How To Use Testimonials To Get Clients

I was scrolling through our private Facebook group for our Uncage Your Business program and noticing how cool it was to see how much progress people were making during our work together. And after I cried a few happy tears at how proud I am of my clients, I realized – these would make amazing testimonials. And I have been meaning to write about how to get great testimonials because social proof is something you NEED to have in your business, so I figured I’d share some of the real stuff that UYB participants are saying in our private group and teach you a little bit about how to use social proof and testimonials to boost your credibility and have people trust that you can help them!

Having proof that your work delivers results is one of the best ways to sell your services and packages.

 

Testimonial tip #1:

Use real client language and unsolicited testimonials

Your prospective clients are smart and discerning, so you need to make sure that your testimonials help them feel secure in making their purchases and persuade them to sign up, and testimonials that weren’t intended as testimonials can help you do this. This means grabbing real client language that they posted elsewhere or sent to you unsolicited.

If you have  a Facebook group or a private forum for your clients, that’s a great place to grab your client results on the go. Or if you receive client emails during your work together that captures them RAVING about their results, don’t be shy – ASK those people if you can use their words!

Using clients off-the-cuff words about you and your work is a GREAT way to highlight how good you are and have it sound REAL.

None of the examples below were written as testimonials – they were posted unsolicited in our private Uncage Your Business group. Check out how REAL they feel.

Testimonial tip #2:

Get follow-up testimonials after your work is done

Getting in-the-moment words of praise is great, but sometimes it takes time for results to kick in, and getting testimonials RIGHT after a program finished is not always a true representations of how that work impacted that person in the long run.

Results build over time, and testimonials should too.

Often, right after working with you, clients need some time to integrate and implement everything. They may already be showing some AMAZING results from  your work, but YOU know best that it often takes time for the full effect to kick in. Which is why I think it’s SO important it is to keep following up with your clients’ progress – long after your work together is done.

Every time I do a launch for Uncage Your Business, I like to check in with past UYB grads to see where they are NOW – it’s important to me to see how much of what we do in UYB stays with them as they move forward.

From people who took the program wayyy back in it’s first round to those who just finished, here is what they had to say.

 

Pamela says:  UYB Rocked Ass! It was the most intense  time I have ever spent on really getting clear about what the hell my business is about. Sure, before the program I thought I knew what my business was about. But I didn’t have the success I wanted so something had to be off, right? This program isn’t what you think it will be. Becca’s current marketing doesn’t even do it justice. You won’t get out of it what you think you will. And at the end of it, you are left with WAY MORE than you ever could have imagined would happen in a month. I am walking away with crystal clear clarity and confidence that I have never had before. I believe in the long term it probably will save me thousands of dollars that I would have invested in other business building courses.

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Jenn  says: I came into UYB with one business idea that was vague and kind of like what everyone else was doing that never felt like “YES!” and left with a different business that I am super charged about. I am so crazy clear on who I want to help, how I help them, and (almost more importantly) HOW I want to help them vs how I thought I should help them.

I really wish I had met Becca before doing any other course (especially *** program)  because I wouldn’t have floundered and felt like I wasn’t making any headway for so long. When I have moments of doubt and think “Who am I to have an online business and do this?” I just touch base with everything I have learned from UYB and I get centred again. I can’t wait to report back once I am up and running and have tangible numbers because I will be writing the most kick ass testimonial UYB has ever seen!

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Jessie says: After finishing UYB this past winter, I honestly wasn’t sure if I had benefited that much from it.  Sure I had changed my offers and my website copy, my business processes, etc, but I still didn’t have hoards of clients knocking on my door.  Then I started committing consistently to the next level shiz with blogging, and the client followups, etc and gave myself a major mindset makeover over this past week and I gotta say that shit is turning around.  I have a handful of people in my new group program and the huge difference now after UYB is that these are my DREAM clients.  I was so inspired after my call I couldn’t sleep last night!  I’ve had applications flowing in like crazy these last few days and all of them are my ideal clients.  I thought I had figured out my ideal client avatar before UYB but I still attracted clients that weren’t a great match for me.  Now, I’m lit up by every application that comes in and beyond grateful to be doing this work, so thank you Becca​!  UYB literally renewed my passion in my business by getting me crystal clear on the way I wanted to work, who I wanted to work with, and how to speak their language.

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Diana says:  Let’s be serious here: without you Rebecca, I wouldn’t have a business. I would have probably wasted years in getting there and wasting my time and reading everybody else’s newsletter. After the first time going through the course material I was like: OMG, that’s the shit!  I loved every single material of the course, I loved waking up and reading the messages in the group, doing the homework, working the whole day long on it and seeing things happening at such a speed that I would have thought possible.

You only want me to share 3 results? I got a lot more than that!  I created a completely new website, my message became crystal clear, I outlined all my programs, blog posts, and opt-ins, and I got my first 3 clients for my new programs during the course and I got the full investment back! Plus, I got about 100 subscribers to my new newsletter, my $650 signature Coaching Program sold without having to sell it, and people started writing me to tell me that they love my website. And this is all because of Uncage Your Business.

 Working with you gave me the incredible opportunity of making it all happen.  I’ll always be grateful for everything you made possible in my life.

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Check out how much more confidence it instills in you, as the reader, to see that people continued to get results and still feel the program was a GREAT choice, long after the initial high has worn off. That’s how you want your clients to view your work – make them see how valuable it will be in the longterm.

 

Testimonial tip #3:

Post your testimonials everywhere

So, obviously this post you are reading right now is two-fold – I’m trying to teach you about testimonials, but I’m also trying to sell you on Uncage Your Business (the jig is up!) by sharing my awesome testimonials with you. The lesson here is that you can (and should) put your words of praise everywhere, ESPECIALLY when you are in launch mode trying to sell something.

• Put them on your sales pages for your program
• Put them on your About page
• Put them in your emails
• Put them in your blog posts.
• Post them on social media, often
• Create case studies out of them
• Interview past clients about their results and post the interview on your blog.

I used to have a “Testimonials” tab in the menu on my website and piled all my testimonials there… until I looked at our analytics and could see that NO ONE was even clicking on the link! What a waste of a bunch of great testimonials. Now I know to put them everywhere! It’s so so helpful for other people who are thinking about working with you, to read about other people’s results in working with you. Major trust builder!

 

Testimonial tip #4:

How to get testimonials if you don’t have clients yet

You might be shaking your head at me saying “Well, yeah Becca, that all sounds great IF (when) I actually have clients.. but I haven’t had a single one yet? How am I supposed to get proof that I am awesome when I haven’t worked with anyone?”

Totally legit question.

The answer: Beta testing

This is the approach we take in Uncage Your Business. Beta testing is all about helping you get your first practice clients in your niche, so you can test out your process, build your confidence, get feedback your packages, and get those glowing testimonials! You do it for either free or lower priced than your regular offer (we recommend free if you are brand new). You need that proof that you can get clients in  your niche results, and beta testing is the best way to do it in a low-pressure way. You can even let your beta clients know that you are offering free sessions in exchange for feedback and testimonials (if they liked working with you of course)

Make it your mission to go and book 10 free sessions, and you will have plenty of testimonials to add to your site soon!

 

Testimonial tip #5:

Send out a feedback/testimonial form after working with each client

Don’t just ask clients to write you a blurb – people usually have no idea what you write, and you will end up with generic testimonials that don’t really do a good job selling you. A boring testimonial that says “Sally was a great coach, she’s so nice!” is actually WORSE than having no testimonials at all.

Instead, create a form for clients to fill out asking them specific questions. This makes sure you get the info you need to write a great testimonial.

 

What to ask  them:

What they were struggling with before they hired you.

What they had tried in the past to fix this problem.

The 3 biggest results they got in working with you

Anything that surprised them about working with you

Anything else they want to share that would be helpful for someone thinking of working with you

Wherever you are in business, social proof that your services DELIVER is one of the most important things you need to have to sell your stuff.

* You can also include any more specific questions that pertain to your niche

And then copy and paste their answers into a short paragraph, focusing on the specific results they got, making sure to use any common language that your prospective clients would resonate with. And of course, let them know in the form that you would like to use their answers as a testimonial and put a space on the form for them to consent to this, along with whether they consent to use their name and photo.

 

Here is the general format I try to use:

HEADLINE AT THE TOP IN BOLD SHARING THE MAIN BIG RESULT THEY GOT

What they were struggling with before (list 2-3 concrete things). How they feel now after working with me. What tangible results they got (at least 2-3) .Anything else they said that makes working with me sound amazing.

Their name and photo, and what their business* is (*not applicable unless you are working with business owners).

 

You can see lots of examples of how this looks on a real page here on the Uncage Your Business page.

Voila – you now have amazing testimonials you can go and share everywhere! These will literally sell your packages for you, so get out there and start collecting them!

x becca