Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening,
everybody, and welcome to today's episode of
the NeverPeak Project Podcast. I'm your host,
Coach Ranger, and in today's episode, we're going
to be talking about leveraging the power of testimonials
to help grow your business. If you are a small
business owner, you own a couple branches, a
franchise, whether it is... hot sauce coaching
or anything in between, really, this can be a
great episode for you to learn a few strategies
in order to get people to help you sell your
stuff. Now, I've talked about this a little bit
before, but there's something in marketing called
the core four. This is the different types of
ways they can let people know about your stuff.
Typically, it's going to fall into the four main
categories, the core four of cold outreach, reaching
out to people that you don't know, warm outreach.
reaching out to people that you do know, posting
free content, and running paid ads. Those are
the four major ways that you can utilize in order
to grow your business. Now, cold outreach is
going to be things like cold calls or going to
be going more out in public, shaking hands and
kissing babies. Warm outreach is reaching out
to people that you know, which are groups like
BNI, BRN, those are great for that, as well as
friends and family. Posting free content, I mean,
that's what Facebook and Instagram are used for,
those user -generated content, UGC sources. then
the running paid ads, pretty self -explanatory
that is paying for things like meta or Google
ads. Now there is something else called the core
four on steroids, and those are called the lead
getters. It's basically just the tenant of either
you can let people know about your stuff, or
you can have other people let you know about
your stuff. And there's way more other people
than there are of you. And those four categories
are going to be customers, affiliates, Employees
and agencies. Those are the core four on steroids,
the lead getters. Today, we're going to be focusing
more so on the employees. the customer side of
the lead getters. The greatest way for you to
let people know about your stuff is for you to
close your mouth and not say anything, but let
your work do the talking by having other people
that have gone through your product or service
do the selling for you. And that is through reviews.
Now, reviews and social proof are one of the
greatest ways for people to build that like,
know, and trust factor with you exponentially
faster. You can sit here all day on social media
and talk about how great you are. or how amazing
your service or product is. But if you don't
have that social backing to say, hey, here's
some proof that shows that I am as good as I
say I am, it doesn't really mean a whole lot.
And just think, when you go to Amazon or Facebook
Marketplace or whatever, especially on websites
like Amazon where they have all the different
reviews of a product, typically you're going
to be going towards the people that have more
reviews and the higher stars. A 4 .7 with...
a thousand reviews is a lot better looking than
a 5 .0 with only 50 reviews. You know what I
mean? That there is more people that have said
that this is good, that there is more of that
social proof aspect. And that was even something
that happened for me when I was on my walk across
the country is people all over the U S were offering
me places to stay. They were helping me out,
putting, taking time, money and resources out
of their day to help me get from one side to
the other. And I, talked to a few of them and
based off of the conversation, they said that
they were so willing to help me because of the
things that I had posted before, because there
were other people that had helped me and made
them feel more comfortable that I wasn't this
big, bad, scary dude. Right. So. That is just
really speaking to the benefit of having social
proof. You know, humans are very social community
oriented people that if you have a piece of appreciation
from one person and they tell someone else about
it, it makes you. look a lot better. So this
is going to be a quick strategy video or a podcast
episode about the different ways for you to collect
testimonials and how to use them to your advantage.
Now really the very first one that I want to
focus on is the big one. Google my business.
Now, this is something that everybody does. I
mean, if you look something up, people don't
say, oh, let me look it up. They say, I'm going
to Google it real quick. Or, oh, can you Google
it? Regardless of if they go to Bing or DuckDuckGo
or anything else, they're really focused on using
Google. And in Google, there is something called
Google My Business, and that's going to be your
very first impression. That's when you Google
a local restaurant or a business or whatever,
and it pops up and has a photo of their logo,
their business, their contact information. That
is going to be the very first thing that you're
going to want to set up for your business. That
was one of the first things that I did, and I'm
very, very glad I did. Again, it shows up exactly
where you are. It tells people the area that
you serve and gives you direct access to your
websites. It also shows how many reviews you
have. So right now I have 21 Google reviews and
a five -star rating. When you compare it to other
coaches in my area, that's pretty solid. It also
shows that I have more social proof than other
coaches that are nearby. It is a free thing to
set up now There is kind of sort of a scam that
goes around and I get calls for them all the
time But it is a Google my business scam and
essentially what they do is they say hey your
Google listing isn't up We'll put it up for X
amount of dollars. Your Google listing is completely
free They send you a postcard to verify who you
are on the address that you put down Or they
have you submitted video to show that you are
who you say you are Be sure that you don't fall
for that. It's completely free to set up as long
as you have the basic information for your business,
whether it's LLC, tax info, social security,
whatever. Just go straight to Google and do it
through there. I would not trust anybody that
tries to call you saying that they are from Google.
They don't do that. I almost fell for it when
I first started. I thought that was super cool
that Google themselves was calling me to help
me optimize the listing. And at the very end,
they tried to pitch me for all these thousands
of dollars to help with my SEO. Don't do that.
Just focus on setting up a Google My Business
page so that you can start collecting reviews.
Once you have that up, it is very easy for you
to click into the reviews, write a review, and
send that to people that have done work with
you in your business. The next thing is Yelp
and Nextdoor. Now, Yelp is especially good for
things like restaurants or service based businesses
that are pretty local to an area. Yelp, I also
know, is a little bit more extreme on the people
that are on there doing their reviews. There's
something called Yelp Elite, where if you do
a certain amount of reviews or a certain quality
or you get recognized by the leader in a certain
area. They will bring you on as a Yelp elite
reviewer. So that is something to keep in mind
if you are a restaurant or service -based business.
I know at one of the wineries and vineyards that
I worked at over in the Davis area, we would
have a few parties every once in a while where
it was Yelp elite reviewers would come by and
then they would leave reviews for the business.
Now, another good one is Nextdoor. Nextdoor,
what I've noticed, the difference between Nextdoor
and other platforms. is there is a little bit
more of a trust factor on there. Since you do
have to be a little bit more verified in order
to have an account on Yelp and be in a specific
community or neighborhood, people tend to trust
each other a lot more because you get to see
people, you see who comments, who posts regularly,
and there's just a little bit more of a layer
of deeper connection. So especially in the networking
groups that I'm a part of, we do a lot of our
referrals through Nextdoor because people post
on there, hey, I'm looking for a contractor.
I'm looking for a roofer. I'm looking for a blank.
And then you're able to find people through that.
So if you have people in your area that are advocates
for you and your business, it'd be a good idea
to reach out to them and let them know, hey,
if anybody ever asks for a roofer, be sure to
send them my information. Be sure to comment.
I super appreciate it. And if you see one of
those posts and somebody has already mentioned
you, be sure to thank them profusely and then
offer a call or consultation or whatever it is
is needed for you and your business. And the
other part is to just really pay attention to
anything that you can collect reviews on. So
for me, I mean, there's Facebook reviews, there
are Google My Business, Yelp, Nextdoor, etc.
But there's also reviews for each of the podcast
platforms that I send my feed out to. So on iTunes,
on Apple, I guess, Apple, Spotify, and everything
else, there is the opportunity for people to
leave a review. So if you haven't done so already,
I would super appreciate if you took just a few
seconds, a few swipes of thumb. to leave a review
for this podcast on whatever podcast platform
you're listening to right now. Just be sure to
leave it. Honestly, let me know what you think
of the show, and I would super appreciate it.
And once you do so, share it to your feed, let
me know, and I will be sure to repost it. If
anybody ever reposts any content from my podcast
or from my channel, I try to repost them as well
and just send a quick thank you. So I would recommend
you do the same thing if you have a podcast or
any other audio platform. that you utilize for
your business. Now, the very next thing is to
get creative with how you get your reviews. Now,
typically what I've seen is people think that
you have to do the full service for people in
order to get a review or testimonial for your
business. And I don't necessarily think that
that is true. I do think there is a level of
competency and service that you need to show
and provide to whoever gives you a review, but
it doesn't necessarily have to be the core offer
for your business. Now, when I say that, what
I mean is you can give people a review based
off of smaller aspects of their business. So
for me, the bread and butter of my business is
the one -to -one and group coaching programs.
But I do ask for reviews for my workshops and
speaking presentations that I give as well. That
is a great way to get a group of 10, 15, 20,
30 people in front of you and hopefully collect
a few more testimonials from those people than
otherwise would actually sign up for your program.
Now, what I've done for that in the past is after
I do a workshop, you know, an hour, hour and
a half long, I send everybody a thank you email
with a free gift, whether it's just a little
PDF or something else just to say thanks. as
well as an ask to leave a testimonial for me
and my business. And that's been a great way
for me to collect an extra three or four reviews
for people that I didn't have to spend a whole
lot of time with specifically. And they also
mentioned that they were there for a workshop
or a presentation. Another way to do that is
to offer free work for feedback and testimonials
as well. There have been a few people where I
have done, you know, one to three or four calls
with them for free in order to get feedback and
a testimonial for my business. And that helps
a ton in terms of knowing that your product or
service is good, first of all, and gives you
that initial boost in credibility. Because if
somebody is, after just a few sessions, willing
to put their name on a review and say that you
did a good job, that means a ton. So be sure
that you are looking for ways to leverage your
area of expertise and your experience to ensure
that you have a way to actually pull in more
reviews without spending a whole lot of time
doing the full service. The next thing is to
build up a video testimonial. This is something
that I'm currently working on. I don't have one
just yet, but it is in the works. What you do
essentially is you ask some of your best clients
to be able to have the best transformations where
you've done the best work for them. You collect
videos of them talking about you and your service,
and then you edit it together as a solid video
for you to put on your website and social media
to show. that there are real people out there
that have worked with you that enjoyed your product
or service. And I have a SOP, a little PDF in
the link in the description. Just go ahead and
hit that. And then you can just copy and use
it for you and your business. But essentially
what you do right after an inflection point,
a point where a customer or client has reached
a great outcome in their life because of your
service, you ask them, hey, I want to do a quick
video interview with you. When in the next two
days is a good time. They schedule 10, 15 minutes.
You just do a recording off of something like
Zoom or Riverside. You take that recording and
you edit it together. Now, I'm going to be using
somebody named Andrew Kivett from Kivett Social
to create mine. And if you remember, Andrew is
another person that walked across the U .S. And
I had him on the podcast back when it was the
Within Range Coaching Podcast. So that will be
in the description as well. But video is a great
way to show that there are real people that were
willing to take extra time out of their days
to. talk about you and your business. So that
is a higher level way for you to show people
that there are people that look like them, that
talk like them, sound like them, that has had
results from you and your business. It's just
collecting and getting the testimonials. It doesn't
just stop there. Be sure that you're actually
showcasing them in as many ways as possible.
One of the greatest ways that I've learned to
showcase my testimonials is just through a quick
carousel post on Instagram or Facebook. Just
here are some great client feedback, put the
star rating, put the best reviews. that really
show off you and your business and the type of
demographic that you really want to hit. You
can also have it in your email signature, just
a quick quote by a happy client, or a button
that says click here to see testimonials, as
well as taking those testimonials and creating
an actual client success story. based off of
the different objections that you see typically
in your business, whether it is price, time,
results, etc. Be sure that you are actually collecting
these testimonials and results you're getting
for your clients so that in the future, if anybody
has an objection, you can easily say, oh, that's
pretty much exactly what Jane Doe said or John
Doe experienced this and this is what he was
able to see. And be sure that they're actually
real stories that you can back them up. You want
to make sure that you're being ethical with how
you're using it. and that you aren't just chat
GPTing a bunch of testimonials. Only use real
testimonials by real people to showcase the real
impact your service has on. others. And really,
that is all that I have for today. There's going
to be extra information info down in the description
for this podcast. And be sure that you pick one
of these areas this week to really focus in on.
If you do not have a Google My Business listing,
I would urge you to spend some time creating
that. If you aren't sure how to do it, go ahead
and send me a message and I will be sure to help
walk you through it. I mean, completely. free.
I think that everybody should be on Google My
Business. So if you just send me an email, I
will help you walk through the process of creating
a Google My Business listing. But as always,
thank you all so much for listening and for your
time and attention today. Once again, I would
super appreciate if you left a rating and review
on whatever podcast platform you're listening
to this on. It just takes a few seconds, swipe
of the thumb, in order to help this get to more
people that need to see it. So thank you all
once again. And remember, the best is yet to
come as long as you you are willing to make the
decision to never settle, never quit, and never
peak. I'll see you guys in the next one.