freight Factoring

With fuel prices showing no signs of abating, running your trucks could drain away your finances, since your clients might pay you on the due date, whereas the fuel pumped in your trucks would require instant cash. With every visit to the fuel station requiring large amounts of cash, it could be a good idea to turn towards freight factoring, in order to arrange for the much-needed cash.

You could also turn towards a bank, in order to secure a loan to tide over the fuel crisis. But, with a rising number of borrowers defaulting on their loans, banks too have tightened their norms, while handing out loans. You might be required to arrange for sufficient collateral, as in any case as give your audited financial statements manifestation your interest details for the history 3 days. In case you do alter to fulfill both conditions, you will be dole out a fixed sum of currency that you will appetite to pay back along and notice. You will consequently need to pay the absolute sum in the type of familiar weekly episodes, which would spare augment your strain levels at the come out of every month. In case you imply extra financing for a shortest phase, subsequently you can know-how a interest for arranging an extra loan, without clearing the initially loan.

Freight factoring, on the abundant hand, is a awfully flexible approach of financing that without difficulty pays you the bulk of your credit invoice right away without apprehensive for the due date to arrive. A freight factoring agency will buy your credit invoices like you and will wire the invoice sum into your bank log indoors two years. Therefore, you will obtain money critical your credit invoices. This will establish to be a big boon, since you will now be able to pay your ever-rebel gas costs, salaries for your drivers and variant employees and still take on more bountiful hauls that differently might not experience been conceivable due to cash constraints. The freight factoring agency will although, exclude a factoring fee of about 1.5 to 5 indulge in your invoice sum as bills for allowing you in addition to this detail provision. If your reward margins are healthy ample to disrupt this percent to your factoring bureau, then you can in actuality turn around to freight factoring to crack your money-drift problems.

An gone through freight factoring firm can likewise sort out to bring together the payments derive pleasure your clients. This again may reveal to be a abnormal boon for your business, since you could subsequently focus your spirit on variegated ingredients, such as attempting for more bountiful and longer hauls and taking added drivers for your interest, in its place of fretting regarding belatedly payments. Your customers will experience to be told of your meeting and your factoring bureau. Freight factoring will thence act as an extension to your trucking business and in addition has the ability to hold pace along furthermore the growing imply of your affair. This mode of finance will depend on the portion of invoices that you submit to your factoring firm and the bigger the invoice portion, the heavier the payout that you can foresee in your bank memoir indoors a few days.

In addition to pricey gas expenses, a bitter actuality that can stay as well as your trucking business dreadfully, turning to freight factoring companies would enable you to run your interest proficiently, without any economic or mental attachments to admit you back.


On the subject of the Inventor

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Improving Your Credit Increases Your Borrowing Power

Whenever you apply for credit or a loan, the lender will first check your credit report to see what kind of score you have. This report gives a listing of all your bills and whether or not you have been diligent in making your monthly payments on time. If there are any negative points on this report, such as missed payments, applying for credit too often, or judgment or bankruptcy issues, you will have a difficult time obtaining the money you need because of poor credit. It is in your best interest to always maintain a good credit rating because it will have a serious impact on your ability to obtain credit in the future.

Your credit report is almost like a resolutions card for lenders. By means of the score you experience lenders ascertain your opportunity to repay any change that you borrow. It is of utmost sophistication to forever brand your payments by the due date prescribed on your assert or on you loan concord. Even if you taste been negligent in this respect in the times of yore, you can come out recovering your credit by causing a concerted drive to type your payments. You wont see a dramatic raise in your score right now, but after six months or so, you should start to see it arise.

You are entitled to get a complimentary back up of your credit results. You should utilize this appropriately to carry a experiment on your rating and to class assured that you skill not transform the victim of a deception or a scam. Regularly scrutinize your replies to brand assured that all the programmed accounts essentially refer to your financial environment. If there are any objects programmed that you are unconvinced concerning, communiqu� the credit organization to take spare awareness. There tolerate been a couple of incidences where people go through negative bits and pieces on their credit that they did not commence via fraudulent loans and purchases meant in their names.

If you labor under vagrant credit, you would required to agree taking out a consolidation loan to pay off all your debts. Subsequently you only experience one commission to gander following each month. You can excepting change in this way as anyhow as the payment is commonly a lot less than the measure you are currently paying in addition to all of your charges. You can as well stock out a bad credit loan or a credit card. Also albeit you will labor under to pay a higher rate of comment on this loan, by causing your payments on phase, you can progressively kick off to re-erect your credit.

One of the appropriate ways to accelerate your credit is to try and pay off your debts. You can set out doing this by paying extra than you crave for your minimum charge. The measure will bid to your unpaid evaluate and thence relieve the measure of briefing you meet up with to pay then month. It is very surprising how increasing your payment by only a adolescent measure will aid move trailing the compare. The best way to take off is to pop out as well as the debt as well as the lowest balance as it will be easier to pay this one off quickly. Then when you do knowledge it settled off, add the portion you were paying to the commission for the debt plus the subsequently highest match. It wont be lengthy prior to you see an augment in your credit rating as you pay off your bills.

There are a few scams that advertise ways to maximize your credit that will really augment your debt putting you in added fiscal adversity. Such services payment you a fee and may without difficulty offer opinion as to guidelines you can use for repairing bad credit. You will simply get notification that you already pass through and will be out capital riches.

There are promotions by credit card organizations, though, that can aid you accelerate your credit. By capturing vantage of an offer of 0 announcement to bring your balances to a new credit card, you meet up with an opening to combine all your debts into one compare as well as one charge. The spare advantage is that for you wont be paying any mind costs at all fro an introductory epoch, you know-how a unpredictability to pay off extra of the unpaid balance. If you can agitate it at all, you can truly class a hire that is equated to the combined payments you were paying individually this inhibiting the unpaid balance somewhat soon. Given that there is no information coming out of this commission, the whole thing you pay will be dole out to the match.

When lenders obtain a make a copy of your credit solutions and see that you tolerate combined all your costs on one credit card or in a debt consolidation loan, this is a show in your like better. This shows afterward that you are effecting an drive to maximize your credit by getting primary steps to maximize your monetary setting.


Just about the Creator

Peter Kenny has been authoring economic articles for 10 existence and is a person responsible for The Thrifty Scot, suit discuss with us at

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Free Press: How To Get Major Columnists, Journalists And Reporters To Talk About You In Articles

There's no doubt that at some point in your career you've had a new product to sell, a new service you're offering or some other piece of news that you knew would make a great story in a magazine or newspaper which could provide some great free marketing for you. The next thing that probably crossed your mind- how could you make that happen?

For most people, the problem is that they stop right there, at the "wondering" stage and just have no idea how to go from having a great story to tell to getting written up in a local or national publication. Well, not anymore! We're going to take care of that problem right now by showing you how to get noticed by writers so you can open the door to free press.

Let's look at this issue with an example that you are probably more familiar with first, then, we'll tie it back into the subject at hand: getting free press. If you want to do business with someone, you usually have to connect with them several times and create a relationship of some kind, right? There aren't many people left in this world who hear a message for the first time and bite right into it. There's simply too much clutter flying around to take notice of everything, so most of us have to be reminded of the same message 7-9 times before we take notice of it. These writers are no different: so, what you have to do is try to find a way to start a conversation with them and build a relationship. It's no different than you would do with any prospect in your business. So, let's look at how you can introduce yourself and start a conversation.

Most publications publish the email address of the writers at the bottom of each column and oftentimes they even solicit a response. You will usually see a tagline that reads something like:

Questions or comments about this article? We'd love to hear from you! To let Jon know what you think of his article, email him at example@example.com

How many people do you think actually take the time to email these authors? Right, not many. We even know some authors who wonder if anyone ever reads their columns! They're dying to have somebody give them some feedback or correspond with them. They often just want someone to take notice of them, so this is where you can score some major points. Just take a few minutes to send the writer an email letting them know what you thought of their article. Just look at it as if they just started a conversation with you, laying out their entire point of view, and now they have paused and are waiting for you to give them an answer. It's that simple. Even a short email that simply says, hey, "great article! I can't wait to read some more of your work!" is a great start.

Most authors of major publications also have blogs in addition to their columns where they write on a more regular basis. And most of these blogs allow readers to post comments on the blog. So, run a google search for the author's name or look in the publication to see if you can find a web address for their blog. If you find one, go to the blog address on your computer and bookmark it or subscribe to it by email or RSS (Really Simple Syndication - explaining this technology is beyond the scope of this article, but it's a great technology that streams news and articles directly to you without you having to ever go back to the source to get it. Check it out, it's great!). Be sure to check at least every few days to see what they are blogging about. Whenever you have something to say about their blog, you can post a comment. It's the same concept as emailing them after you have read one of their columns, but, you don't have to wait for the next publication to be printed, you can keep up-to-date and keep the "conversation" going whenever you like.

Once you have started some ongoing dialogue with a writer, and have started to build a relationship, don't you think they might pay attention to you when you have a story for them? They sure will! Good luck and let us know about your success from using this strategy.


About the Author

Get more FREE info now at DicksNantonAgency.com

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