A recent post You Probably Mistreat Your Best Clients, by Tim Berry on his Planning Startup Stories got me thinking about a corollary … Do businesses treat their new hires better than their existing long-term employees?

Berry asks: Do your long-term loyal clients get the worst treatment? Do they pay the highest rates? Do you take them for granted? Do you give new customers better rates than existing customers?

Many pundits, organizations, governments, universities, authors, bloggers, and companies are proud to announce to one and all that “Their employees are their most valuable assets.” But is it really true? Do they really treat those employees as most valuable? Ask yourself the same questions, but substitute employees for clients and customers.

Do your long-term loyal employees get the worst treatment?

Do you take your long-term employees for granted? Do your long-term employees become invisible, competently doing those behind-the-scenes support roles so well that management just sort of assumes they will always be there? Do they perform their jobs so well that they are never considered for promotion or new opportunities? So necessary, yet so overlooked.

Do they get paid the highest salaries or the lowest? Have your people’s salaries kept pace with inflation and the cost of living?  Do your most senior employees have less spendable income now than when they were hired? In some companies, especially those teetering on the edge of the cash flow abyss, it is entirely possible that they are now in violation of Wage and Hour laws because Federal and State Minimum wage amounts jumped ahead of what some people make, especially as many companies chose to forgo employee raises in 2009.  That’s easy to test, for yourself: take the suspect salaries and compare them to the minimums.

Do you give new employees better salaries than existing employees? This one is prevalent in many businesses. It’s not that companies intentionally set out to short-change their long-term employees. It’s just that COL raises never keep pace with inflation, but new employees seek jobs with starting salaries commensurate with the current job market. The loyal, stable, current employee suddenly finds that the new hire, often in a lower tier in the organizational structure, is being paid more than they are, after putting in years of service building a successful company. And here’s a good test of that one: if you had to hire a new person to replace your existing one, would you have to pay more than their salary, or less?

Does it cost more to get a new employee or keep an existing one? Most companies know that the cost of losing an employee, and recruiting and training a new one, is very high. That’s in the business literature everywhere. Still, as a reminder, this is a paraphrase of a marketing axiom that it costs more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. This can apply to employees as well. Remember, in this context, that there is the productivity lost when the employee is no longer present. Next come the costs for advertising, screening, interviewing and filling the position. Then there are the losses during training periods, where you have two people (trainee and trainer) working at less than peak performance. In some cases the company loses skills and knowledge that can never be reacquired.

Those loyal long-term employees can save you from Santayana’s Law of Repetitive Consequences, i.e., “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” A “new” hot marketing program idea, for example, may turn out to be a complete waste of time and money … just like the last time it was tried … reinventing the flat tire, as it were … if there is no one left in the company who remembered when it flopped before.

Your long-term employees are the folks that helped you start up and grow your company to where it is today. They were key to the foundation of your venture, and now provide continuity between where you have been and where and what you plan to become.

Steve Lange

Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

————————————–
A message from Palo Alto Software’s CEO  Sabrina Parsons: Steve is right! And the good thing is, as a long term employee who retires today,  Steve was a very welcome part of the team who will be missed. A message from Steve about retiring:

“What a long strange trip it’s been…” Ok, so I’m not part of the Grateful Dead –”I’m not dead yet. Too old to rock ‘n’ roll; too young to die.” — but I can certainly be one of the Grateful Retired.

Twelve years! That’s the longest I worked at any one job, and the longest I worked in any one industry. Whodathunkit.
Lots happened at Palo Alto during that time, and I traveled and learned as I participated in that journey.

Thanks to all of you for your friendship, your encouragement, and for laughing at my awful puns.

“Adventure’s out there!” — UP!

Steve

Tags: employees, human resources, long-term employees, news, personnel
Posted on January 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Congratulations! Your New Year’s resolution is to get serious about marketing your small business. You know that email marketing is a fun, effective and inexpensive way to do it, so now you’re tasked with building your email list. Where do you start? Here are 5 tips to get you started.

1. Put a Guest Book in your store, office and/or on your website and ask people to sign it. Put a space for their email address with the message, “Would you like to receive offers and special members-only discounts from us? Join our mailing list!”

2. When you are networking and people hand you their business card ASK if they want to be included in your newsletter and/or special offers email list. Don’t put everyone who hands you a business card on your email list – believe it or not, that’s illegal.

3. Give something away for free. Either in your store, office or on your site; offer a free report, a free gift, a free session, for example. It can be a raffle or something you give to everyone who signs up (if you do this, make it easy and inexpensive, a white paper is perfect). It doesn’t have to be much, something educational, like a report or a free consultation – or anything a client or potential client will consider valuable and useful. Make it clear that when they agree to enter the drawing they will also be agreeing to receive emails from you.

4. Put an opt-in form on your website and Facebook page to sign up for a newsletter or special “members only” events and offers and drive traffic to it in your email signature, business card, signs in your office or store and in your social media accounts like Twitter.

5. Go through your Outlook list or Rolodex and contact each person one by one, asking for permission stay in touch via email more often. You can let them know that you publish a newsletter or send out special members only deals and you would hate for them to miss out.

Remember – as a small business, there are laws governing email. No matter how tempting it may be, never add people to your list who did not give you permission. Not only is it unprofessional and impolite it’s illegal.

For more information about growing your small business visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com

Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit FortuneMarketingCompany.com

Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.631.6340.

Tags: Carolyn Higgins, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, email marketing, news
Posted on January 12th, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Women will become, in the next few months, the majority of the American workforce, passing the 50% threshold, according to The Economist’s Dec. 30, 2009 issue. Here are a few items from the article highlighting this accomplishment, and pointing out the challenges.

High points:
Women run many of the world’s great companies, e.g. PepsiCo in the United States and Areva in France.
There is a demand for female brains. Woman are a majority of professional workers in the U.S.
Women make up the majority of university graduates; by 2011 there will be 2.6 million more female than male university students in America.

Challenges:
Only 2% of the bosses of America’s largest companies are women.
Women continue to be paid significantly less than men, on average. In America, childless women earn almost as much as men, but mothers earn significantly less.
The U.S. is the only rich country that refuses to provide mothers with paid maternity leave.

Read the entire Women and Work: We did it! article. Two additional articles in that issue look more closely at Female Power: Women in the Workplace and Womenomics: Feminist Management Theories.

It has always seemed strange to me that business, which otherwise is obsessed with efficiency, would voluntarily, and with forethought, deliberately undervalue and underutilize as much as one-half of one of its resources. With a new majority hopefully the paradigm will continue to shift to equality.

“Women’s economic empowerment is arguably the biggest social change of our times,” says The Economist. “Societies that try to resist this trend will pay a heavy price in the form of wasted talent and frustrated citizens.”

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Tags: business, employment, news, The Economist, woman, women, workforce
Posted on January 7th, 2010 | No Comments »

Wow, this last year has been something else, huh? The fallout from Wall Street’s financial collapse, the mortgage crisis, the global economic downturn, high unemployment…I think I can safely say that this year has been “special”. And I doubt that few people have been untouched by these negative events.

The effect has been pretty severe for a lot of people…ranging from a sizable loss in net worth to desperate cash positions. While there are market niches and companies that have performed fine through all of this, most businesses and people have taken a serious hit.

I live and work within a subculture of abundance and optimism (marketing, business development, etc)…where we look past events such as these. And I believe that’s always the best way to operate. But at the same time, I think it’s helpful to recognize the difficult period we’ve faced in order to understand where we are in our businesses and where we want to take them.

Many Americans learned this year that some things are out of their control. We learned that in spite of our commitment, goals can be missed. We learned that in spite of our personal work experience and past performance, that we can still lose our jobs. And we learned that things that may have worked in the past might not work anymore. All of these events have served to create a general atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty. My message in response is to recognize and forgive oneself of things beyond your control such as natural economic cycles and political dynamics.

Fortunately, most economists are saying that the worst is behind us. They say that 2010 and the next few years will show modest growth. I believe that. I also believe that what will vault us all back to abundance is a focus on the basics. I encourage you to let the politicians focus on the larger issues and direct yourself on the things to which you truly have control over…your own actions.

Outside of putting your business in a prudent financial position, here are some of the things I suggest for getting your business back on track (and taking a step  beyond)-

Activity- first and foremost is activity. I’ve seen my share of organizations that have seemingly gone into hibernation mode. They laid off workers, froze spending, and have been essentially putting things on hold until the economy “comes back”.

While it’s certainly smart to evaluate and prudently keep expenses in check, a wait and see posture will not help…particularly with all the changes going on beyond general economic conditions. So waiting just isn’t a good answer. Action breeds momentum, interest and engagement.

The nice thing here is that while things have slowed down, there continues to be new developments in marketing, particularly online tactics. And there’s no lack of things to do positioning yourself within this medium. It just takes a commitment to do so.

Start again with a plan- one of the biggest mistakes that businesses continue to make is acting without a plan. Sure, I just advised you to act…but you need to have a plan that leads that activity. And base the plan on the needs of your market…rather than your own.

We continue living in a changing world. This means that you need a new plan of attack from time to time. When’s the last time you’ve updated your business or marketing plan?

Be adaptable- you’ve heard this before…that the only thing that is ‘consistent’ today is ‘change’. It’s true. I think though that all this change is taking its effect on a lot of us. We’ve been inundated with so much change (particularly with technology) that we’ve gone into some sort of “future shock” state.

I think there’s a smart way to adapt to change…and it’s not on a daily basis. The key is to follow your plan and add change that serves it. I can assure you that you’ll observe change in the next 12 months. How are you going to respond?

Learn to love technology- I recently spoke to an engineering association recently where one of the audience members openly scoffed at the idea of using Google and LinkedIn…this from an engineer!!

Based upon the direction the world is going, I just don’t see another alternative than to love (or at least accept) technology. If that’s too much for you, then surround yourself with people who know it.

Find a process/system that works- it can be a complex world right now…made more complex by financial pressures. In order to make it less complex (more simple), I recommend that you find systems or processes you can follow to lead you where you want the business to go.

This is one of the chief reasons I’ve associated myself with Duct Tape Marketing. They offer direction and a process to follow to get where you want your business to go. Whether you use this system or another, I encourage you to find processes that work. Taking this a step further, find people that have similar interests (such as strategic partners) who can help you in your journey.

Following these actions will take you where to go in spite of what’s going on around you. Position yourself for a thriving year in 2010 and beyond!

Scott Campbell is the President of Impact Marketing,  a results-oriented marketing coaching/consulting firm. They focus on helping small business grow using repeatable marketing processes…using mainly online tactics such as website development, search engine optimization, and social media. Their website is located at www.impactyourcompany.com

Tags: Duct Tape Marketing Coach, news, Scott Campbell
Posted on January 6th, 2010 | No Comments »

If the health of our planet is of interest to you, then the next two weeks are as important as any in history, as told by Connie Hedegaard.

The incoming president of COP15, the United Nation’s conference on climate change, does not mince words about the crucial nature of this global gathering. In an article on the conference’s website, she said that if the world fails to deliver a political agreement at the conference, which runs from Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark, it will be “the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of our century.”

Bringing human reform to such a tenuous facet of life may be the task with which the political officials in attendance are charged, but pushing that agenda down through the layers of everyday human life is quite another matter.

And this is a matter in which Email Center Pro is about to get intimately involved. Palo Alto Software’s collaborative email platform will take center stage at the conference, helping to eliminate the barriers that once existed between the people with deep knowledge about climate issues — the scientists — and those whose job it is to share that knowledge with the world — the journalists.

Working with the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the worldwide scientific organization advancing Earth and space research, Email Center Pro is provisioning its centralized, collaborative framework to accommodate the 700+ scientists from around the globe who will answer questions directly from journalists 24 hours/day for the duration of the conference. The scientists are scheduled to attend to email communication in two-hour stints.

For the AGU, this is a terrific opportunity to deliver the scientists’ wisdom — by providing journalists with unimpeded access — to those most in need of it: the planet’s inhabitants.

For Email Center Pro, which is hosted on the Internet, this represents an opportunity to prove much of its intrinsic value: the organization of communication and the chance to facilitate the mission critical development of a dynamic community. Conversations between scientists and journalists will take place around the clock and originate at points worldwide — and yet be virtually instantaneous. At the same time they are not so instantaneous that scientists aren’t allowed time to carefully consider replies to questions.

The conference will not only highlight the advantages of Email Center Pro, but also the continued viability of email as a communication vehicle. The benefits of instant messaging, screen sharing and video conferencing are well documented and true. But because it doesn’t demand the same kind of presence as those services, email still carries the load when it comes to flexibility.

COP15, and the subsequent AGU Fall Meeting being held Dec. 14-18 in San Francisco, are set to prove that.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager
Email Center Pro Guru

Tags: American Geophysical Union, collaboration, COP15, Copenhagen, Email Center Pro, news, palo alto software
Posted on December 9th, 2009 | No Comments »

James P. Shelley

James P. Shelley creates business documents for a living. He writes full business plans, financial plans, summaries, even Web copy and employee/employer documents (like employee manuals). He works with startups and ongoing businesses to craft their documents, and explains, “my specialty is to work with principals and key employees of existing businesses of all types to create changes that will help them reach their next level of organization, leadership, and performance, and to improve their profitability.”

Back in 1996, Jim was launching a health information consulting company with a few partners, and used Business Plan Pro to write the plan for that business. Since then, he has used several versions of the software to write plans for his own businesses, as well as all business and financial plans he writes for his clients. “I like the simplicity of Business Plan Pro,” he notes.

“In 2004 I engineered my own business plan for a venture separate from my writing business. The lending institution told me that it was one of the best plans they had ever seen; very detailed and easy to understand. This resulted in a business loan that included the purchase of a business and the associated real property.”

A business plan is an important document, according to Jim, because it helps to determine if a business idea will work. “Many people have great business ideas, but until everything is fleshed out — until they look at how all the numbers gel together — it’s a guessing game.” But almost as important as the plan is for determining the course of the business for the business owner, is the tremendous impact it has on lenders and investors. “Having a properly prepared business plan has ensured my clients present their ideas to the proper people in a proper format. It must be perfect. There is no un-ringing the bell.”

Writing a business plan is an everyday thing for Jim, but he experiences the same difficulties as anyone who sits down to the task. “The biggest challenge of engineering a business plan without Business Plan Pro is the financial plan component. Engineering a financial plan as comprehensive as that in Business Plan Pro, using a workbook with spreadsheets, is simply too time consuming.” He tells the story of a client who handed him a bundle of 36 spreadsheets, prepared by a CPA. Though it was challenging, he was able to cull the information from all those sheets and use Business Plan Pro to create a finished product that made his client happy. “I’m not a CPA, but when everything folded together in Business Plan Pro, the end result was a comprehensive financial plan easily understood by most any banker.”

While the financial tools were his favorite part of the software, he says the flow of the program was really helpful as well. “The outline feature is very appealing. I like to see where I’ve been, where I’m going, and enjoy being guided towards a conclusion. I also like the review feature… which identifies the success or failure of your work.”

One feature of Business Plan Pro that Jim doesn’t use is the plan versus actual comparison. Since he’s writing the plans for other people, he doesn’t usually have the opportunity to follow up. “However, for my clients, I encourage them to purchase Business Plan Pro Premier Edition so they can use that feature once they’ve established their business.”

Jim has been writing business plans for clients for over four years, and says he has not written any of them without Business Plan Pro. “While I consider myself very organized, I found the intuitiveness of Business Plan Pro quite appealing.  It really is a smart approach to engineering such an important document.”

Before starting his writing business, Jim says he labored in the corporate world — “Been there, done that.” He finds a great deal of satisfaction in what he’s doing now. “I enjoy helping people identify, reach, and enjoy their hopes, dreams, and aspirations through proper planning.”

Check out Jim’s website for more about what he does, samples of his work, or to contact him directly.

Tags: customer spotlight, news, success story, testimonial, testimonials
Posted on December 8th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Are You Focusing On Your KNOW Factor?

FACT:  Your customers go through a buying pattern before they purchase from you
QUESTION: Do you know what this buying pattern typically looks like?

Think about the last time you began your search for a product or service.  I bet you went through the following stages:

KNOW:  First of all you had to do “some” activity to find out possible vendors.

Common ways you may have done this include:
* Ask someone
* Google terms on the Internet
* Draw from your memory bank — (maybe you met them, saw an ad or heard them on the radio)
* Draw from your own contacts   (you have them in your contact list)
* You searched for them in a directory

Once you have a list of vendors, the next logical step is to check them out to see if you LIKE what they have to say.

Common ways you may do this are:
* Visit their website
* Call them
* Email them
* Ask others about them
* Draw from your memory bank on past interactions with them

So let’s assume you like what they have to say, the final test is do you TRUST that they will deliver on what they say?

Trust can be a toughie, and quite frankly the level of trust required depends mostly on the risk involved in the purchase.  In other words, if you see the purchase as low risk, then little trust is involved.  But if you are relying heavily on the purchase or it is costly, then TRUST becomes more and more important.

Common ways you gain trust include:
* How familiar you are with the person or company
* What others have to say about the person or company
* Reports or proven facts about the products or services
* Guarantees or Warranties on the product or service
* Demonstrations or proof of their expertise in the market

So Here’s The BIG Question?

Do enough people even KNOW you exist?  Think about how many NEW clients or customers you need every year.  Let’s say it’s 50.  Now think about your conversion rate.  Let’s say that for every 10 prospects that call or walk into your store you convert 1 into a new client…that means you now need 500 prospects to contact you somehow.  Now think how many need to be checking you out behind the scenes via your website or by asking referral sources and you know that your lead number has to be much larger!  At a bare minimum multiply your prospects by 10 and that means you need to be capturing 5000 leads.

How many have you captured to date?  In other words, how many are currently in your database that you are staying in regular contact with?  If it isn’t meeting your requirement for captured leads, then you need to focus on HOW you are going to capture more!

So stop worrying so much about making your website pretty and start focusing on people finding your website and what you have on it to capture leads.  Start getting out from behind the computer and get back to meeting new people and exchanging contact information.  Increase promotional activities that include savvy techniques for capturing leads.

In other words focus on capturing and counting your leads FIRST and then SECONDLY improve your ways to build the LIKE and TRUST factors.

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.

If you would like to build a system to reach those goals quicker, check out Cidnee’s Speak for Leads & Expertise Program.

Tags: Cidnee Stephen, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, news
Posted on November 16th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Bruce Mayberry is what’s known as a serial entrepreneur. He’s been self-employed for over 20 years, and his business ventures have run the gamut from selling high-speed data circuits to owning an art gallery, and a lot of other businesses in between. He’s used both Business Plan Pro and Marketing Plan Pro to write plans for his own businesses, and has even written them for clients as a tax consultant. His first business, he says, “was all smoke and mirrors. I started a trucking firm with $20 and a big smile.”

Now he’s writing the business plan for his newest venture and he feels confident that he’ll secure the $4 million in funding he’s seeking. “As to the receipt of the funds, I’m not worried. With a good plan and good management, money is always around.”

Bruce’s new startup is a modern-day barter organization called BarterPX. It’s a website that allows users to easily post their goods and services and exchange them amongst a large member community. According to the website, bartering produces new business and allows users to expand their markets. At the same time, it conserves cash — instead of spending money to purchase needed goods and services, users can trade their own goods and services, keeping cash in their businesses for other purposes.

Bruce has been working on the BarterPX concept for a few years, and has been going at it full time now for about six months. A quick glance at the website reveals a vibrant trade community, using modern technology to barter goods the way it was done centuries ago.

In the past, Bruce has written business plans for businesses that were already up and running. “Sometimes you just need to re-focus to grind some more profit out. Those programs really help you get a new perspective,” he comments. For this current business, though, he has a different goal for the plan he’s writing. For a startup, he says, “The properly written business plan tells you how much capital you’ll need, and everything else is inaccurate, unsubstantiated guessing.”

Business Plan Pro is to credit for some of his successes, according to Bruce. “Every single time I have ideas and brainstorms, they pay off big when I use the software. The process of answering all [of the software's] inquiries really opens you up to some opportunity you’ll miss otherwise.”

Crafting a business plan isn’t easy. For Bruce, as for a lot of “idea people,” it’s the financials that pose the biggest hurdle. “For me the hardest part is the balance sheet. I’m an entrepreneur, not an accountant. I can do a balance sheet, but it takes days of detailed work that I rarely do. What a relief to enter the numbers and it happens,” he says, describing how Business Plan Pro handles the calculations in the balance sheet based on numbers the user inputs elsewhere.

When asked what he thought the most exciting part of being an entrepreneur was, Bruce’s answer was telling. “Exciting, are you kidding? Doesn’t everyone like 90 hours of work a week, biting their fingernails over payroll for a year, worrying about sales forecast, competitors, advertising cost, staffing…?”

“Well I love all that, but this is not for the thin-skinned. It gets in your blood like speed for a NASCAR driver. I’ve never sold a business and not had a huge emotional response — a sense of sadness and joy. It’s about more than the money, but it is always about the money.”

His obvious enjoyment of the process aside, Bruce is quick to point out that there are challenges, especially when dealing with investors. “You better be ready when you’re talking to venture capitalists. Business Plan Pro really helps — a lot!”

While not everyone may have the entrepreneurial spirit that Bruce Mayberry clearly has, he has some good advice for anyone starting down the entrepreneurship path. “More is lost by indecision than the wrong decision. The human mind is a powerful thing; so is hunger. Get out there and make it happen!!!”

Tags: customer spotlight, news, success story, testimonial, testimonials
Posted on November 13th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Pop-up shops seem to be going mainstream this year. A Time.com story, Why Pop-Up Shops Are Hot, looks at this new retail business model.

While pop-ups have had a dubious reputation in the past, of being fly-by-night outfits, they have recently been gaining respectability. The main indoor retail mall here in Eugene, Oregon has had kiosks for several years, modeled after NYC push-carts, positioned down the center of the main walkways. Some of those businesses, such as mobile phone sales, earrings, and sunglasses shops, have been in business a long time, month in and month out. Others have been seasonal, e.g., holiday decorations, and calendars, sprouting in October or November, disappearing in January, and returning again a year later.

This year some big-name retailers are experimenting with pop-up locations. Toys “R” Us, American Eagle, The Gap, and J.C. Penney have been taking advantage of the numerous empty retail storefronts to test product lines, or new target markets, or to maximize exposure for seasonal selling. Shop owners are realizing that even a short-term rent is preferable to no rent at all.

So, perhaps, a pop-up shop might be just the ticket for you to start your new venture, requiring less startup capital, no long-term leases, in potentially high-traffic locations. However, don’t think that a short-term, quick start eliminates your need to plan. Planning your cash needs up front and watching your monthly cash flow is still important.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Tags: news, pop-up shop, retail, start up, startup, store front
Posted on November 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

The world of testimonials is changing and with it are some incredible opportunities to strengthen your credibility in the marketplace.  But the very first question I need to ask you is,

“Are you even collecting testimonials?”

Don’t panic if the answer is NO. Most of us aren’t as diligent as we can be in the collection process.  The main reason I hear is that people feel they need to ask for them.  While this certainly is one way, there are some other ways I find work extremely well.

1) RECAP – My favorite way to capture a strong testimonial is when someone has shared a success with me verbally.  When this happens to you, ask them right then and there if you could quote them for a testimonial.  When the answer is yes, take 2 minutes to type out the testimonial as you heard it.  Put it into an email to the source along with any other info you require (like a result or the link to their site, etc).  Ask them to confirm that this is correct and “ta da” you have your testimonial.

2) FEEDBACK FORMS – Once you have finished working with a customer, send them out a feedback form regarding the experience.  Add questions, like “how would you describe this experience to a friend” or “what is the biggest result/benefit you received?”  When you get some great responses, go back and ask if you can use this as a testimonial.

3) TESTIMONIAL PARTIES – I love connecting people so the idea of a testimonial party really appeals to me.  I got this idea from John Jantsch with Duct Tape Marketing and can’t wait to try it out.  Consider renting a videographer and asking individuals to record a structured testimonial or asking the videographer to approach attendees and capture testimonials.

4) PHONE IN TESTIMONIAL – Do you have an extra extension you can set up on your phone system, or perhaps just have individuals leave a voice mail message on your phone.  Either way your message or instructions can direct them as to what type of information they need to include and then you can either transcribe or use as audio samples on your site!

Capturing Killer Testimonials
Okay, so now you know how to collect them.  My next question to you is how strong are your testimonials?  Those that simply say you’re great or your product is great are what I call  “VANILLA”  or washed out testimonials.  Avoid run of the mill and aim for RESULTS and testimonials that point out what makes you different or better than others in your industry.  In order to garner stronger testimonials, you need to ASK for this type of information.  Consider encouraging your sources to share the following:

Why they chose you
What they were expecting
What they ended up getting
How that helped them and/or exceeded their expectations.
Why would they recommend others should work with you?

Answers to questions like this will get you some KILLER TESTIMONIALS!

Types of  Testimonials

While text emails are great, these days it’s becoming a no-brainer to add audio and video testimonials as well.  The technology has made this super easy.  Digital Recorders and VOIP phone systems will conveniently record in MP3 or WAV formats.  Inexpensive Digital Video Cameras are on the market to record your own video testimonials and services from companies like BizBoxTV have made it cost effective to get nicely produced videos as well.  When your product or service is emotion based or complex, I highly encourage you to use audio and video!

WHERE

Of course your testimonials should go on your website.  But I hope you don’t hide them under some lame tab called testimonials!  Be creative.  Pepper them throughout your website, or rotate them in your header or along one side.  At the very least, change the name of the tab, to “What OTHERS have to say”

Remember to also use your testimonials in promotional pieces and sales presentations.  Why not add them to your email signature or even to your business card?  The opportunities are endless and remember: we always gain more credibility when OTHERS say we’re great!

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.

If you would like to build a system to reach those goals quicker, check out Cindee’s Speak for Leads & Expertise Program.

Tags: Cidnee Stephen, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, news, testimonials
Posted on November 11th, 2009 | No Comments »