How to Spotlight Your Successes to Prospects

Potential and current clients want to know that you can get results for their businesses. If they’re considering investing in your expertise, a “yes” is a lot easier for them when they know that you have experience and have gotten results for others.

But as service providers, it can feel challenging to toot your own horn. Especially if you’re used to flying behind the scenes.

Talking about your experience and results is an important part of the marketing of your business and even more so if you’re actively looking for more clients.?

There are two main ways to spotlight yourself to others: testimonials and referrals.

Referrals are easy because all they require is you doing the great work that you do, “wowing” your clients, and them sharing your name with others. And referrals are also a really powerful tool for the service provider. They’re often unprompted, from one customer’s own mouth to a potential client’s ear. It’s a personal connection that doesn’t come from you.

Testimonials can feel a bit trickier. You’re asking for a client to share with you what they got out of working with you. That can feel awkward. But it should be a natural part of working together.

Here’s how to ask for and share testimonials from your clients in a way that I think will feel really natural:

Ask at the right time

When you ask for a testimonial makes a difference, so getting the timing right is important. And the timing depends on how you work with clients. Are you on retainer? Are you project-based?

If you work with retainer clients, I recommend asking for a testimonial after about two months of getting results for your client. And if you’re project-based, the end of the project (once results are in and without waiting too long after wrap-up) is the best time to ask for a testimonial.?

How to ask

Most clients will know an ask is coming so it won’t be a surprise for them. Depending on your relationship with the client and how you’ve been working together, you can ask for a testimonial during your wrap-up call or in an email. There are benefits to both of these.

When you ask during a call, you can record their immediate response and use that as a testimonial (with their permission). Video testimonials are incredibly powerful. If they aren’t comfortable with you using that initial reaction as a testimonial, that’s okay. You can send an email later with some of the language they used to help them formulate an official testimonial. This route also works well for clients who need a little nudge to respond. You could say something like, “On our call, you said [insert a summary of their words here]. I’d love to be able to use this in a testimonial. Would that be okay, or could you send me something in your own words?”

Be sure to share (or re-share) some of those amazing results you’ve gotten for your client when you ask for the testimonial. If you’ve helped them reduce expenses, increase sales, save time, consolidate processes, etc., remind them. Having this information in the testimonial will help to spotlight what you might be able to do for future clients. Don’t leave it to your client to know what you’re doing for their business; they don’t think like you. Tell them!

At the end of the day, If your client is pleased with your work they will likely be thrilled to support you in growing your business.

What to do with that testimonial

Once you have your testimonial in hand, share it! You can have a page dedicated to kudos, share them next to the services on your website, and/or publish them on social media. You can also include them in follow-up emails, during coffee chats, and in discovery/sales calls.?

Sharing testimonials is not bragging; it’s sharing the success stories of your clients so that you might eventually help others find success.

Speaking of success stories…

Everyone loves a good story and while a traditional testimonial is valuable, sharing the story of where it came from is even more powerful.

A visual case study is one way to do that, and if you’re doing your regular reporting it’ll be easy to create. This is a one-page (or so) report that can include:

• Project timeline
• What type of project it is
• The date it started
• Results of the project (both a narrative and hard numbers)
• The investment made by the client
• The financial return on that investment (if applicable)

And if you can include a video or written testimonial from the client on this, then you’ve struck gold!

As a service provider, you’re ultimately taking money from the top line of the business, from the business owner. You need to be able to show how you impact a business to bring the CEO to a “yes” faster.

I’d love to know from you how you’ll ask for testimonials in the future…and what you’ll do with them when you have them!