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Some "Mediums" just work better This is not a story of spiritualists and flights
of the imagination. It will, however, predict good fortune for some
and the shape of things to come. First, let's consider a day in the life of a buyer…perhaps your prospective customer? Their average day might include sitting through a sales presentation, or several. It might require reading lengthy proposals and tender submissions, or maybe researching potential suppliers on the web. Day after day, their work is probably a mixture of these essential, time consuming jobs. One thing is sure, every one of the businesses they consider as potential suppliers will state that they are 'solid', 'dependable', 'have the best solution' and 'deliver outstanding customer service'; every one is, apparently, perfect! That's clearly great news and should make buying decisions easy; but what if your canny prospect, for some inexplicable reason, doesn't believe every one of these valid (or wildly extravagant) claims? In a perfect word, no company would need to extol the strengths of their own business. They would simply ask a current customer, one who knows and loves their offering, to attend every prospecting meeting. For good measure, these customers would also make themselves available for phone enquiries and allocate time each day to answer emails, to vouch for the exceptional service provided by their supplier. Your customers would give unbiased praise…which, of course, your prospects would have no trouble believing. Ah, if only it was a perfect world! Today…in the real world. Your customers are busy. You wouldn't dare risk the relationship by asking too many favours. They may be kind enough to support you with references for a few key deals but there is clearly a limit to their assistance. Recognising this, many companies have realised that written endorsements; or better still, video testimonials, can bridge the gap. Capturing a customer's views only requires them to sing their praises once and then allows the same positive message to be shared with many prospects. This form of customer reference and testimonial is now accepted as one of the most powerful sales and marketing tools. But, isn't it extraordinary, if that is the case, that the examples we see on most websites today are in text only and frequently attributed to a nameless and faceless person. Added to this, they are usually too wordy and generally lacking in real impact! The problem stems from the way customer quotes, endorsements and testimonials are currently produced. Written endorsements are requested of many customers…but the follow-through; gaining permission to name the person and company is time consuming. It seems most businesses accept second best and use an un-named text-only testimonial. For those that do take the trouble, it seems that they regularly fall into the 'tech trap'. To produce a testimonial video they are told; one must send in a cameraman, lighting engineer and maybe a sound expert. This team will focus, not surprisingly, on the technical aspects of production. The result? The customer is placed in a generally unfamiliar position, literally in the spotlight, and asked to deliver an appropriate endorsement. What he or she says is largely immaterial to the production team. What is appropriate? How long? What key messages? How should the piece come across as compelling to the eventual viewer? Customers, left to their own devices, are expected to conjure up great television, un-aided! This highlights the real problem needing to be addressed. Business viewers at work are, of course, also TV viewers at home. On ending their day, they will regularly watch multi-million pound productions - each scene carefully planned for storyline, optimum running time and dialogue. But, unlike 'corporate video'; in television, the technical production team play an important, but supporting role. The outcome is plain to see. Review current testimonials and you will find them bland, over-long and unconvincing. Of course there are exceptions…but they are surprisingly difficult to find. That today our busy prospective customer has to read or watch generally unimpressive testimonials is worrying, and clearly an opportunity missed. That many video-based versions are over long and needlessly elaborate is wasteful and worse, results in many being closed mid-way, often before the key message has been presented . So how should this be addressed, the problem solved and customer testimonials achieve their real potential to support effective decision making? The good news is that video on the web and in PowerPoint has now come of age. Excellent quality, fast streaming video is now possible, even viewable from portable devices, whilst on the move. With this now achievable, 'just' content continues to be the issue. How to address this? Take a look at the Dixey Henderson 'Things people say' web page and you will hear audio testimonials which are short, to the point and regularly gain positive comment from prospective customers. These were created by the team which now run Sales Torque Limited www.salestorque.co.uk. Dixey Henderson has recently commissioned them to create a new set of video testimonials for their site, recognising the extra impact these will achieve. The brief, as with all Sales Torque commissions, is for short, highly compelling testimonials which are salient and a pleasure to view. The focus will be on understanding Dixey Henderson's strengths and then marrying those with the engagement experiences each customer wishes to present. With a focus on content, Sales Torque producers work with the customer to tease out the best possible narrative. To address the 'over technical', production-focussed issues, Sales Torque employs a completely different technique when meeting and filming customers. This translates into brief, enjoyable sessions which capture razor-sharp endorsements. These are then taken through an editing routine for output in both web and PowerPoint formats. Is this the route forward for all customer testimonials? If the result is more valuable and enjoyable for the prospective buyer; whilst being easier and less expensive for the commissioning company, we think it has to be. The absolute truth? Today's norm is ineffective and will be replaced by a much more effective sales tool. Clearly, those businesses that embrace the new, higher quality medium first, will gain a considerable advantage. David Maskens
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