Last updated on April 13th, 2015 at 02:29 pm

Often you will see that people in marketing advise you to include testimonials on your website or other marketing materials. This blog posting is aimed at exploring why testimonials are such a powerful tool.

First of all though I need to ask you a question (hopefully this is one that you have already asked yourself as a small business owner). Who is the easiest person in the world to sell to?

The answer very simple – the easiest person to sell to is one you’ve sold to before (as long as they have had a good experience – of course if it’s not been a good experience then it’s probably the hardest thing to do). It’s someone who already trusts you, someone who’s already had a great experience with your business. And, usually it’s someone who is willing to give you a testimonial. But, you may have to ask for it – not everyone will give you an unsolicited testimonial (even in these days of social media and emails).

A good way to get testimonials is something that I read about recently. When a customer tells you something great about your product or service, ask this simple but vital question, “Can I quote you on that?” Then, if they haven’t given you the information in writing, write up their quote, email it to them for their approval, and there you go, you’ve got a great testimonial.

Of course, sometimes you don’t even know about the review or praise – for example I recently ordered some photographic enlargements and mounts from a company online for a project I am undertaking. The ordering process was quick and delivery of the enlargements took less than two days (ordered at 9pm on Wednesday and delivered bu 11:30am on Friday). I was so impressed that I tweeted about the service and quality – I know the supplier has a twitter account so I included their details, will they ever find it? Only if they monitor their account – but others may well read it.

This is why are testimonials so powerful and are part of the science of selling – because, what someone else says about you is much more believable than what you say about yourself. If you’re talking about your own business, you’re bound to say how good it is. Everyone expects it, and no one really believes it. But if someone else raves about your business…then it’s a whole different ball game.

So, if you don’t have testimonials in your marketing material you need to get some fast!