003 | How To Ask For A Testimonial At An Appropriate Time

 

Do you struggle to ask for testimonials from your clients? Does it feel uncomfortable or awkward when it comes time to approach your clients to review your work?

If you’re like most of my clients, then you struggle to ask for a testimonial. In this episode of The Abundant Accountant Podcast, I’m sharing the exact steps you need to follow to ensure that you’re asking for the testimonial at the right time.

Asking for testimonials is just like asking for the sale, you just have to do it, but if you do it at the wrong time, things could go badly.

My advice? Really listen and talk with your clients, find out their needs and what they’re struggling with and then provide the best services that help them overcome those struggles.

Once you’ve done that, asking for a testimonial is a breeze!

If you’re ready to fill your website with glowing testimonials and reviews about the amazing work that you do, this episode of The Abundant Accountant Podcast is a MUST LISTEN!

Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into The Abundant Accountant Podcast!

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P.S. Are you ready to FINALLY be paid your value and worth? Join my FREE Masterclass NOW and learn the 3 proven strategies my clients use to fill their accounting practice with premium clients who eagerly pay what you’re worth! Sign up NOW at abundantaccountant.com

 

Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:

• Just like in sales, you have to ask for the sale – the same is true with testimonials. You must ask your clients for the testimonial.
• If you’re not comfortable asking for a video testimonial to start, you can use Google Forms or a tool called Survey Monkey.
• Michelle shares that she always keeps track of the things that clients say about working with her. These testimonials make your website like GOLD!
• Always make sure to get your client’s permission to use their testimonial for advertising purposes.
• When people say they want to talk with others you’ve worked with, you can direct your prospects to your testimonials page.
• If you get a client testimonial in an email and it’s not structured well, you can always ask if the client is okay with you tweaking the formatting.
• The best way to help your client is by helping them overcome their problems. You do that by listening 80% of the time and talking 20%. If you listen carefully, your clients will tell you everything you need to know in order to help them.
• Once you’ve delivered the result that your client desired, you can then ask for the testimonial.
• Sidenote: You may not always provide the result that your client wants. If they don’t do their part of the work, everything may not go as planned.
• Michelle shares the exact step-by-step process she uses when asking for a testimonial.
• After a client has submitted a testimonial, be sure to send them a thank you note for taking the time and for sharing their experience with others who may be interested in working with you.
• An additional bonus you can offer certain individuals is to provide a linkback to their website under their testimonial or review on your website.
• Michelle shares her ONE goal for you to accomplish this week!

 

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Are you ready to FINALLY be paid your value and worth? Join my FREE Masterclass NOW and learn the 3 proven strategies my clients use to fill their accounting practice with premium clients who eagerly pay what you’re worth! Sign up NOW at abundantaccountant.com.

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How To Ask For A Testimonial At An Appropriate Time

Thank you all so much for being with me here on the show. It’s an honor to be here with each of you, and I’m very excited because this is new. For those of you that have been following me for quite a while, you probably know that I’ve had a show called Success Unfiltered for a really long time, but now this is The Abundant Accountant. I want to say thank you all for being here with me. Now, on the show, we are talking about when it is appropriate to ask for testimonials from a client. I’ve frequently heard accountants confess that they feel uncomfortable asking for testimonials. I get it. I understand why.

It’s probably not the most comfortable thing. It could be awkward if you’re not used to really asking. If you want to get a testimonial, you have to ask for it, or maybe you’re asking at an inappropriate time. We are talking about when is the appropriate time to ask for a testimonial from your clients. In this episode, I will explain how to ask for testimonials at the appropriate time. What I like to do is do interviews with your clients. I feel that it’s the best way to set up an interview and survey your clients to ask them, “What’s working? What’s not working? What do they like?”

A lot of times, we don’t know what our clients like. We have to ask them. I know it’s hard to understand, but it’s really common. It helps to have you be a better asker. It’s like in sales, we have to ask for the sale. When we’re asking for a testimonial, we also have to ask for a testimonial, so it’s important. Here are a few ways how you can do this. You can use Google Forms if you don’t want to get on video right away. Maybe you need baby steps. There’s also a company called SurveyMonkey.

SurveyMonkey is a great tool to get feedback from your clients on how you can improve your services, in your firm, and what they like. Maybe a client will share that they didn’t like something about maybe one of your team members. My ultimate favorite way is getting video reviews. I’m going to share a couple of stories on how I do this. Also, I have a review page on The Pitch Queen website where I’ll put it so you can see exactly what my clients say about me as it relates to working with me at The Pitch Queen for building their accounting firms, getting confident in their sales conversations, and getting paid what you’re worth all day long.

I had a call with a woman. Her name is Carmen. It’s a problem with a lot of accountants that I work with. You sometimes undersell yourself and give a lower price based on what you think your client can afford. All of this type of stuff, you can learn by doing an interview with your clients and learning about what’s really important to them. What’s important to them is always different from what’s important to us. I always like to say when you are getting testimonials from clients, you want to use what clients are saying to you.

You sometimes undersell yourself and give a lower price based on what you think your client can afford. Click To Tweet

I keep track of what people say to me, and then I ask for their permission to use it in email marketing or even if you guys are doing some advertising. I know a lot of the accountants I work with have websites, and this type of stuff is awesome to put on your website. It’s literally like gold. My client review page is like gold. One of the things that Carmen said is she went to the client review page, saw a familiar face, and she’s like, “I remember that guy, and I remember that he learned from you.”

Having her see that helped me out. Now, I’m going to be able to work with her. You want to make sure that you get permission to use their emails and any feedback in your marketing or advertising. I always go through my emails, and I’d like each of you to do that now. I guarantee you, you have great testimonials buried in your inbox. You can go through your emails, look for reviews, and check out your social media. A lot of you do have Yelp accounts and Google reviews. You can pull those Google reviews and Yelp reviews and turn them into really great testimonials. What I do is create myself an acknowledgment folder.

Somebody emailed me a really long message on Facebook Messenger. I copied and pasted it. I put it on a Word Doc, convert it to PDF, and moved it into a folder called testimonials. A) It’s nice to see that people love what you’re doing, and B) It’s great to be able to share this with other people when you need to pull from it. You might be working with a client, and maybe they say, “I want to talk to other people that you’ve worked with.” That’s going to happen. If it happens, do you want to know what’s amazing? You can go right to that folder and have your ammunition to talk to them about how maybe you can better help them.

Here are a few examples of what people have said to me. I believe that it’s really important to save any good great emails, number one. Number two, we need to ask to do a video interview when you get a little bit more comfortable. I save emails and turn them into little testimonials, and then I ask the client, “Would this be okay?” Sometimes, in an email, it’s not structured for a testimonial format. What I like to do is just say, “Can I tweak this?” and change it. Now, I’ve got a great testimonial, and I can add it to my client review page, “Would you be okay with that?” Send it in an email, and typically, they’re going to say yes.

If you’ve helped somebody at a high level, they want you to be able to share that with more people. People want to help other people. When you ask for client reviews, it’s a way to pay it forward. If you’re thinking, “I hate asking, I don’t really want to ask,” I get it. I totally understand because you’re not alone in this situation. There are a lot of people and a lot of other accounting professionals that hate this part. However, if you’re working in a specific niche, having these testimonials is literally gold. It will bring you more clients of who you want to work with. I had a client, Luke. Luke has a whole website for dentists. He specializes in working with dentists.

People want to help other people. When you ask for client reviews, it's a way to pay it forward. Click To Tweet

I knew Luke was going to get some testimonials from his clients. If you go to a lot of your pages, there are not a ton of client reviews and testimonials. There might be some on Yelp and Google, but we need to transfer that onto your main pages. A) It brings you credibility. B) It brings you a way for other people to see how it is working with you. It will eliminate the objection of, “Can I talk to some of the other clients that you’ve worked with?” How many of you have had that problem? If you think about it, it’s a big one. It’s a big objection that a lot of people get, and you want to make sure that you can help overcome a lot of objections by doing it in your reviews. That’s one of the things that I recommend.

The next thing is listening. I know we’re going to get into talking about this, but I like to use the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule goal is like this. You want to listen 80% of the time and only talk 20% of the time. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. When you listen intently and closely to your clients, people will tell you everything. For example, people share a lot of times about what their past accountant or what they want in their future accountant when you meet a new client. They tell you, “My last accountant never called me back. My last accountant charged too much money and didn’t save me enough in taxes. I’m really looking forward to my future accountant as someone who takes a proactive role.”

Maybe it’s something along those lines, but you have to listen really close. When you listen closely, you can hear keywords that will invite you the opportunity to possibly ask for a client review in the future because you’ll know what the keyword is they like to talk about. Maybe think about why did they choose you instead of another accountant. After you complete the services, you can go back and reflect on why they did choose you. For example, Mark. “You’re awesome. You have a great personality. You call your clients back. You care about them.” They’re not 1 of 1,000 clients because Mark only works with the elite qualified top people. Maybe it’s some of that stuff.

 

Think about why they chose you to begin with, so when you go back and ask for the testimonial, it becomes easy. Also, why they are choosing you for the future? Think about when they choose you, what is that future end result that they’re looking for? It’s very important. I’ll give you another example. In my last eight-week sales class, there was a woman. Her name is Kate. Kate is amazing and would share with me. I’m not an account but I work with them. I have a lot of accounting friends, and I’m surrounded by really amazing intelligent people like you.

Kate is a CPA, just like a bunch of you reading right now. She wanted to get confident in her sales conversation, and I was committed to doing whatever it took to make sure that at the end of eight weeks, her confidence was maybe at a 1, I needed it at an 11, above a 10, because that was the most important thing to her. That’s what she was asking for. I listened closely and made sure. After she got the result, I asked her to do a testimonial. You don’t want to ask until you have delivered the result. Honestly, you can’t always deliver the result for people because the people have to do the work.

Kate showed up to every class. She did all the homework. She was perfect. She did everything 100%, and she was able to al also see the financial results of doing the work and making it happen. Here’s what happened. Her confidence went from a 1 to an 11, and that’s what I captured in her client review. It’s on my client review page. It will be up on ThePitchQueen.com very shortly. Katie and I are working on that as we speak. How do you ask for a testimonial? You might be wondering, “What do I do?” Asking for reviews is only awkward if you make it awkward.

Asking for reviews is really only awkward if you make it awkward. Click To Tweet

Think about it that it’s going to help more people. If you are able to get a couple of client reviews from people you’ve helped for 5 or 10 years, if you’ve been around a little bit, or maybe you’re brand new in your practice, and you need to acquire a couple of clients, think about this process as you bring on new clients because it works like clockwork. Start off by saying that their opinion matters to you, and it does. You have to believe it. Their opinion of the review of your services, be it your monthly services, your tax resolution services, your tax planning services, or your tax audit protection.

All of that, you want to know your client’s opinions on, so you can share it with other people that might want to enroll and work with you in your services. Maybe they say their business has been really going great, and based on what you’ve helped them with, you want to explore that and share it with the world. Open up with a compliment before you ask for the testimonial. That’s what I’m getting at. With Kate, I said, “Kate, I am so impressed with what you did.” She was able to get a new client on board for about $9,500. The client wanted to only pay $8,500.

Through working with me, Kate was able to go back with confidence, and the client enrolled with her at $9,500. She did not have to agree to the price that her client thought he could afford. The client could afford the $9,500. What’s the $1,000 difference? That’s nothing. What I wanted to make sure of is that her confidence was from here to here. That’s what I wanted to see. That’s what happened. Not only was Kate’s confidence a 1 to an 11, but this was the right opportunity for me to ask her for a client testimonial or review on the class. I did it in two different ways.

The first way, I did it in video. I got on video on Zoom, and I recorded it. I asked her a couple of questions, and she was able to communicate what she loved about class. In addition to that, I asked her for a written testimonial, maybe 3 to 4 sentences that she would email to me with a photo. On my client review page, you will notice two things. There are some in video format, and there are some in non-video format, just a picture and some words. Those are the real big main differences in opening up the conversation of asking for a testimonial with a compliment.

Here are some other reminders. Remember to always send them a thank you email, thanking them for the testimonial, if you get one. I sent Kate an email because this is a fresh testimonial I got, and thanked her for A) Taking out the time, and B) Coming through and emailing me her photo and a written testimonial. It’s really important to thank people and acknowledge them for what they’re doing for you because they didn’t have to give you a testimonial. If you pose it in a way that not only is it going to help you, but you’ll be able to serve and help more people, it’s a domino effect.

It’s your job as the accountant to ask because this is one of the things that will create a lot of abundance not only in your own life but for more of the clients that you’re working with. Remember, if your client is a business owner, which I know a lot of you want to work with more high-level clients and business owners, offer to link their business back to your website underneath their review, so you can link their website. Let’s say they are Freshly, a fresh prepared meal company like the business that I used to have back in the day.

 

If you put their link there, it will link it directly to their website, and they might get a new client, so it’s a win-win situation across the board. Always get permission before using a testimonial. I always like to make sure, “I’m going to use it here and there.” I ask it, and then I hit the record button. You want to make sure that people are okay with you having and using their testimonials on your services in your firms, and make sure that you have helped your clients first. I have seen that some of the biggest mistakes come because you don’t ask for the testimony at the right time. You have to wait until the full service is done.

Maybe you get a new client now, and then you ask twelve months from now, but you’re always listening for different things about why they chose you over another accountant. What was really important to them? What do they want to get from you that they weren’t getting from their previous accountant? Those are all critical because you can ask in your client review testimonial, and you can bring up these stories and these situations. That client is probably going to be so happy because they didn’t have to deal with all the other things they dealt with their past accountant because now they’re with you, but you get to address them and bring it up.

Make sure to have a client notes area in whatever system or Excel spreadsheet you have for your accountants. That’s a really important factor. I have one goal for you to accomplish over the next week, and that is to ask for one testimonial this week at an appropriate time after you have helped your client get to where they wanted to go when they first met with you. This could even be a client that you’ve had for years.

If you’ve never asked any of your clients on your roster for a testimonial, I want you to practice to ask, try it, and see what happens. Honestly, this will be a big game changer in your business and attract more clients that you really want to help, serve, and grow that firm of abundance. That is my ask and a great homework assignment to do over the next week or two, and just put things into action.

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Thank you all so much for joining me talking about the importance of getting testimonials from your clients, but also knowing when the right time is. Put what you learned into action and make sure to at least get one. Also, if you have a quick second, please leave me a rating and a review on iTunes and subscribe to the show. I always love hearing from you.

One last thing before I let you go, if you’ve ever felt like you give away too much information for free or you’re tired of not getting paid what you’re worth or offering your prices at what your clients think they can afford, then you’re probably like a lot of the other accountants that I’ve worked with, and you may feel like you’re on a cashflow roller coaster. I have a solution for you. You can join me for our Accountants Masterclass over at TheAbundantAccountant.com to learn how to communicate your value, collect higher fees with confidence, and really get paid what you’re worth every single time. I’ll see you soon.

 

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