You’ve got happy customers and you want to show off what they’ve accomplished with your product in you marketing materials, online content and press releases. Here’s how to create a better customer quotes (and scroll down for some examples):
- Start with your Value Proposition – A quote from a customer is one way to bring your key points of value to life. If your key value is that you save people time, it makes sense to have a customer explain how much time or how it saved them time. You are probably laughing at how obvious that is but I’ve seen loads of companies that have a million quotes that don’t back up any of their key points of value.
- Write it yourself – your customers don’t spend their day dreaming up succinct, smart things to say about your product. Nope, that’s your job. Interview the customer first obviously but then write the quote the way you know they would say it if they understood your positioning as well as you do. Send it to them for approval and then work from there. If you listened to what they had to say, your quote will stand as is.
- Keep it as short as possible – Quotes can be used in a wide range of content and sometimes you don’t have much space. Keep the quote short and to the point and you’ll be able maximize the number of places you can use it.
- Clearly state the benefits and be specific – “We like the Foobar 2000 a lot.” is nice but “We tripled our close rates using the Foobar 2000.” is nicer.
- Make the benefits as quantitative as possible – Putting real numbers on the benefit not only makes the statement more believable, it able helps people get a grip on the scale of the benefit. Saying customers can save “a lot” of money using your solution doesn’t have nearly the punch of saying “We saved $1,000 a day.”
For fun – here are some examples I pulled from corporate websites (the product names have been changed to protect the innocent).
The Boring – Go ahead, replace “Company X” with any company in the space and tell me it isn’t still true. Yawn.
- Company X has a deep understanding of our business model and they share a common vision for enabling doctors to focus on quality of patient care.
- After evaluating the needs of our company and comparing “Product X” to several other solutions, it was a clear choice to partner with Company X to develop a more cost-efficient and effective means of communication.
The Incomprehensible – I know someone must have understood these at some point. Maybe? Sort of?
- The combination of “Product X” and “Product Y” provides “Customer A” a scalable and flexible infrastructure to serve the business critical needs of our customers. The results we have achieved are a testament to Company X’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of IT performance and support.
- The convergence of networks and technologies requires a transformational approach in the way we do business, particularly in the way we first design and then offer our customers next-generation services. Company X is helping us make the best use of our customer information and network assets so we can produce a personalized and integrated experience for our customers.
- Forward-thinking companies are realizing the benefits of an interoperability collaboration designed to address the mixed-source realities we’re facing today and will continue to face tomorrow.
The Pretty Darn Good! – They are brief, I can identify the intended audience and there’s quantifiable value. Perfect!
- If you are a lawyer go check out “Product X” and think how easy life can be for you and that client. And you can post documents to the client’s project for review without the grief of sending a fax or the worry of lost emails. No $6 faxes needed!
- By deploying “Product X”, we decreased the number of physical servers, improved overall performance as well as reduced power and cooling requirements by 40 percent.
- We used to spend hours a day making sure our shared information was up to date. “Product X” takes care of that automatically, so we can spend more time serving our customers.
- With “Product X”, we now expect to reduce our statement processing time from hours to minutes.
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How to Get a Better Customer Quote http://j.mp/cU9LQ0
RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2 includes good/bad/ugly examples #prodmgmt #marketing
RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2 includes good/bad/ugly examples #prodmgmt #marketing
LOL – I love number 3 on The Incomprehensible list. How do marketers come up with this stuff?
I liked that one too. It’s like another language isn’t it? I can just picture a group of people going back and forth and back and forth until they came up with that and just gave up. Or something like that 🙂
April
I challenged our product manager when he wanted to use a similar melange of gobbledygook. He hasn’t spoken to me since.
A litmus test I use is to bounce it off my wife. She is “not of the industry” so if she can understand it, I know my target audiences will, too.
LOL! I think for a lot of people customer quotes fall into the category of “stuff we’ve got to do.” and the results show it. Companies often don’t think past the press release or success story when they create quotes but I’m using them more and more. Today I’m building an analyst deck and having a good set of quotes to include in there makes a big difference.
April
blog post: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2 with examples #prodmgmt #marketing (fixed link I think)
blog post: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2 with good/bad/ugly examples #prodmgmt
using this today RT @aprildunford: blog post: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2 with examples #prodmgmt #marketing
Reading: How to Get a Better Customer Quote | Rocket Watcher http://bit.ly/95A8rx //via @AprilDunford
Thanks for the RT @DavidFung2 @aehodler @RobTyrie @kcornwall @skemsley on the Customer Quote post! http://bit.ly/95A8rx
RT @aprildunford: Better customer testimonials don't make you look good, they get you more business http://bit.ly/dzOrd2
RT @aprildunford: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2
Blog post: 5 steps to better customer quotes (with examples) http://bit.ly/dzOrd2 #prodmgmt #prodmktg
RT @aprildunford: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2
RT @goncaloborrega: RT @aprildunford: How To Get a Better Customer Quote http://bit.ly/dzOrd2
How do you handle it if the customer keeps changing the quote so that it isn’t as good? How much do you push them on sticking to what you want them to say?
Hi Sue,
Thanks for the comment. You should never push a customer to say something they aren’t comfortable with. Ask them to tell you in their own words what they feel the value is and then go from there. If they only want the quote worded their way – then do it their way. You can only make a suggestion and if they don’t go with it, do it their way.
April
How to get a better customer quote by @aprildunford http://ht.ly/1EiY6
RT @stephanietilton: How to get a better customer quote by @aprildunford http://ht.ly/1EiY6
Good process to implement- "How To Get a Better Customer Quote" http://j.mp/9QIqtp
Awesome Article! I’m sharing it with my client!