Comments on: The Skeptical and the Hopeful

There are two kinds of people in your audience you need to especially consider when you write copy and collect testimonials.

1) The Skeptic. The guy who ain’t going to believe a thing unless he actually walks on the water for himself.

2) The Hopeful. The guy who is yearning so badly for a solution to his ugly, horrible, desperate problem that he’s hungry and thirsty for salvation in any form.

Sometimes these two kinds of people are the same person. When we roll those two guys into one, we have someone who looks at your testimonials with a jaundiced eye, checking for any sign that somebody’s making something up.

Do these ring true?
Do they sound like real people?
Do they all sound like the same guy wrote them?
If I wanted to check these people out would I ever be able to?

He asks all those questions.

But… once he gets an affirmative answer to those questions, he can’t unglue himself from your sales page. He’s been looking, hunting, searching, fantasizing for so long… he reads testimonial after testimonial, drinking in the hope.

He places the order almost feeling as though his problem will begin solving itself almost as soon as the transaction is approved.

And then he can’t wait to get it, open it, read it, devour it.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to provide so much proof, so much tangible evidence of the power of your solution - and so much anticipation - that this guy feels a wave of satisfaction flowing through his body as soon as he gets done placing the order on your website.

Perry Marshall

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:23:51 +0000

Here you are comparing those that use scarcity: Frank Kern with those that are called “honest” but do not use it [much] like Perry.

The key question is not debate but results. Who makes millions and the greatest results? Undoubtedly Frank Kern. This is why Robbins chose to interview him and not Perry.

I very much like Perry too. I devour everything he has. But if Frank talks I eat. Perry is GREAT AND GREAT: I recommend him all the time.

Summary: both are great. Scarcity produces results. Results are the key thing. So is consistentcy, but Frank is that too.

By: Marianna Guenther

Marianna Guenther — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:58:39 +0000

Perry,
As always, very interesting and helpful post. I definitely fall in “the skeptic” category.
But the point you are making – to have satisfied customers ‘sell’ for you with their testimonials – is the great power and the tip to always remember.
Thank you,
Marianna

By: Perry

Perry — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:57:03 +0000

My take on the FTC: http://www.perrymarshall.com/federal-trade-commission-testimonials/

By: John Chancellor

John Chancellor — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:46:05 +0000

Good lesson. I believe all prospects approach a product with a certain amount of hope and fear. We hope the product will solve our problem/ produce the results we want.

But we bring all sorts of fear to the table. We think it won’t work, won’t work for us, that it will be too difficult to implement, that we could find the same product/service cheaper and a host of related fears.

As marketers, we must answer both the hope and the fear question. What solution is the prospect looking for? What will cause the prospect not to buy my product? Failure to answer these questions results in “no sale.”

Many marketers are afraid to raise the objections that a prospect may have. Actually it builds trust to bring up the objections … and trust lowers the buying resistance.

Good article.

By: Jo de Jong

Jo de Jong — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:37:26 +0000

Your reason for posting this puzzles me in view of the recent FTC ruling that essentially kills the use of testimonials. Do you not feel that these regulations are as stringent as they appear to be?