When a survey asked the question “what comes to mind when you think about salesmen”, the most common answer was… “pushy”.
And I think it’s something we can all relate to. We’ve all seen the Carry On films and similar where someone (literally) sticks their foot in the door (and the laughter when the lady slams it on his poor toes).
But it’s a stereotype that’s come from somewhere and no one likes the thought of it being applied to them.
Testimonials are one of the most powerful ways to drive new business. The reason is to do with trust: trust, or lack of it, is one of the big barriers to doing business, especially online where not only are identity-theft and other scams a real (if over-exaggerated) fear for many people, but in the vast majority of cases you never even know the name of the person you’re buying from, let alone meet them, see them, or even speak to them.
If you’ve been studying Marketing and Sales for more than five minutes, you’ll have heard the expression “the money is all in the list”. It happens to be true, but there are a few things worth looking at in more detail because it’s a truth many business owners either fail to understand or fail to understand fully.
You’re no doubt already aware one of the key principles of marketing is measuring and testing. After all, we can’t possibly know if our marketing efforts are bearing fruit unless we can measure the results of what we’re doing.
And once we’ve measured how effective a given strategy is, then it’s only a small step to take to start testing something different and measuring again.
