We have a tradition in my family and it usually happens on a Friday night – “Where are we eating tonight Dad”. It’s an old tradition I think that was born out of my family.
I was raised a Catholic and every Friday night we would eat fish and chips, Mum believed that it was important to go without meat on a Friday. I think it was a Catholic tradition.
Every Friday night we would sit outside the local hotel waiting for them to have a quick drink, if we were good they would bring us out our raspberry and lemonade drink in a large glass with a red straw sticking out the top waiting for us to drink it, we were so excited, it tasted the best, the bubbles always seemed to get up our noses and my brothers and sisters would race to drink it, just in case Mum and Dad stayed a little longer and we got another one.
When they did come out they would take us to the local fish and chip shop. Usually a favourite and one we had been going to for years.
In New Zealand and the United Kingdom you will most likely find a Fish and Chip shop somewhere in a village or local town.
You might be thinking what this has got to do with selling media, or helping a media sales person.
Well what place do you think of when you want a takeaway? Or who do you talk to about a good place to go? Or if you are new in town.
You call a friend, you review a newspaper article on a new place, you find out what is hot.
Why would you need to do that? Because you trust the person who recommends it to you, they do not have any interest in the recommendation, they recommended it because they liked it. They are not trying to sell you something.
The same goes with getting testimonials off your clients – what other people say about you is a “least ten times more powerful and believable than what you say about yourself.”*
Here is a couple of tips you can use straight away to get you started.
Why a testimonial?
- It communicates a specific outcome OR
- It overcomes an objection.
We get quite a lot of questions from media sales people asking us if we have a formula for getting good testimonials.
In a future edition of Inside Media Sales (you can sign up on our newsletters page), our advice newsletter, we are going to go into more depth on how to create testimonials using a simple formula, which once you realise how effortless this is you will be going out and creating great testimonials tomorrow.
Good Selling
PHOTO – ell brown
*Quote: Outrageous Advertising Bill Glazer.
