The Desert of Arizona
Sunny, Going Up To 50 Degrees
You would think, since I got started in this business as a copywriter for hire, the whole “tell me vs. show me” debate wouldn’t have been an issue for me. Unfortunately, it took me a little while to really get it.
If you’ve never heard that phrase, it’s a simple idea:
It’s far more effective to SHOW someone the benefits of a product or service than it is to TELL them about those benefits.
This is why product demonstration infomercials work so well. When you SEE the product in action, the selling kind of takes care of itself.
But here’s the problem…
It’s way easier to tell someone about the thing you want to sell than it is to make something worth SHOWING.
Eek.
And so most people are left with TELLING. They do it often, they do it loudly.
When you only ever “tell” someone about something you’re trying to sell, sometimes you can get them to buy what they otherwise would not buy.
Unless you practice “hit and run selling,” where you never see the buyer again… AND you have somehow justified to yourself that this is an ethical way to go (good luck!), this is not a good long term strategy.
It’s ideal to SHOW. Build things that are worth showing. Offer services worth SHOWING. What do you show? One thing you often show are real RESULTS. If what you’ve built doesn’t actually GET results, then fix it ’til it does. If you’ve never thought about it this way, no problem. But now you know. Now you have a choice.
Tell me? Or show me?
Take, for example, the Testimonial Wizard service I created with my son. It’s designed to be a simple way to collect video testimonials from your customers and clients. I could tell you all day about it. Instead, I’d rather just show you.
If you are a member of this service, this is exactly what YOUR customers and clients would experience when you request a testimonial:
They’d be sent here to record a testimonial for YOUR product or service. First, they’d enter the info of the person for whom they’re submitting a testimonial. On the next page, they get to record the video. Go ahead, try it.
If you want to record a testimonial while you’re there for anything you’ve experienced here in the world of the Incomparable Expert, go right ahead. I’ll put it up on the website after it gets edited! 🙂
If you think this would be valuable to put to work in your business, maybe you should use it. There’s no fee to enroll, you just pay for the finished/edited testimonials you choose to keep. And you get some prewritten emails to send to your clients and customers to request the testimonials.