Testimonials are money-makers, plain and simple.

In our business, we have between $2,000 and $5,000 a month in failed payments.

If you want to bulletproof your authority, shorten your sales cycle and give your buyers peace of mind that they are making the right decision, you NEED a process in your online business for collecting, distributing and SHOUTING YOUR TESTIMONIALS FROM THE ROOFTOPS.

Whether you’re newer to business and wondering how to get social proof when you’re just starting out, or your a seasoned business owner with people raving about you but no solid process for capturing all of that goodness, this is a must listen and business game changer.

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Here’s how we collect Testimonials to Grow Our Business:

Why Testimonials Are Worth Collecting

Testimonials are business gold, for three reasons.

To purchase ANYTHING, a buyer needs three things – trust in the offer, trust in you.. and, more importantly, trust in themselves. Great testimonials? Provide all three.

1) Trust in Your Offer: It’s one thing for YOU to say how great your offers are; it’s another entirely to have your BUYERS say it. Seeing proof that the transformation you promise “on the box” is possible is powerful, because it proves that your offer WORKS.

2) Trust in YOU: Testimonials give potential buyers confidence that you and your offers are what you SAY they are. They establish authority and trust in your offers.

3) Trust in Themselves: Most importantly, testimonials help buyers to develop trust in THEMSELVES and their ability to achieve whatever the transformation of your offer is. This is where testimonials SPECIFIC to a person are super powerful.

For example, in our business we have lots of health professionals purchase their offer, but usually? They have specific objections as to why the offer may not work for THEM. Things like regulatory restrictions, or a lack of marketing know how. By sharing testimonials from health professionals specifically, those people can start to see themselves in their results and see how it might be possible for them, too.

Three Types of Testimonials

There are three types of testimonials. The good news? That no matter your current stage of business, there is likely one that you can access and use RIGHT now.

1. “They like me” testimonials: “They like me” testimonials show that your buyers enjoy the EXPERIENCE of working with or purchasing from you.
2. Small win testimonials: Small win or “early days” testimonials are ones that demonstrate an early win, or small step. These are powerful, because they are relatable. They are also possible to get earlier on than the “full transformation” testimonials.
3. Full transformation testimonials: Full transformation testimonials are the BIG ones; the ones that show that people have gotten a BIG result or achieved the FULL transformation of your offer.

I always recommend to our members in Lifestyle Business School that are just starting out to start with “they like me” testimonials, then to collect and share small win testimonials whilst they are waiting for their buyers to achieve their full transformation.

How to Collect Testimonials

Having a SYSTEM for collecting testimonials is so crucial, otherwise it can be super easy for it to “fall off the radar” when you get busy.

In our brand new Deliver and Delight course dropping into Lifestyle Business School this month, we are sharing our FULL testimonial collection process. To join today and get access to it and a FULL SUITE of back end delivery processes for any high or low touch course, program or mastermind, click here.

• Create a testimonial database: We recommend firstly setting up a testimonial database in your project management system for filing and categorising testimonials. Think about how you would like to label them to easily access them, and add columns to record where they have been distributed.

• Save screenshots: Encourage sharing wins and save all screenshots.

• Ask for testimonials: Implement a system to proactively ask for testimonials. A great time to do this is immediately after a win, but you could also have it baked into an automated buyer delivery sequence. We use Videoask in our business to do this, and link it to our forum community signature, in our email automations and speak about it on calls.

• Set up Google Reviews: As an easy “place” to house testimonials, you can set up a Google review for your business and link to it whenever you are asking for testimonials.

• Conduct case studies: Another great way to get testimonials is to create case study content with people who have achieved a particular transformation. We do this on our podcast, and specifically in the lead up to launches and it is a super powerful form of social proof that absolutely influences sales.. because our students tell us!

Anonymous Feedback

Testimonials are not the ONLY form of feedback that you should be collecting in your business.

In episode 162 of the podcast, also shared our FULL Anonymous Feedback process, which we use in our business to consistently improve our offers.

In addition to the glowing and POSITIVE feedback you receive, you should also have a process for collecting constructive feedback in your business. For us, that looks like an anonymous feedback form going out every three months or so, with a series of questions to see how we can improve.

This can be automated in a funnel or sent live, but it can be a great way to get consistent feedback from you buyers. Making it anonymous allows people to give feedback easily.

Where to Share Testimonials

Once you’ve started collecting testimonials, the MOST important thing is to make sure that you aren’t just saving them in your project management system and never sharing them with the world! It’s JUST as important that you have system for distributing them on a consistent basis via:

• Your website: You should have testimonials peppered throughout your website, results page and sales pages.

• Social media: Commit to posting a testimonial a day. We can see in our data tracking that the testimonials we post on stories ALWAYS drive traffic to our site. An easy way to do this is to create a testimonial folder on your phone, so you always have a suite on hand to upload.

• In conversation: Especially great for social selling is having a folder of testimonials categorised into different “profiles” and having them on hand to send in sales conversations so that potential buyers can see that other people like them have achieved the transformation of your offer.

• Remarketing: Having testimonials for “bottom of funnel” potential buyers can be a powerful way to encourage them to take action. For example, you could run Facebook ads to people who land on your check out.

So, there you have it. Our full process for collecting testimonials inside of our business.

If you want access to the processes we shared in today’s episode, including our Testimonial Collection process and our full Anonymous Feedback process, they are just two of the processes included in the BRAND NEW Deliver and Delight course that has just been added into our Lifestyle Business School membership.

To join Lifestyle Business School and get your hands on them, click here.

Links and Resources Mentioned in Episode:

• Episode 162: Don’t Take It Personally: Inviting Frank, Fair Feedback from Your Clientele and Using It to Improve

• Free Failed Payment SOP: Get the exact Standard Operating Procedure template we used to recoup failed payments in our online business. 

• BRAND New Deliver and Delight Course just added to Lifestyle Business School: Deliver and Delight is the FULL playbook for implementing stand out, streamlined delivery processes for any high or low touch course, program, coaching offer or mastermind. We hand you our done for you workflows, standard operating procedures and automations for the three phases of managing any online offer. 

Keep Listening!

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify