Customer Testimonials Part I

by A. Bleecker
Jul. 31st, 2019
Queen Palm Media Insights

How to Find Your Next Customer Testimonial
B2B purchases typically cost more, require ongoing support from the provider, and are motivated by need rather than want. So while the marketing for a luxury car will attempt to invoke feelings of prestige, marketing for CRM software, for example, will aim for reliability and ease-of-use.

You saying you’re great? Annoying
A customer saying you’re great? Convincing.

That’s why the customer testimonial reigns supreme in the hierarchy of B2B marketing materials. It acts as proof that another company not only trusted you enough to buy your stuff, but also remains pleased enough to vouch for you after the fact. In this case, the indirect route is the most effective way of singing your company’s praises, i.e. you saying you’re great is just annoying, but a customer saying you’re great is convincing.

There are identification and recognition in the particular.

And, the customer testimonial is a chance to tell a story. While your reader probably won’t recognize herself in a brochure, white paper, or data sheet, she will relate to the story of someone like her who faced a familiar challenge. Why? Because there are identification and recognition in the particular.

I love the process of identifying leads for potential testimonials because it allows me to be a journalist of sorts, listening for hints of a compelling story, and then shaping that story from what I learn. But scouting out the customers who are happy and willing to be the focus of a testimonial can be intimidating, especially for new-ish employees who aren’t familiar with the existing customer base.

Here are the two methods I’ve had the most luck with in sussing out leads for customer testimonials:

Eavesdrop on customers interacting with one another. While working in software, annual user conferences were a gold mine for me in terms of testimonial leads. Customer roundtable sessions, for example, are a forum for users to learn from one another in an informal setting, meaning you get to hear them speak candidly about their challenges and wins (think: pre-packaged sound bites).

User group quick tips:

1. Identify the ‘problem-solver’ among the vocal customers. Look for the person who raises more solutions than problems

2. Take notes on the examples she shares (or better yet—record audio with your phone)

3. Find out everything you can about her story from those within your company who’ve worked on her account

4. Determine which of your colleagues has the closest / most current relationship to the account, and ask him or her to make an introduction for a success story

Here’s an example of a written success story we created based on a lead sourced from a customer roundtable I spied on during the company’s user conference. This case was particularly serendipitous because the vocal, problem-solving customer happened to be the pilot use case for a new technology (a supplier portal) the company had developed. Being able to launch a new solution with a published customer success story is a huge advantage.

Talk to your sales people. Then talk to them again. And again. Let them know you’re on the lookout for happy customers who might be willing to participate. This won’t be a priority for sales people, so you have to continually ask and remind them. Listen in on sales meetings to get familiar with the prospects before they become customers; if and when you have the opportunity to interview them for a success story, you’ll already know a great deal of the history of their involvement with your company, cutting down on what you’ll need to ask your colleagues and the customer.  

For those sales people aware of the need for testimonials, often times they’ve assumed a particular formula of X amount of time as a customer + Y level of peace and love = customer testimonial. Of course those factors are important, but don’t let sales people get boxed in to this assumed formula.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your company has just knocked it out of the park on an installation or implementation. If you keep that customer happy—sure, in the future, you can approach them about a success story. In the meantime, however, you might be able to get a quote like the following:

”Queen Palm delivered our CRM system under budget and ahead of the timeline we’d allotted for the implementation. They demonstrated courteous professionalism in collecting user requirements from our employees, and operated with an urgency we don’t often see with third-party organizations.”

This kind of relationship-qualifying social proof is gold in B2B selling, where trust is currency. In this [100% fabricated] example, had I allowed the sales team to operate under the assumption that a customer must be happy for a certain period of time before asking for a quote, I never would have unearthed this gem of a testimonial.

Get more

In Part II, we focus on the actual writing of a customer success story, with four recommendations on how to get what you need to shape the best possible story with minimal friction for your customer. How to Write a Success Story that Sells.