Keep a record of all customers who provide positive feedback or rave reviews about your product or service. When the time comes to request a testimonial, the business owner should call personally and ask the customer if they would be willing to provide it. It’s good practise during this conversation to let the customer know what you intend to do with it and ask if they are happy for their name and company name to be published with the testimonial. Make sure you have permission to use the positive comment on any marketing collateral before you go to print! Generally if someone is happy with your product or service they will be happy to allow you to use their glowing report to market your business – but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Many large multi-nationals for example will not allow their name to be used anywhere on other people’s marketing – even if they are thrilled with your performance.

It is preferable that an external party gather the information from the customer, as they tend to provide much more objective and specific answers to a third party. Another benefit is that a well-trained marketer will know the right questions to ask to elicit the perfect testimonial. How things are expressed can make a huge difference to the value of a testimonial and a professional marketer will know just what to ask to get the most beneficial response. This is not about manipulating the client - it is about assisting them to articulate the benefits they have received in a powerful way.

The fourth characteristic is referred to as ‘Liking’. Have you ever bought something from someone you didn’t like? Chances are you haven’t and that is because of the relatively obvious fact that people favour saying, ‘yes’ to people they like.

My wife often attends ‘Children’s Book’ and ‘Jewellery’ nights with her friends – the companies that facilitate these events have learned from the Tupperware phenomenon and understand that my wife is more likely to buy from her friends than from a stranger that knocks on our door.

Whilst Cialdini refers to this as ‘Liking’ I don’t entirely agree with that terminology. A word that is often used in sales training is ‘Rapport’ and I believe that more accurately describes the principle, as it is a mixture of liking and mutual understanding. The reason I say this is because I have witnessed sales conversations where the sales person and prospect don’t necessarily see eye to eye. Although only rarely, I have seen prospects and sales people completely disagree and become involved in heated debate and amazingly, I have seen these interactions end in sales and long-term relationships being forged. Gaining rapport with a prospective client or customer does not necessarily mean getting them to like you and has more to do with gaining the customers trust, respect and confidence.