Make More Sales by Building Your Credibility

By: Lynne Saarte
Submitted: 2008-06-02 16:35:17
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When television shows want to show someone buying from a company or person that’s questionable, they generally show a scene where a customer buys fake brand name items from an alley or out of the back of someone’s car. These sellers are not credible. No one trusts them or their product. The customers are in the alley for the price only.

This is not how you want to be seen by your customers. If you tell them you have a quality product, you want them to believe it. People will return to you if they trust you. But before you have return customers, you need to get people through the door by building your credibility so that they trust you from the get-go.

How do you build that credibility? The best way is to use testimonials. No one is going to believe you if you say you have the best product. But people will believe other people that say you have the best product. Here are a few tips to using testimonials in your marketing materials.

Ask clients to provide testimonials. Don’t try to fake your testimonials. It’s easy to spot the fake ones. You can persuade your clients to provide a testimonial by offering a discount on their next purchase. If they say they don’t have time, ask if you can write one for them and have them approve it.

Keep the testimonials specific. This will increase their credibility, and yours. Most of the fake testimonials are the ones that use general language, such as “This product is great!” That’s not going to convince anyone that your product actually is great. People are skeptical these days so you need to use concrete information to combat that. Use numbers if possible. One good example: “Your XYZ product saved me $400 a month in electricity bills.”

Use a full name. Using initials is a surefire way for people to think you’re making comments up. Include a name, title, company name, city and state, and a photo. A photo especially ups the credibility of the testimonial and therefore, you and your product.

Use a spectrum of clients. Obviously you want to use people who are in your target market, but if your target market isn’t narrowly defined, use people that represent your spectrum of targeted people. If you use brochure printing as a marketing piece, create your business brochure with a testimonial from a different type of customer on every flap, or side.

Include testimonials on all of your marketing materials. You can include testimonials on your Web site, your business brochures or direct-mail postcards. This is one of the best ways to ensure you don’t waste your brochure printing budget – by making them effective with testimonials. If possible, include photos of past customers with their comments. Ask your brochure printing company what services they provide – they could include the photos for you in a professional design.

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