I am starting to make a major trend in the way that I share resources with the world. I and the rest of the InBusiness team feel that if we are going to preach how the best way to get attention is to give it a lot of it, then we really need to start calling out when we see other great resources. I was looking for a way to improve the power of our client testimonials and came across a really great piece of literature from a gentlemen named Paul Johnson. It was an excellent article on how to write the perfect testimonial letter which he wrote back in 2001 but that does not make it irrelevant. It is as strong today as it was then.

“Six Key Elements for a Testimonial Letter” by Paul Johnson

All testimonial letters are not created equal. The ones full of gushy fluff are a waste of good letterhead. However, a good testimonial letter can offset any risk in the value proposition, increase customer loyalty, and get you more referrals. A good letter provides the reader with a shortcut to the good, sound, safe buying decision that they really want to make. Make sure six key elements are in the letters you harvest from your own customers, and watch your selling success take off. First, the testimonial letter should thank YOU. Not your company, not your product, not the people at your help desk, but you. This is a letter that is written to thank you for your contribution to your client and their company. Saying “Thank you” is a pretty rare occurrence these days, and putting a thank-you in writing really illustrates the strength of a relationship. While there might be two companies involved in a transaction, remember that companies never buy from companies; it’s people that buy from people. The relationship that matters in your letter is between two people. Second, the letter should rave about your USP, or unique selling proposition. Hopefully your company has taken pains to differentiate your product or service offering from your competition and has pointed that out in your marketing message. This is an opportunity for your customer to validate this key value proposition for you. When enough people (and enough letters) say good things about your key value proposition, it makes it more believable and understandable to your prospective customers. When your USP is mentioned in letters written over a period of time, it shows readers of the letters that there is consistency and longevity behind your company and its promises. People like to buy consistency and stability. Third, the letter should point out the advantages of three key benefits. When interviewing your customer, ask them “tell me three things that you liked about working with our company.” From there, your customer will explain what they liked best about their experience. You may have to probe to get them to expand on why that was an advantage and exactly how it helped them. For instance, if they say that your support people were very helpful, you may want to ask, “Where did that prove to be especially valuable?” Then, the customer will expound on the value delivered. That’s the kind of meat you want in your letter. The fourth key element is quantification of benefits. If things are better for your customer because they did business with you, you want to understand, “How much?” You’re looking for metrics like an improvement of X percent, or a savings of Y dollars. Often they’ll need help coming up with something measurable, especially if your contact is at the user or manager level. Sometimes they will be reticent to attribute an improvement solely to your offering. They may have made five changes at once that resulted in a 30 percent improvement in sales, and you were one of the five changes. In this case, your best hope is to get them to say something like, “Your offering played a big part in our ability to improve our year-over-year revenue by 30 percent.” That sounds pretty good to me. Go for as many numbers as you can, but try very hard to get at least one quantified result. The fifth element notes a positive affect on your customer’s customers. Sure, you may have improved life for your customer, but did it make life better for their customers? Ultimately, your customer’s job is to serve their customers, and if you can help them do that, you’re doing something really positive. You truly have a powerful offering if it reaches all the way through your customer to serve your customer’s customer. That fact won’t be lost on people who read your testimonial letter. Finally, your letter should pledge undying loyalty and future business. You want them to say that you are the best, your company is the best, and they wouldn’t think about going anywhere else. There’s no reason to shop any of your competitors. They’ve done all the homework, all the research, lived with you, and wouldn’t dream of considering anyone else. As a result of that, they’re planning on giving you future business, and are invested in continuing your business relationship into the indefinite future. All this is pretty good stuff to get into the very last paragraph before the closing. Pledges of loyalty and future business will leave the people who read the letter with a powerful, indelible impression. They’ll be eager to become your next customer. Get at least four of these six elements, and you’ve got a good testimonial letter, one that will make your selling job a whole lot easier. Get all six, and you’ve got a great letter that’s got “success” written all over it!” © 2001 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:

Paul Johnson of Panache and Systems LLC consults and speaks on business strategy for systematically boosting sales performance using Shortcuts to Yes™. Check out more salesforce development tips at http://panache-yes.com/tips.html. Call Paul direct in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at (770) 271-7719.

10 Resolutions for 2010 (or pick your year) for Business Owners

1. I will thoroughly evaluate my employees and will either re-assign, re-train or remove those who are not where they should be according to our company vision.

2. I will stop wasting time checking my email every couple of minutes.

3. I will not eat lunch while working.

4. I will respect my time and not use it for things someone else can do for me more efficiently.

5. I will respect my employee’s time and not ask them to do something they are not capable of doing.

6. If I am at the office and I am not accomplishing much I will take a short break or go home all together.

7. I will set up my company to run without me and be more profitable and valuable.

8. I will only go to the office when is imperative, not because is 8:00 AM and I will stay until all I need to do is completed, not earlier, not later.

9. I will define the company’s corporate vision and set it to fit my personal/family lifestyle.

10. I will own my company…..I would not allow my company to own me.

When it comes to productivity we usually look into improving what we already do and not what we should stop doing.  The focus should be on saving time during the work day and use the extra time as a means to refresh our thinking and improving our well being.  Why is saving time so important?  I know that at times we wish we could have 26 hours in a day so we could cram more work or use it when we have a deadline to meet.  Even though this could come in handy, what we should want to accomplish is to shorten the work day by “letting go” of those activities that make our efforts unproductive to begin with.  What is the end result?  Now you can do in 45 minutes what you used to do in one hour just because you are not interrupting yourself!
So here are the 5 things I promised to share with you:

1. Plan the time your check, read and answer emails.  By doing this you will get rid of the number one reason (in my opinion) why we have gotten to be so good interrupting ourselves.  I believe email does today what the telephone used to do in the past, that pesky phone call at the most inopportune time.   When I am waiting for a truly important email I engage, if possible, in tasks that I know I can interrupt without much consequence.   If I have a busy day, I usually pick a time in the morning and one in the afternoon to check, read and answer emails.  I sometimes check again before I leave the office so I can plan ahead…but only when necessary and never on Fridays unless I am in the middle of a critical task.  I want all of me to go back home and not leave part of my brain at the office thinking about that task I cannot do anything about over the weekend anyway. 

2.  Don’t touch anything you are not willing to complete at that very same time.  This goes for snail mail, reports, phone calls, research and of course email.   For example, when I decide to check snail mail, I first check the envelopes to see which could require immediate attention.  If I decide to open an envelope, then I complete whatever task it brings and put it away for good.  If I decide to continue opening my mail, I do the same until I am done.  By the way, I sometimes glance at my snail mail to see when I should take onto the task of opening mail and if it looks like a “no-brainer pile” and I am extremely busy, I may decide to open mail while I eat lunch at my desk, but I never eat while completing stressful tasks.  As a rule, if I touch a piece of paper on my desk, then I take care of the task to completion and delete from my mental list of things to do.

3. Telephone calls are a killer when it comes to interrupting while working on a task.  If I am not expecting an important call, then I keep my phone off when I arrive to the office and focus on completing what is needed and important.  Sometime my phone is off until 9:30 or 10:00 AM, to this date I have not received a call that couldn’t have waited a few minutes.  When I turn on my phone, then I check any messages and return those calls worth returning.  Those of less importance I schedule to answer depending on the relevancy and my work schedule.

4. Avoid the coffee muggers… we know who you are.  Have you ever been in your office or cubicle doing what you are supposed to do and the next thing you know someone with a coffee mug leans on your door frame or cubicle partition and sais hi?  Be polite and firm when someone tries to “coffee mug” you and let them know you are in the middle of something extremely important (using your time wisely).   If you have a door, use it!  If not, “train” your co-workers not to interrupt you while you are working unless is important.

5. If you are the boss, consider rewarding your office staff for productivity and not for busyness and that goes for you too.  How is better productivity from someone else going to save you time?  Less interruptions, higher work quality, better customer satisfaction…That will save you time and money.  It is not uncommon on the day I send someone home early when they have completed all he/she needed to do.  That person would come the next day refreshed, appreciative and ready to tackle the day with gusto.

You may think a client would prefer you to be fully available and accessible during business hours, but you may be surprised to find how many clients appreciate the fact you are fully focused on their projects without distractions and disruptions, especially those paying you by the hour…Have a productive day!

Many times we are looking for the new trend or business theory to latch on to and apply to our professional and/or personal life.  So you think only “new concepts” are helpful in today’s business environment? 

The art of asking the right questions is as important these days as ever before.  I remember a time when a Foreman was encountered by subcontractors of various trades trying to solve a problem (of course each pulling in his own direction).  By asking direct questions, the Foreman discovered what troubled each tradesperson and all he needed to do was to put the puzzle together and find a common solution (already provided by each tradesperson should I add).  When he left I heard a comment of how “smart” he was for finding a solution.  To this day I smile when I remember that the solution was provided to him instead of generated by him, but he was the one able to put it all together, he asked and listened.

 Taking the time to evaluate your leadership in your personal and business life can be a helpful tool to analyze where you might need to improve, celebrate, and to make plans or changes for the future.

 How to conduct a self evaluation?  Many questions are still as valid today as they were years ago.  For example, here are a handful of self evaluation questions generated by John and Charles Wesley, students at Oxford University in England in the 1720’s.   I have taken the liberty to adapt these questions as a tool to for you to evaluate your approach to self and business leadership.

1.  Are you consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that you are better than you really are?

 In other words, are you being honest with yourself and your clients? How do you know? Do you find it necessary to do this in order to obtain clients?

 2. Are you honest in all your acts and words, or do you exaggerate?

 How healthy and accurate is your marketing material? What do you promote about your business?  Can you deliver what you sell?

3.  Do you confidentially pass on to another what was told in confidence?

 Is your client information well guarded?  Do you treasure what he/she shares with you in confidence?  How about your employees?  Do they also guard company/client information? Does your corporate culture value trust?

4.  Can you be trusted? Why?

 Can your clients rely on you?  How do you let them know you are trust worthy?

 5. Are you a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits? How would you know?

 Are your priorities in the right place?  What do you set aside when you have to put extra hours of work…Family?  Rest?

6.  Are you self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

 What do you see in the mirror?  How do others see you? Are your business practices based on fundamental and proven principles or are they solely a response to your own beliefs and knowledge? 

7.  Do you pray about the money you spend? What are the answers?

 Prayer as part of a business tool?  I am being serious!  Do you see your resources as needing to be under good stewardship?   But look at it this way; do you seek advice in how to get more mileage out of every dollar?  Are you being efficient in the way you spend your income?  Do you honor your debts? …great point in today’s economy!   Are your expectations clear with your vendors and subcontractors?

8.  Do you get to bed on time and get up on time? If not, what’s getting in the way?

 Is your business discipline a reflection of your personal discipline?  How is your time management?  How do you identify an unproductive schedule?

9.  Do you insist upon doing something about which your conscience is uneasy? Why and what or why not?

 Are you performing within the rules and regulations of society and your profession?  Do you feel you have to “break” the law to move ahead?  To get an edge?  If so, why?

 10. Are you defeated in any part of your life? What would that be? What are you doing about gaining victory?

 Is your business bringing you down?  How do you define ‘success’?   Is success all about you and your business or does it includes others such as your employees, clients, vendors, and Impact on the community?  Can  you give specific examples?

11. Are you jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful? How do you know?

 Do you listen to those you trust?  Do you make it easy for them to tell you how they feel about you? Are you approachable?

 12. How do you spend your spare time? Give some examples.

 What is most valuable to you? Does how you spend your spare time reflect what you truly value in your life?  Do you have spare time or do you feel you have to completely fill your day to feel productive?  A glass is easier to drink when is not filled to the brim.

13. Are you a proud person? How do you think your closest friends would answer that question about you?

 Do you feel comfortable enough to ask?  Do you care what they think?

14. Is there anyone whom you fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what are you doing about that attitude?

 Are you willing to change and face those attitudes head on for your benefit and those around you?

15. Do you grumble or complain constantly? How would you know?

 Ask this question to someone you trust…then listen carefully.

 Self evaluation is not always easy or comfortable but it can be extremely useful in bridging the “gaps” in our lives.  The hard part/work is to slow down and get started.  Each week ask yourself one question and use the answers as a polishing agent on yourself.  If you start January 1st by the time you pay your taxes on April 15th you would have created a refreshing life perspective and powerful business lifestyle.