Customer testimonials are a great marketing tool because they are a personal word of mouth reference. Testimonials give customers the power to publicly share positive experiences they have had with your company, product, or service. Customers in the B2B marketplace prefer doing business with companies they know. Letting people know who else has done business with you is a powerful mechanism for generating new leads and sales, which leads to a profitable business. Why do so many businesses fail to use any testimonials in their marketing? Testimonials are hard to collect. There are many ways to ask for testimonials. Asking for testimonials the right way will give you powerful reviews that attract your ideal clients. This guide teaches you the art of asking for testimonials so your next testimonial collection process is painless and productive.

2. Table Of Contents
3 Why Collecting Testimonials Is Important
7 6 Steps To Collect Testimonials
That Attract New Leads and Sales
8 The Do’s of Collecting Testimonials.
16 The Don’ts of Collecting Testimonials
20 How To Write Testimonials
22 How to Use Testimonials in Marketing
28 Testimonial Examples
34 Wrap Up: Getting Started With Your Own
Testimonial Collection Campaign.
2

3. Why Collecting
Testimonials Is
Important
3

4. Advocate Marketing
Creates B2B Customer
Relationships That Last
A Lifetime
Word of mouth and peer
testimony are powerful
business-to-business (B2B)
marketing tools, with
social, mobile, and the
steady move to
subscription-based
business models making
advocacy all the more
important.
Source: Forrester
Advocate Marketing
4

5. Customer testimonials are a great
marketing tool because they are a
personal word of mouth reference.
Testimonials give customers the
power to publicly share positive
experiences they have had with your
company,product,or service.
Customers in the B2B marketplace
prefer doing business with companies
they know. Letting people know who
else has done business with you is a
powerful mechanism for generating
new leads and sales,which leads to a
profitable business.
Why do so many businesses fail to
use any testimonials in their
marketing? Testimonials are hard to
collect. There are many ways to
ask for testimonials. Asking for
testimonials the right way will give
you powerful reviews that attract
your ideal clients.
This guide teaches you the
art of asking for testimonials
so your next testimonial
collection process is painless
and productive. 5

6. If you’re currently asking for testimonials,or
getting ready to,you probably already have an idea
how you’ll get testimonials from customers and
share that information. The most important thing is
to not waste your or your clients’ precious time.
Having the process well thought out before
contacting the first client will dramatically increase
the number of testimonials you get and the
positive impact they have on your target audience.
In the era of always-on,
personalized information
and trusted word of mouth
(WOM) at scale, it is time to
update our customer
journey models to recognize
how great customer
experience drives WOM,
and great WOM drives
business outcomes.
Marketers need a new and
better framework–one that
considers the entire
virtuous circle from buy to
own to advocate and back
to buy, again.
- Gartner
6

7. Ask for feedback to get a testimonial
Set up a questionnaire with no more than 5
specific questions
Send clients a link or form to post their
comments (do this through email or use online
tools for collecting testimonials such as Business
Exchange)
Compile a testimonial from the feedback you
receive
Ask for approval from a client to post compiled
testimonial on the internet
Include the first and last name,job title and
company name to any testimonial you post online
P.S. Make writing a testimonial easy for your
customer.
7
6 Steps To Collect
Testimonials That
Attract
New Leads and
Sales

8. The Do’s Of
Collecting
Testimonials
8

9. 1. Set Yourself Up After Every Experience
With A Client
If people don’t give you testimonials,it’s probably because you didn’t
ask them.
Some feel uncomfortable requesting testimonials. They feel
testimonials should just come naturally. While that might occasionally
happen,generally you need to ask clients to write out their thoughts.
“The best time to plant
an oak tree was
twenty-five years ago.
The second best time is
today.”
- James Carville
9

10. The best time to ask for feedback is when your client's satisfaction
level is at its highest. Here’s the best time to ask for testimonials:
Right after a project is successfully completed
(Request testimonials from your newest customers first)
When you have solved a problem for a customer
When a customer expresses she/he is happy with your work
When a customer says thank you for your work
Survey: 90% Of
Customers Say Buying
Decisions Are Influenced
By Online Reviews
58 % of customers said they
were more likely to share
customer service
experiences today than they
were five years ago, with
more and more people
sharing experiences on
social networking sites and
writing online reviews.
- Dimensional Research
10

11. 2. Tell a Customer Why You
Would Appreciate Feedback
Make sure to clearly communicate with your
customer the reason you are asking for
feedback,so she can identify with your
purpose. Consider a short introduction,like:
“Thank you for taking the time to provide
feedback for MyAwesomeCo. We
appreciate doing business with your
company. Your written testimonial will help
MyAwesomeCo continue to improve our
services. Here’s where I’d like you to post
your comments to few simple questions.”
11

12. Source: Gartner
3. Make it Easy for Your Customers
to Write Testimonials
There is a moment of truth after you’ve
fired off a large number of testimonial
requests to loyal customers who love
working with you and yet no one has
responded.
Don’t panic. It’s not your fault. There are
two main reasons people don’t respond
as you would expect them to:
They don’t have time. Writing a rich
testimonial is a time consuming process
They aren’t sure what to say. People are
often afraid their writing isn’t good
enough
12

13. Source: Gartner
Ask specific questions about
the feedback you need.
Tailor the questions based on
business categories.
Here are a few categories to consider:
Benefits
Relationship
Communication
Customer Service
Delivery
Or can also combine questions from
different categories in the same
questionnaire.
13

14. The rule of thumb is to keep your questions simple,
straightforward and concise. Keep it short!
People take more time to respond to each question when
questionnaires are shorter. This means you’re more likely to
collect accurate feedback.
Questions to ask when collecting feedback:
What did you find as a result of buying this product/service?
What specific feature did you like most about this product?
Describe the level of customer support our company provides?
What do you like about our company’s overall communication efforts?
Would you recommend this product/service? If so,why?
Even though we all
recognize the role of word
of mouth (WOM) in
building brands and
delivering marketing
results, customer journey
models routinely omit any
consideration for the
impact of brand advocacy.
Many of the journey
frameworks used today to
guide customer
experience (CX) initiatives
fail to account for the ways
happy customers
champion the brands they
love and how others value
WOM as they discover,
evaluate and select
products and services.
Source: Gartner
14

15. There’s an old saying:
Fortune is in the Follow Up
4. Follow Up with Your Respondents
Now that you know
what to do, let’s move
on to what Not to Do.
By 2017, 89% of
marketers expect
customer
experience to be
their primary
differentiator.
- Gartner
Following up with your customers signals that you
care and are listening to them. It creates an
opportunity for respondents to trouble shoot. The
focus of your follow up conversation should be
about continuous improvements.
15

16. The Don’ts of
Collecting
Testimonials
16

17. 1. Don’t be vague
when asking for
feedback
Stay away from vague goals like,“measuring overall
satisfaction”
Ask questions that measure specific things you care
about. Have a clear sense of the feedback you need
to reach your end goal so you know what to ask.
Put this process in place:
Send an email campaign with a well-thought-out
customer feedback questionnaire
Build a customized feedback/testimonials
collecting campaign using a specialized B2B
testimonial collection tool,such as
Business Exchange
17

18. 2. Don’t Ask Leading Questions
Leading questions prompt or encourage the
answer you want. While some sales people
make good use of leading questions,those
kind of questions are not appropriate for
collecting feedback when the goal is accurate
and honest customer feedback.
Bad Example: “Hi John! I just noticed you
recently tried the new Business Exchange
testimonial collection feature. It’s great, isn’t it?”
By indicating that Business
Exchange has a new and great
feature, you are encouraging
John to respond positively to
this new feature.
Instead, ask something like this:
Good Example: “Hi John! I
noticed you’ve been using the
new Business Exchange
testimonial collection feature.
What were your results of
using our new feature?
A leading question can serve as a form
of persuasion. Removing the bias allows
respondents to answer more objectively.
They get to focus on what they like or
don’t like about the product without you
steering them one way or another.
18

19. Bear in mind the laws that govern the testimonials
you showcase. Since you are going to use collected
testimonials in advertising,such as social media,
blogs,affiliates,etc.,you should know the Federal
Trade Commission endorsement guides.
There are 3 basic concepts to follow:
Endorsements must be truthful and not
misleading
Do not make claims that require proof you
don’t have
Clearly disclose any connection between an
endorser and an advertiser
3. Don’t Break the LawFor more information,
please check these
reference sources
[Video] FTC Endorsement
Guides
Guides Concerning the Use of
Endorsements and
Testimonials in Advertising
3. Don’t Break The Law
19

20. How To Write
Testimonials
20

21. You may feel you don’t have sufficient time to write a quality
testimonial or aren’t sure how to get started. Instead of
procrastinating,give the T.E.A.S.E formula a try. It will help you write an
engaging testimonial just like a pro.
Tactful - Write a fitting and considerate testimonial. Keep in mind that the
person who receives your testimonial would like to show it to others.
Emphasize - Highlight the strengths or positive experiences you’ve had
using a specific service or product.
Authentic - Provide a way for people to contact you to verify that you
are the one who provided the testimonial.
Short – Keep your testimonial short and sweet. Even if you like
everything about a service or a product,just write about the most
important aspects of the service or a product. Get straight to the point.
Engaging - Provide real life examples regarding how the service,product,
or person helped you.
Writing a testimonial is
harder when the
person asking has
offered no guidelines,
questions to answer,
or suggested a place to
post your testimonial.
21

22. How to Use
Testimonials in
Marketing
22

23. Use testimonials to demonstrate why customers love your products or services whenever you give a sales
pitch or present your company to a broader audience.
Embed your testimonials into an email signature or into proposals going to potential customers. Either
create a small button or hyperlink* a piece of text that connects to where you store testimonials from
satisfied customers. This simple trick can be a deal maker.
The hyperlink should direct the reader from your document to:
Your corporate website’s testimonial page
A specialized online repository of B2B testimonials,such as Business Exchange,where your company has
gathered testimonials.
*Hyperlink – A highlighted word or image that links to a hypertext document,file,or website connecting with another location.
1. Use Testimonials in Emails, Presentations and Proposals
23

24. Dedicate a space or page on your company’s
website specifically for testimonials.
Rotate the testimonials so those who visit your
site often don’t see the same testimonials every
time.
One trick to make the process of embedding
testimonials to your website or blog easier and to
keep testimonials updated at all times without
constant interaction from you is to use dedicated
social widgets like those found on Business
Exchange. This allows you to share gathered
testimonials from one central online repository.
2. Include Testimonials
on Your Website and
Social Media Pages
Source: Intacct.com
24

25. <!-- copy this script inclusion tag just before the closing body tag (</body>) -->
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("<script src="http://www.business-
exchange.co/companies/widget/93801/"+(window.location.href.split("?")[1]!==undefine
d?"?"+window.location.href.split("?")[1]:"")+"" type="text/javascript"></script>");
</script>
<!-- copy this div tag inside your page content,where you want the widget to appear --
>
<div id="bex-widget-normal"></div> <!-- copy this script inclusion tag just before the
closing body tag (</body>) -->
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("<script src="http://www.business-exchange.co/companies/mini-
widget/93801/"+(window.location.href.split("?")[1]!==undefined?"?"+window.location.hr
ef.split("?")[1]:"")+"" type="text/javascript"></script>");
</script>
<!-- copy this div tag inside your page content,where you want the widget to appear --
>
<div id="bex-widget-mini"></div>
Testimonial Widget Examples
25

26. The data shows that
vendors need to establish
trust and credibility with
buyers as soon as they
arrive at the website.
- Huff/KoMarketing
26

27. Whether Its flyers,brochures,or postcards,don’t
forget to include a few glowing testimonials on
any marketing material. It builds trust around your
company and can be vital in convincing potential
customers to make a purchasing decision.
Also use testimonials to add credibility to your
media kits,press kits and other sales and PR
materials.
3. Include Testimonials on
Your Marketing Materials
Testimonial example:
“By using this solution
we got better reporting
so we could more easily
evaluate and manage
our fiscal processes and
have better insight into
our business.”
- Joe Black
CFOBusiness Exchange
27

28. Testimonials
Examples
28

29. The Omaha Chamber of Commerce is one of those rare organizations where you get more out of it
than you put in. Members can see it operating successfully on 2levels. Obviously it exists to positively
impact our Community on important issues that affect our economy - and it truly does. Probably
Omaha's Chamber is far more effective in this regard than most. So if you believe a 'rising tide lifts
all boats',and you want to see Omaha's thriving economy keep chugging along,support the
Chamber's efforts,they really do matter. But it is also worth joining even if you're only looking for
what it can do for you. A membership in Omaha's Chamber of Commerce brings numerous benefits
to your business. Relevant information to managing your business; access to key information about
our community; contacts to network and expand your business. And if you really want to make a
difference in your community,get involved in leadership at the Chamber . There are numerous
committees,and a very active and impactful Board. The Chamber dues are reasonable and one of
the better 'buys' out there. So whether you're in it for your City's economic improvement,or to
contribute personally,or just to better position your own business,the Omaha Chamber is a must-
join membership.
TROY F. MEYERSON
Attorney
Fraser & Stryker
29

30. I- Go Van and Storage Co. has been a customer and partner to Movers Specialty Service,Inc. for
many years. The level of service and expertise provided by I-Go Van and Storage is always rated a 5
out 5,and their customers let us know every opportunity they can. A member of the United Van
Lines family,I Go Van and Storage never disappoints and consistently exceeds their customer’s
expectations.
MIKE CORDARO
Corporate Sales Manager
Movers Specialty Service,Inc.
30

31. I had an experience the other day where a local plumbing company called to follow up on our
review I posted for our accounting software vendor. I realized the impact Business Exchange makes
as far as inspiring someone to call a fellow businessman to get more details on a vendor. Without
Business Exchange,that information is not readily available.
BRIANNOGG
CFO
I-go Van And Storage Co.
31

32. We've enjoyed working with InTouch on many projects. Communication solutions-things such as
telephones,phone service and internet service-are really not about technology. They're about enabling
people and businesses to complete vital communication. InTouch understands that what they do has
a dramatic impact on their customer's ability to do business and delivers solutions that provide a
great balance of cost and value matched with outstanding customer service.
GARY BREN
Managing Partner
Turner & Associates Corp.
32

33. Business Exchange helps us recruit new members to the Chamber,while building stronger
relationships with our current members: with over 3,100 members and counting,it can be challenging
to keep in continuous communication and personal outreach. Business Exchange lowers the hurdles
for us and opens the doors for those companies without breaking a sweat.
DIANE POOTS
Director Member Services
Greater Omaha Chamber
33

34. Wrap Up:
Getting Started with
Your Own
Testimonial
Collection Campaign
34

35. Wrap up!
Collecting testimonials isn’t hard if you’re prepared and make writing them easy for your
respondents. By following our guidelines,you’ll be amazed with the response rate and quality of
feedback/testimonials your customers provide.
Remember: Bad data can be worse than no data at all. Bad data leads to bad decisions,which can
end up costing your company lots of money.
The testimonial collection experts at Business Exchange have created a process and developed a tool
that gives you guidance to build your own customized feedback collection campaign. We will save
you time and yield effective results.
Our customers currently see a 72% average response rate. That’s right,7 out of 10 people respond
with rich data to questionnaires coming from Business Exchange.
Now that we’ve given you some our best secrets to creating a quality feedback collection
questionnaire from scratch,take a stab and start collecting testimonials like a pro.
Please get in touch if you have any questions,or even just to say hello!
35

36. Want Glowing Testimonials?
Create Questionnaire.
Get Feedback.
36
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