Is JD as good as John Doe?

Well, it seems I didn't offend too many people with my last message about Obama's lack of testimonials. I did get one "you suck!", and another "I don't wanna hear about your politics!"...but that was about it. Like I said to them, I DID warn you!

In fact, most of the feedback was great, and I'm glad that most of you were able to "put on your marketing hat" while reading that post.

I want to share a great question I got from Dr. Bob Korwin. His question is: "Does a testimonial with the initials JD work any less effectively than the full name John Doe?"

Answer: An unequivocal YES! MUCH less!

It's always best to use your patient's FULL name when collecting testimonials. It's just less credible if you don't. The more detail you omit from their names, the more people will think you made it up yourself. I know it sounds cynical, but it's true.

What I've found is that people are much less stingy about revealing their full name in a testimonial than you may think. Especially if you ask them the right way. The key is to develop a string of "yes" answers that get you closer to the goal of not only using their name, but also their testimonial, in ALL of your marketing.

We ask first if we can QUOTE them on the compliments that they just gave us. Then we ask if we can attach their FULL name to it. Then we ask if it's OK to use the quote in our marketing. It's that simple, and it works 98% of the time. When you explain that you need to use the full name because it makes the testimonial believable, most patients will give their full consent. They've seen "JD" testimonials before!

Yes, there are a FEW who don't feel comfortable giving out their full name for their testimonial in our marketing. In my practice it's been literally a small handful. When this happens we ask if we can use their name IN the office, but not in our EXTERNAL marketing to the public. They almost ALL say yes to that!

I simply won't use a testimonial if we can't use the patient's FULL name (first and last). It's that important. I don't want anyone to EVER wonder if I fabricated even a single testimonial, because it would tarnish all of them.

All my best,
Chris

Dr. Chris Bowman - Dental Insiders Alliance
Join DIA for 2 Months *FREE*
www.DentalInsiders.com/testdrive