A testimonial is an important tool that when used effectively can provide a great boost to your business marketing and sales success. Customers respond positively when they can see how and why a product that they are potentially going to invest their hard earned cash in has worked for others. The testimonial is a format whereby previous customers experiences are retold to your potential customers. To learn to write one is a simple process and if you are used to writing business documents, this is something that should take next to no time to master.

The advantage that you gain when you use testimonials is that people are inclined to believe something is credible when they see it has worked for others. To begin with the writing of your testimonials, you will want to consider the options available to you. This means considering if you are looking for feedback from customers, celebrities, experts or even expert organizations. The endorsement that you pick for your product may vary depending on the industry you are in, and the goods and services that you provide.

To write an effective testimonial you will also need to source the necessary customer comments or feedback that provides the backbone of a testimonial. There are two possibilities open to do this. One option is to maintain a file of customer comments. You should view the collecting and maintaining of your testimonials as an ongoing effort, and be actively working for this. Consider this from your potential customers viewpoint, if there are two almost identical companies, one with a testimonial from 2007 or 2008, and one with a testimonial written in 2000, which do you think you would choose? Always remember that the customer will place more value in evidence of how well you or your products are doing right now, than how they were doing 8 years ago.

The other option that you may consider is to collate a list with your top customers. How you measure this may again depend on your industry, but you could look at sales volume or similar to assess this. If you then send a very carefully worded letter to these customers, you may be able to generate some really positive feedback. This is then the raw material that you need to generate some really effective testimonials, and particularly if it comes from other organizations in your industry, it can have strong value with potential customers.

There are also a few style tips you should consider when writing your testimonials. To start with, dont be tempted to change the wording that your customers have used. If they have made their points clearly, then you dont necessarily want to turn it into well crafted prose. You simply want it to be convincing and believable. The next thing to consider is the citation of the source. As long as the customer is happy with this, then placing their full name and details will hold a lot more weight than simply including their initials. Ideally you should aim to have their full name, position,location and the organization they work for if applicable.

Last of all try to have testimonials that are specific. The more accurately the testimonial explains how and why the product was worthwhile, the more weight it has and the more likely it is to do its job and boost your sales. When you use well chosen testimonials you have a powerful selling tool that you can utilize to generate sales, whatever your line of business.