My friend Sam is designing a new web site, and in reviewing available content I noticed there were no testimonials.

Sam told me he never bothered collecting testimonials since he always thought they were "stupid". He claimed that reading testimonials never inspired him to make a purchase since they always sounded like they were made up anyway.

I'm a firm believer in using testimonials on your web site. Done correctly, testimonials should:

provide social proof - the credibility that your prospect needs to feel comfortable purchasing from you

position you as the expert, leaving you as the only choice for the product or service your prospect is looking for

answer any questions that your prospect has floating around in his head - even though he won't come out and ask you, he does have questions

The problem many web site owners have with testimonials - the reason Sam didn't want to use them on his site - is that most people go about the process in the wrong way.

Once Sam decided to include testimonials on his new web site, I knew he would have to create a "testimonial collection plan."

Testimonial collection plans help to compile inspiring, effective testimonials that motivate site visitors to make a purchase.

This plan is easily adapted to your own web site endeavors:

Step 1
Compile a list of current and past clients that you would like to have testimonials from. Most small business owners simply choose their "high ticket" customers or the customers they are currently working with.

Review your clients and judiciously choose the ones you want to duplicate. Sam based his decision on the industries he most wanted to work with, the size of the company he preferred, the corporate culture he felt comfortable with, etc.

Many prospects are stirred by testimonials from people who are "just like them". Be sure to stir the prospects who you most want to target.

Step 2
Go through your initial list and ask "What specific, quantitative benefit did I bring to this particular client?"

What is the purpose of this step? Testimonials are more effective when they're specific. It's OK to guide your customers in providing specific testimonials, so generate some ideas for steering your customers toward specifics.

Step 3
The third step is to generate a list of questions that the clients can respond to. When formulating your questions, keep your quantitative benefits from step 2 in mind.

You can craft different questions for each of your customers, and the logical answer for each of the questions points to the benefit that you originally identified.

For instance, if you know your product saved the ABC Company considerable downtime on the production floor, your question could be "How many man hours were you able to recoup with the Super Duper Luper Widget?"

Never use a question that could be answered with a simple yes or no. And keep in mind that some of your "guided answers" might require multiple questions.

Make it as easy as possible on your customer - don't make him think or do the math. Here are a few ideas you can use to craft your own questions:

Prior to using the Super Duper Luper Widget, how much money were you spending each month on qizmoshmaltzkies? After using the widget, how much were you spending?

What problem were you experiencing that made you contact our company?

What results have you seen on your bottom line after putting the widget into use?

What was your income/sales/profitability prior to contracting with Sam's Service? What is your income/sales/profitability level now?

What is the most important thing you learned from working with our company?

What single feature of the Super Duper Luper Widget has made the most impact on your business?

What aspect of our company were you most pleasantly surprised about?

Why would you recommend the Super Duper Luper Widget to other xyz manufacturers?

Step 4
Once you receive the responses you will have to edit them. You want each of the testimonials to be specific, brief and persuasive.

So take out any of the information that other prospects wouldn't care about. Replace industry jargon with universal terms that all prospects could understand. And swap out a few of the generic words with strong, convincing power words.

Step 5
The next step is to run the newly revamped testimonial by the customer to make sure it has approval. You can do this the easy way - simply call each of the customers.

But rather than saying "Your testimonial wasn't good enough..." start your conversation with "We loved the feedback you gave us about our company! Thank you so much.

Unfortunately, we don't have room to reprint it word for word. Do you mind if we paraphrase it like this instead..."

Step 6
The final step is to plaster the testimonials all over your web site. Use them as headlines, in the sidebars, and even in your new email marketing campaigns.

I can't say that testimonials are the only way to make your sales skyrocket. But they are definitely a good starting point, and an easy step for you to add to your marketing strategy.