Another exciting week in the “Living Agency Laboratory” reveals this week’s lesson about third party credibility and your marketing – testimonials. This is the very FIRST activity I started with in my “marketing in the insurance agency business “quest in 1999. Testimonials are absolutely critical.

If you are open to digging in and improving your marketing programs, here’s some questions to ponder:

1) When words of praise find their way to your desk or inbox, how does it make you or your team feel?

2) Do you often ask for testimonials or similar from any or all of your clients?

Many years ago, a complete paradigm shift occurred when I learned that:

“No one cares what I say I have done for other people, but when another person shares what we have already done for them”

Many consumers in the marketplace view agents as sales people, many willing to say whatever it takes to close the deal and make a buck. That’s why this “shift” is so powerful. It’s not you saying it, it’s a third party sharing proven fact about a result that has ACTUALLY occurred and caused as OUTCOME in someone’s life!

We have many ongoing activities that consistently produce unsolicited testimonials day after day, week after week. Here are a few for you to quickly implement:

In today’s untrusting consumer marketplace, one can never provide enough support for being the credible, outstanding agency that you are. Just ASK, you’ll continually be amazed. I invested 5 hours in a specific seminar yesterday learning the latest in relationship and referral marketing. I learned that 70% of the population needs to see some “type of endorsement” to make a buying decision. Testimonials are one of the strongest, most effective forms of endorsement.

Helping you implement, execute and take action,

Mike Stromsoe, Creator of the