Writing Engaging Customer Testimonials

You're never going to convert clients with that dry, technical crappola you're posting. Not in B2B, not anywhere. Let me give you a framework that actually works. First off.. Most of your content is too abstract. It's all "operational exhaustion" instead of "shell shock." You're burying the real pain under jargon that nobody feels anything about. Look at what you posted last week. Did it make anyone feel anything? Did they see a movie in their head? If not, you're just adding to the noise. Here's what I want you to do tomorrow: Set a timer for 10 minutes. Look at an object on your desk. Let it trigger a real memory from your work with a client. Write using ONLY sense based language. No explaining, just show what happened. What the hell is sense based language? It's describing things you can actually see, hear, touch, taste or smell. Like this... --> "The CEO's face turned red" (not "he was angry") --> "Her voice cracked when she described the failed launch" (not "she was upset") --> "The team sat in silence, staring at their laptops" (not "the meeting was tense") So... once you do that. Take the last success story you had with a client. Rewrite it like this: "John's shoulders dropped when he showed me the monthly report. Revenue down 22%. His team sat around the conference table, nobody making eye contact. Coffee cups half full, gone cold. Three months later, after implementing our process, John walked into that same room grinning. Slapped the new report on the table. 'Look at this,' he said, pointing to the 35% increase highlighted in green." People read that and think... "This person has actually been in the room. They've seen this problem before." So, stop making garbage content that just adds to the noise. Your next post should make someone see, hear and EXPERIENCE the problem you solve. Make them picture what success looks like. You only need 50 of the right people to see it. And those 50 people need to feel something when they read your stuff. Make it count.

Hey sales leaders: Two-minute customer stories are probably more valuable to your reps than two-sentence customer stories. Most reps love having lots of customer stories committed to memory -- anecdotes of how your company did cool stuff for customer XYZ. (I'm not referring to formal case studies on websites or in PDFs. I'm referring to talk tracks that reps incorporate into conversations.) Nothing too controversial there. But when I listen to reps incorporate anecdotes into conversations, the anecdotes tend to be about 15-20 seconds. They sound something like: "We worked with X company. They had Y problems. After working with us, they got Z results." A very short anecdote like that can be valuable, but think about it from a buyer's perspective: What does a very short anecdote like that do for me? It's a signal that learning about this solution may be worth my while. Mentally, I'm thinking, "Okay, what they do is at least within the ballpark of what I'm trying to do, so maybe I'll listen." It's like a tag line for a movie: "Henry Fonda in Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men: Life is in their hands -- Death is on their minds." "Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me if You Can: The true story of a real fake." "Julia Robers in Erin Brockovich: She brought a small town to its feet and a corporation to its knees." Those may intrigue you a bit, but they're not probably not enough to make you want to see the movie. You know what brief customer anecdotes don't do? They don't draw the listener in. They don't make it easy for the listener to see themselves in the story. They don't have protagonists who overcome adversity. They're not memorable enough to commit to memory, to retell to someone else. They're not engaging. They don't tell compelling stories. They can work in prospecting & very top of funnel activities -- because they have the ability to check an informal qualification box for the buyer. And that's an important purpose in sales. But they mostly fall flat once you're in a legit sales cycle. Imagine getting an executive buyer to join a call and telling this kind of story: "We worked with X company. They had Y problems. After working with us, they got Z results." Boring. Yawn. Crickets. In those scenarios, reps need to be able to captivate the audience. And stories are the oldest and most captivating forms of human communication. So reps need longer, more compelling stories -- with heroes, villains, failures, and victories. Back to the movie metaphor: 1. When prospecting, the movie tagline version of customer stories is usually sufficient. 2. But when a rep is in a sales cycle, they need the movie trailer. They need a story. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What does a longer story sound like? There's no single way to do it, but it does have to have a story arc that the listener can connect with and feel compelled by. Attached is a framework I've used. Check it out. Happy selling. #heysalesleaders #salesexcellence

When a customer writes, "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘎𝘖𝘓𝘋𝘔𝘐𝘕𝘌 - 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮," you know you've struck something valuable. But WHY did it work? A few months ago we launched 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐜𝐮𝐞𝐬, an inspiration hub showing exactly how our team uses our own product. The response has been overwhelming... "𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 - 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴." "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘴! 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘤𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦." "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴, 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦... 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴." It's helpful. It's inspiring—𝘢𝘯𝘥 actionable. Maybe most importantly, it makes our customers feel seen. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. Here's my advice for marketers and customer success teams with similar aspirations: 1️⃣ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰, 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥. When customers see REAL implementations (not polished case studies), their path to value becomes crystal clear. One customer wrote: "Step-by-step approach makes it very easy to envision & implement." What internal processes could you showcase? 2️⃣ 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞. "Perfect timing - we're literally in the middle of the exact same process" wasn't luck. The content is created directly by the people using Appcues internally. The authors are peers to the audience—it's highly relevant by design. 3️⃣ 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. Although uncomfortable at first, our team doesn't shy away from talking about the challenges of using software like Appcues. Sometimes internal politics or data hygiene issues get in the way. We address that stuff head on. Authenticity builds trust. And it helps customers solve real problems. The ROI? Faster implementation times, higher feature adoption, and customers who feel confident enough to champion your product across their organization. Have you tried a similarly transparent approach to engaging, educating, and/or inspiring customers? I'd love to hear what worked (or didn't) for you! #CustomerExperience #UserEngagement #ProductMarketing #CustomerSuccess #CustomerMarketing

Customer stories are one of the most powerful vehicles for creating compelling narratives. When I worked at PandaDoc, I partnered with customer marketing extraordinaire Nicolas Szenberg and the talented crew at FAILURE ISLAND to produce a mini-series that shined light on the remarkable people who used the product. The format for those stories deviated from a traditional case study structure: problem -> solution -> results. The stories captured the hero (which was the customer and NOT the product) in a conflict and examined what they thought, felt, and how they acted. These positioned the product as an enabler on their journey to resolve conflict and do meaningful work. My favorite question to ask at the end of each interview was how they defined their success. The reason being success can mean different things to different people: - The founder would tell me about the genuine pride they felt in up-leveling their business - The operator would tell me about the time and headaches they saved chasing down people and documents - The administrator would tell me about the sense of accomplishment and positive affirmation's they received from their peers When we only focus on showcasing an arbitrary ROI stat (which most buyer's won't believe anyways) we miss the opportunity to share the remarkable victories of the customers. Decisions to buy products aren't solely based on logic. There's emotion wrapped in these decisions that heavily influence buyers. Unpack those stories to create memorable moments for your customers and inspiring moments for future buyers.