I was recently emailed an offer to sign up for an expensive ($1,000; 3 month time investment) info product creation program – I won’t mention the name because I have it on good authority that it’s actually a pretty good program.
However, the sloppiness they display in promoting the program, in particular their use of testimonials, left me wondering about the quality and value of the program itself and ultimately dissuaded me from signing up.
Now I know that most people just accept the Wizard at face value and don’t look behind the curtain but I do – it’s my anal side. I noticed that all of the testimonials listed on their long-copy sales letter-type website had URLs listed so instead of reading the testimonials or listening to the audio version, I went instead to the endorser’s web site to see what kind of products they were promoting and get a sense of the success of these folks.
I was a little disturbed to find that…
- One site hadn’t been updated in a couple of years and provided a link to several blog format sites, which hadn’t been updated in from months to years. No products that I could discern amongst the cobwebs.
- The next testimonialist’s site was offering enrollment in several teleclasses. Unfortunately you’d need the old time machine to attend as the most recent session was held last Fall (2006) although you can still register through their online store hookup.In investigating further, I was even less impressed with these…
- A coaching site had a link to a testimonials page that was misleading at best as it offered public domain type quotes supporting coaching in general but with no connection to the services offered by that site’s owner. Odd because their ‘About’ page states, “Hundreds of [company name] clients have learned to succeed even in the most turbulent times.” Don’t mean to be catty but don’t you think a few of the hundreds might be satisfied enough to endorse the services they received? The site itself was pretty polished with pretty good content …
- Another offered his book as “recently published” but an Amazon search revealed a publication date of 2000. He also listed several personal testimonials; none with attribution, not even of the ‘Jed C. in Beverly Hills’ type. No other products and the site looked a bit down-in-the-mouth.
- Ironically, the next endorser listed their upcoming “The Product Factory” inspired course as coming in 2006 so it’s a little overdue, I’d say. Oh, and the ‘free’ product they had for immediate download linked to an expired page.
- The last Testimonial site I looked at did a hard sell for enrolling in their self-improvement program but when I went to enroll, I received an account not found error. Double Yikes!
Even when I looked outside the testimonial sites by googling the program’s name I found sloppiness. One of the top ranking affiliate sites was promoting the program under different terms and with a different price than the master site even though when you click to enroll you get taken to the master site – with its different price and terms. Hmmm. Maybe the price and conditions changed and the program creators neglected to get the word out or the affiliate was negligent but it’s still sloppy.
While the program may be 1st class and the participants raving fans – even those who don’t “…explode their business…” as its creators claim – why would I invest my time and money in a program that I don’t trust. And I don’t trust them based upon information that they supplied me. It’s like calling a reference for a roofing contractor who tells me that “apart from the leaks, the roof is just fine.” How dumb is that? I have means, I have motivation, I control my schedule, I know lots of people who traffic in information (i.e., I’m a potential referral source) – I’m a perfect prospect but like my Daddy always said, “I was born at night, but not last night!”
So the good word I received from the person who invited me (and a 2 time program participant) was crushed under the ‘testimonials’ provided by the program creators themselves. Ironic, isn’t it.
Here’s the marketing 101 lesson for you:
I learned long ago in Job Hunting 101 to call my references and ask them what they’re going to say about me before I hand them out to Mr. Potential Employer. Same goes here, just because you got a good testimonial in the rosy afterglow of a successful event, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t recheck that testimonial before recycling it for your next round of promotion.
I checked six of the eight testimonial providers sites and all six gave me reasons from minor to major to not spend my money or my time.
Not everyone looks behind the curtain, but when they look behind yours, make sure that the Wizard hasn’t, like Elvis, left the building.
