How to Get a GREAT Testimonial

Testimonials, or client endorsements, are critical to the success of your coaching or expert based service business. Your prospective clients want to know that you’re successful!

They want to know that others have received value from your coaching, and were pleased with your style. It’s called “Social Proof.” If you don’t have client testimonials, people wonder if you can really deliver what you promise.

Sometimes this can be challenging if you’re a brand new coach. But it’s still very important, and you can do it. So before I get into the “how” of getting great testimonials from clients, here are three sources you can tap for testimonials if you’re a brand new coach:

1. Your fellow students from coaching school: Most coaching curriculums include peer coaching to one degree or another. Ask anyone you coached, even once, from your school to give you a testimonial.
         
2. Your friends: Many coaches have informally coached their friends who have come to them for support at one time or another.    Ask them to share the value they received from your coaching and support.
        
3. Pro Bono Coaching: Offer to coach friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, the guy at 7-11, your postman, your real estate agent, ANYONE willing to be coached for an hour. Try to find someone in your niche market, but if you can’t, get as close as you can. Everyone can benefit from coaching.

For those of you who feel uncomfortable asking for a testimonial, you need to move past that discomfort and ask any way! People rarely think of offering testimonials, even if they received tremendous value from you.

This is one of those situations in life where you have to ask for what you want!

Ok. Now that you know you can get them, no matter how long you’ve been in business, let’s take a look at some of the challenges and how to get around them.

Even though their hearts were in the right place when they agreed, most people will procrastinate endlessly on writing something up for you.

They won’t know what to say, they won’t know how to say it, and even though they may love you, there’s really nothing in it for them. So they put it off, because everything else in their life is more important.

If they do write something up for you, it’s likely you’ll be disappointed, because they don’t know what to say, and they don’t know how to say it.

I’ve had clients who thought I walked on water write up drab testimonials in the distant past. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to write one that sparkled; it was because they didn’t know how.

So, what to do?

It’s simple: you interview them, and then you write it for them, using their words. Then you send it to them to edit, and to “ok” it for print. Trust me; they are significantly relieved at how easy you are making it for them. Keep the interview short: about 10 minutes or less.

Because you are doing the interviewing live, and you know what’s important to put into a testimonial, you can make sure you get the information you need.

Here are five questions to ask when interviewing clients who have gladly agreed to give you an endorsement:

1. What was your situation like before we started working together, including your biggest challenges?
   
2. What was the biggest benefit(s) or result(s) you got from working with me?
   
3. How has this result improved your life? (Or work, or relationships, or business, etc.)
   
4. As you know, I specialize in working with (insert your niche market). How has my specialized knowledge helped you?  Specifically?
   
5. What did you like most about working with me?  

The most important questions are #3 and #4. People want to see results. They want to know that others have gotten concrete takeaways from working with you.

In my last newsletter, I spotlighted Virtual Assistant Tara Dunion of Virtually Speaking VA. I’ve pulled just the results from that spotlight so you can see what I mean. Because of coaching, she was able to create a lucrative business that allowed her to do the following:

• “Double my rates.”
• She and her husband “Never fight about money anymore”
• Her home is “Much nicer because we’ve made a lot of improvements””
• She just “Took the family to Disney World for a week.”
• She recently “Bought a brand new car.”
   

So there you have it. Everything you need to go out and get a GREAT testimonial. What are you waiting for? Pick up the phone and go for it!