How to launch a new product or service with instant testimonials

Well, hello folks, it's Kimberly Hobscheid with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. And I wanted to talk to you today about launching a new program and how to actually do that without the unwieldy, I don't have any testimonials, I don't have any proof, but this is how much I want to charge kind of scenario going on in your head. I just talked to one of a new entrepreneur who is launching a new program. She already has a business in place, but she's launching a new program and she wasn't quite sure how to get that sort of traction going so that she could eventually charge a lot for this service. So let's say, for example, she's charging a service that's going to eventually be worth $1,000 in order to get started, she wanted to build up her website, she wanted to build up some social proof that she'd already gotten it done. She wanted to make sure that she had a portfolio to show that she could actually pull that off. And so she wanted to go to some folks and do this service for free. Not a bad idea. But I had a suggestion for her that I think might help you too. So my suggestion for her was a beta test program. And the way that that works is it's a really cool opportunity for everybody. It's a win, win, win, win, win, win, win for everybody involved. Now, the way that it works is you would go to somebody that you know and love and trust, that knows and loves and trusts you. Usually this is an existing client for something else that you already offer. If you don't have any existing clients, maybe it's just somebody that knows and loves and trusts you that can actually use this service, that would have a need to buy this service from somebody else or who would be willing to pay for this service down the road from you. When you go to them, you will tell them that you're actually launching a new offering, that you're launching a new product. And you want to get some expertise and some feedback on how the program will land with potential clients. Let them know how much you're going to be charging for it, that it's going to be a service that you're going to be charging $1,000 for. However, what you want to do is beta test it with a small group of people. A group of people. Not just the one person you're talking to, but a small group of people. That small group of people could be 2, it could be 20, it could be 100. It doesn't matter how small. The small group of people is, but it's just really whatever works for you and whatever you can pull off. So you say, I'm going to, I want to beta test this with a small group of people and we're doing it for a screaming deal. Now whatever that screaming deal is, it could be 50% off, it could be 60% off, it could be 80% off. Whatever you think would be a really where people would be like, I would be foolish not to accept that offer. Now keep in mind that if this is an offer that you're giving to somebody where you're actually paying for something, where you're actually having to, to front a cost, you want to be sure that you at least cover your costs and then some, just a small bit so that you know that you're making a profit on this. It doesn't have to be a lot of a profit and it really shouldn't be a lot of a profit because you're building your portfolio with it. And it's really a beta test alright, to see if this actually works. But you don't want to lose money. Warren Buffett said rule number one is never lose money. Rule number two. See rule number one, and I love that analogy because you really don't want to do something where you're actually losing money. Now, safe, for example, you're taking photos, right? So if you're taking photos and it's all really your time, and in the end result it's just digital photography, no big deal, right? You're, you're showing the digital photography, maybe you throw it up on a website that you already have and it doesn't really cost you anything other than your time. Now maybe you charge a small amount for that, but let's say it's photography where you produce an album at the end and the album is going to cost you $50 to produce, you would never sell the beta program for anything less than say $60 because you want to cover the actual cost and then have some profit in there which would compensate partially for your time. Now maybe it doesn't compensate for all the time that you're putting into it, I get that. But this is a beta test. So it's a little give from them and a little give from you. Alright? So the pricing on it is a screaming deal. Whatever you think that that would be, as long as it covers your cost. Alright, Step number two is to start rolling it out to them. Once you get 2 or 3 or 4 or 20 or 100 people on your beta program, you start delivering. Now by Delivering, you don't just deliver the product, you want to deliver everything that you would deliver to a customer, right? So you deliver the swipe copy, the introductory email, maybe you show them the website of how it would add, how it would look and how they would purchase. Maybe you go through the process of actually having them purchase it on your site. Now give them a coupon that gives it to them at that regular, that really super screaming deal price, but let them go through that process to actually test that out. Now because you've told them that it's worth $1,000 and you're only charging $60 or 200 or whatever it is you're charging, they understand that they're getting a large value for a small price and they feel obligated to be able to help you at this point. Now, if it's all for free, psychologically they just think, I don't even know when I'm going to work that into my schedule. And because free by definition has no value, so you want to definitely charge them something because then psychologically they're in it with you. All right, so now test out your swipe copy, test out your website, test out the format of how it would look to a customer and have them give you feedback on all of that. Then you start delivering. Ask them, is this everything that you would want? Is there any other piece that is missing? Is there anything else you would like to see in a package that has this so that you really get the delivery that you're looking for and the end result that you're really, really looking for. All right, so then figure out what it is they need and see if you can offer that within the package and hopefully you can give them an over deliver on what you've promised. Alright, so maybe it's bigger and better and more amazing than what you had originally estimated. Maybe they also want a service on the back end, maybe they want some follow up, maybe they want some options. Now this expands your end product and maybe you break it up on the back end and do upsells, but this is giving you all kinds of ideas of ways to that you can create this in the way that the customer wants to experience it. All right, so that's the ideal is you're getting customer feedback from a customer who actually wants to experience this. Okay, so then let's say you finished all that, you've done all the delivery, you've given it to them in fullest form and they've given you some great feedback and it's amazing and you are complete with the project and the beta program. Now you go to each one of those people who got it for the screaming deal and you ask them for testimonials. And you get them in two ways. Testimonials are what are going to build your website. Because when ever think about it, whenever you go and you look at a website and you're thinking of making a purchase, especially a large purchase, you want to know that they've already done it. And you want to know that they have somebody who got some sort of review, some sort of testimonial that says that they got, their clients got the same thing that you would like to get if you were buying it, right? So that's what you're looking for in your testimonial. Now you're going to want to get video testimonials for your website, but you're also going to want to get written testimonials for your website.

And so the video testimonial is just as easy as putting a cell phone in front of them and saying, hey, I'd love to record a video testimonial with you right now, what you're looking for is their name, their title, if they have one, and it's relevant, and then their background very quickly on why they would need your service, and then an explanation of the service they got. And then I want a statement, you'll want a statement of whether or not the service was worth every penny they paid. And that's an important statement because your price, even if they said, even if they did say your full price, which they didn't pay, so you wouldn't want them to say that, even if they said it's worth $1,000, your price may change over time. So what you want them to say is, it was worth every penny I paid. And for them, it really should be worth every penny they paid because they got a screaming deal, right? So you never want them to say an exact price. You want them to say that it was worth every penny that they paid. You want them to say, sign up now. You want them to say, definitely go with her or him. You want them to say, you know, it was definitely worth it. You won't be let down, things like that. And hopefully they are willing to give you that testimonial at the end because you serve them up with everything you promised and more. You'll also want to get a written testimonial so that you can, you can pull it off their video. But sometimes those videos do have a tendency to ramble on and when you get a written testimonial, they're usually a lot more concise. So what I do is I give them a one page PDF which actually asks them questions to survey. How did you like the course or the service or whatever it was? And then you know, how was the facility, how was the delivery, how was the, you know, all these different things that you're asking them about so that you get feedback on that maybe on a scale of 1 to 10, but at the bottom I put in a nice pretty script, you can quote me and then a box around it. Now the box shows that this is the part that they're going to write that they can actually be quoted on, that they understand will go out to other people. And then you ask them to put their name and their title and maybe anything else that's relevant, like homeowner or something like that that would be important for your particular audience.

And then you want to give them a space to actually write that in. When you write you can quote me, you want to put in smaller script underneath. You want to put what would you tell anyone who's thinking of buying this service? Alright, so you're giving them sort of an attitude of what would I tell somebody that's purchasing this service and what would I be willing to put my name on and recommend for this person? So they might say, you know, so and so did an amazing job, it was worth every penny, run, don't walk and sign up for this service, whatever it is, and then you can use those actual quotes on your website. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this was a long one. I hope you got value out of it. My name is Kimberly Hobscheid. If you don't already have a coach that you're working with who give you as much value as you're looking for in order to get your business to the next level, I would love to work with you. Go right now to EntrepreneursRocketFuelApply. That's EntrepreneursRocketFuelApply. And click on the link, you and I will get on the phone and chat a little bit about the programs that we offer. We have programs, we have masterminds, we have one on one coaching, we have tools, we have technology, we have all kinds of offerings that can help you take your business to the next level. And I would love to, to work with you again. I'm Kimberly Hobscheid. Entrepreneurs, rocket fuel. Have an amazing day.