The 17 Question Testimonial: How To Ensure You Get an Amazing Client Response

17 questions? Why have 17 questions in a testimonial?

And what if the client won't answer the questions? The reason for the 17 question testimonial is simple. It's not a testimonial any more, it's a experience on paper. When other clients read it, they can sense the ups and downs. They can see the final result.

It makes your testimonial stand out. In order to get this 17 question testimonial going, you have to have a strategy in place. This podcast shows you exactly what you need to do so that you can get the answers your business deserves.

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In this episode Sean talks about

Part 1: Why you need to send instructions before asking the questions Part 2: Creating compartmentalisation: Bento Box Style Part 3: Why it's a mistake not to send examples

Right click here and 'save as' to download this episode to your computer.

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A few billion years ago something quite amazing—and destructive—occurred on Earth. Oxygen was produced for the first time.

If you were to go back into Earth's history, you'd choke and die quickly

And that's because the Earth's atmosphere mostly consisted of Nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide—plenty of carbon dioxide from all those erupting volcanoes—and methane. And then between 2.3-2.4 billion years ago, life began to undergo an amazing transformation on the ocean floor.

A bunch of photosynthetic microbes called cyanobacteria started harnessing the Sun's energy and converted the carbon dioxide and water into food. And what was the waste product of these cyanobacteria? Yes, it was oxygen. Life-harnessing bacteria began to spread to any surface in the sea and creating huge amounts of oxygen. But this oxygen didn't go very far.

The oceans were packed with dissolved iron, and you know what happens when iron mixes with oxygen?

Sure you do. You get rust. The oceans literally rusted and for hundreds of millions the iron in the ocean sucked up the available oxygen. For about 700 million years of rusting, the oceans ran out of iron. There was just one minor issue: the cyanobacteria were still producing immense amounts of oxygen.

Where would all this oxygen go? Into the atmosphere, that's where it all went

The oxygen had to escape and it made its way into the Earth's atmosphere. In the billion years that were to follow the Earth began to change from a place where you could hardly breathe, to one that had a bounty of oxygen.

Something similar applies you're dealing with testimonials for your business

At first the testimonials you get are weak, almost impossible to use. Then as time passes, and if you use the six-questions from The Brain Audit, you'll get testimonials that are more oxygenated. But for you to create a great oxidation event, you need the power of the 17-Question testimonial. And the reason why you need this 17-Question testimonial is because it catapults your testimonials into an experience. Instead of just reading yet another testimonial, the prospect feels the ups, down, twists, turns and final result.

Let's go into the land of the 17-Question testimonial and explore three elements:

1) Why you need to send instructions before asking the questions 2) Creating compartmentalisation: Bento box style 3) Why it's a mistake not to send examples

First, what are the seventeen questions? We'd want to get that out of the way, so here goes:

1) What was your primary reason for taking this course? 2) Describe how you used to approach writing before this course began 3) Describe how things changed about mid-way into the course 4) Describe how you feel now, towards the end of this course 5) Can you tell us about your experience with the group and the difference it made?

6) Can you tell us why the forum helped? And where it helped? 7) Can you describe to a newcomer how this course is taught? ( teaching methodology) 8- Describe Sean as a teacher

9) Did you have any personal experience (e.g. The moment I understood the one-word, it was a special moment because in the past….etc).

10) What would you say are the big benefits of this course? 11) How did the extra classes? Audio on Mistakes etc. help? 12) Why would you recommend it? 13) The course is called the toughest in the world. Can you describe how tough it was, and what sacrifices you had to make to keep going? 14) What was your toughest moment? How did you overcome it?

14) Have you done other courses with Psychotactics? OR have you signed up or considered signing up for another course? Why? 15) What advice would you give to future participants? 16) How did the course personally help you? 17) Anything else you'd like to add?

Part 1: Why you need to send instructions before asking the questions

Yesterday my wife Renuka was filling in a form for an online visa. She'd fill in a page of details only to be confronted with yet another. Then she'd fill a second page and the third would show up. Mother's name, father's name, previous visa number—details after details popped up to the point of frustration.

When you're asking clients for testimonials it hard enough when you ask a few questions, but a seventeen question form can be quite tiresome. Which is why you need to prepare the client in advance. This preparation calls for instructions.

When we ask clients for testimonials, we forget one important fact

We forget that for many, if not most of clients, giving testimonials is not a common activity. Even if they've agreed to give you a testimonial, the sight of seventeen questions may appear a little over the top. Yet, without that voluminous amount of detail you're unlikely to draw out the entire experience. To make sure the testimonial plan goes well you have to prepare the client.

It's important to send them information in advance

Whether the testimonial is done via the phone, in person or via the Internet, you need to make sure the client knows they're going to go through a 17-question testimonial. And if you suspect the client is going to be reluctant to write, you should immediately reach for the phone or in person.

There's a big advantage to getting a testimonial over the phone

When we write, we tend to edit. And if a client is sitting down to write answers to a bunch of questions, you're asking him to invest a lot of not just writing time, but editing time as well.

On the phone or in person, you have no such problem. The client is merely answering a bunch of questions and is likely to be happy to speak for between 10-12 minutes. In comparison, a written testimonial may take well over 45 minutes to an hour. Which is why you need to let the client know you'd like to speak to them, and that you'll be recording the session. This is the first level of preparation involved.

The second level seems minor but it's just as important

When clients agree to giving a testimonial, I also send them this information:

This isn't just a client testimonial. It's more of a case study describing your ups and downs and final result. The experience is what counts and so I would really like you to answer these questions in as much detail as possible. Short, one-line answers become pretty useless as they lack detail.

They also can't really be used, so I'd prefer you put in as much detail as possible in your answers. This detail helps me understand your journey better and is also a really ego booster. So I would appreciate the maximum amount of detail in the answers.

There's really no reason to have a twiggy, anaemic testimonial

You want one that's well rounded, full of juicy experiences and stories. And when you put the client in a situation where they can quickly give you the information (via phone or in person) you've made the first and most important move. When you clearly bring up the issue of detail, you're priming them to be effusive—and yes, it does make for some pretty cool testimonials.

If the testimonial isn't via the phone or in person, things get a little dicier

Well, not quite. It really depends on what you've delivered in terms of product or services. If a client buys a product like "Chaos Planning" which is a short, yet intense book, there's really no point in sending the client a seventeen question questionnaire. However, if there's a lot of involvement and a slightly long drawn process, you're more than likely to get a far better response.

Let's say you're a web designer.

You've just spent two months of back and forth movement building a client's website. Now there's been a bit of a relationship and it's far more likely that an e-mail based set of questions will work.

We tend to use the 17-Questions only for courses

We conduct courses such as the cartooning course, the Article Writing Course, copywriting, First Fifty Words etc. These aren't courses where you sign up and then the teacher disappears. They're pretty hands on courses and with just a few clients a ton of back and forth is involved.

To give you an example, in the 2016 Article Writing Course we have our normal limit of 25 participants. And we're now in Week 8 of the course and so far 9,374 posts have been generated. Yes, it's impressive at over 1000 posts per week, but what's important to note here is the involvement. If the client is fully involved, then it's more than likely that either a phone call or an online questionnaire will get an equally powerful response.

Of course if you have 25 clients, it's better to have them answer via an online medium because the exercise gets very complicated. You have to figure out available timings and time zones and anyway the exercise may take several days. But if you have just a few clients, it's a better idea to use the phone or record via Skype.

We started this journey to get our 17-Question testimonial but realised there's a lot more to consider.

We realised that planning the strategy and choosing whether to use the phone or an online questionnaire is important. And that while the online questionnaire is definitely less time consuming, it depends a lot on the involvement of the clients. The more involved, the more likely you are to get great testimonials for such a lengthy questionnaire.

This takes us to our second part: The logic of the questions.

Do we really need 17 questions? Would 13 be just fine? Or could we go up to 19? The answer lies in the logic. What are you trying to achieve? That's what we'll have a look at next.

Part 2: Creating compartmentalisation

If you were to head back in time to Japan—no, not 2.4 billion years but closer—around the 12th century, you'd have run into quite a different sort of evolution: the start of the Bento box.

During the Kamakura period, dried meals or hoshi-ii was introduced and bento was nothing more than a small bag to store dried rice. But if we speed up through the Azuchi Momoya Period, in the 17th century, we find bento boxes everywhere. Wooden, lacquered boxes that consisted of rice, chestnut, seafood, mushroom, pickles and yes, bamboo shoot.

And that's what a bento box does best

With all those tastes and textures and different types of food, it's critical to compartmentalise the food. Similarly, if you want to get results with your 17-Questions, you have to compartmentalise the questions so that each set tackles different issues.

Bento at one of my favourite Japanese restaurant in Auckland

Let's take a look at the compartments for one of our courses, for starters.

They're split into:

– The experience: Before, during, on completion of course – The elements of the course: the group, the forum, the notes, the audio. – The teaching system: How it's taught, the responsiveness of the teacher etc. – Comparison: How they're compare with other courses – Advice/Recommendations: Would they recommend the course to others? Why? – Any other comments

And while we ask 17-Questions, what's really vital is the creation of the bento box. You need to create the compartments for your own product or service first, before considering what to put in the individual boxes.

Let's go back to the web designer: What would the compartments look like?

– The experience: Before, during, on completion of website – The elements of the website: the layout, functionality, ease of use etc. – Dealing with the developers: The responsiveness, ease of instructions etc. – Comparison: How they're compare with other website developers or even other similar service providers – Advice/Recommendations: Would they recommend the service to others? Why? – Any other comments

While most of the compartments of the bento box has already been created for you, you may still need to work on a compartment of your own. Or, you may need to add, subtract or change some of the questions. This compartmentalisation allows us to get the information we need and it allows the client to see at a glance what they're expected to answer.

We started out this journey by sending the instructions in advance. We then moved into compartmentalisation.

And if you stopped right at this point, you are likely to get an outstanding testimonial. But why stop here? Why take the chance that something might still go wrong? The way to ensure a mind-blowing testimonial is to something so simple, it's easy to miss. It's called: sending an example.

Part 3: Why it's a mistake not to send examples

Let's say I step into a bar.

I have no intention of drinking that cold glass of beer. But there in front of me is someone drinking a cold glass of beer. Guess what happens next?

The reason why I'm sipping a beer is because of a mirror effect.

This mirror effect also plays out to your advantage when you're getting a client to give you a 17-Question testimonial. To understand why the mirror effect is so important, we simply have to take away the example. Now the client has no benchmark and their testimonial can be similar to what you're expecting or wildly off course.

A simple way to solve this problem is to send an example

As you'd expect the example will be long and detailed. And the moment you send it to the client, they realise what's expected of them. Despite this example, some clients will still give you terse testimonials. There's really not much of a point in running such testimonials. However, most clients have a look at the example and proceed to give one just as good.

But what if you don't have an example in place?

Well, it's a good question but the answer is more than obvious. Be persistent and go in search of a client who's willing to give you a longer testimonial. Just throwing your hands up in the air isn't going to get you the testimonial you seek.

If you need to do an assignment free of cost just for the sake of the testimonial, then make sure you get it done. Without that example testimonial in place, you can still get good 17-Question testimonials, but an example almost always guarantees great results.

And once we've covered that last bit, it's time for the summary.

Ok let's summarise

The first point was one of instructions

When you give clients instructions well in advance. Letting them know that they need to give lots of detail is very important. Without the detail you may have a testimonial but not a complete experience. The whole purpose of the 17-Question testimonial is for it to be like an oxygenation event. It needs to bring life to a testimonial in a dramatic manner.

The issue of phone vs. online questionnaire is also something that needs to be tackled. Using the phone is far superior if you have fewer clients. If you have a large number, then you have to make sure it's all online or it may take too much time and never get done.

The second point was one of compartmentalisation

You need to split the main facets into something resembling a bento box. For us, we break up things into the experience, the teaching system, comparison, advice etc. And your compartments may be slightly different but still remarkably similar.

All you need to do is sit down and create the compartments before putting in the questions in each bit. You can have fewer than 17 questions and possibly more. But you should get tons of material with 17. We've filled up entire booklets (just the Article Writing Course prospectus has over 80 pages of testimonials).

The final point is one of beer—sorry, examples

Send an example to a client. When she can see the example it's a form of instruction. She knows what's expected of her and will deliver accordingly. Without an example a client may meet your expectations, but equally they may go wildly off in some weird direction or not meet your quota. The example needs a mirror effect and it's your job to provide the mirror.

Start with the bento box. Create the compartments Fill it with questions.

An example of the questions and answers

Example: Alison's answer

1)What was your primary reason for taking this course? I wanted to write in a much more engaging way. And to write faster. And I wanted to know when I had succeeded and failed in my attempt – to have some way of assessing for myself the quality of my output.

2) Describe how you used to approach writing before this course began I had the Psychotactics Outline stuck to my wall behind my computer screen. And I had tried like heck to implement it but I was trying to do it all at once. So it was hard and I knew I was failing or making such slow progress. And I did not really know how to get better on my own.

I tried to outline and write in the same session. And I did not plan ahead, I just tried to write. And it took a long time, but I just thought, "hey, that's life."

3) Describe how things changed about mid-way into the course Mid way through the course we were doing disconnectors and the first 50 words. And man, that was hard. Trying to figure the right way to disconnect, trying to reconnect smoothly, trying to 'bottle' the drama and tip it onto the page at just the right point. It was hard, hard work.

4) Describe how you feel now, towards the end of this course Now I'm feeling confident. I can get a sense of my 'One Word' quite easily and once I have it, it's pretty simple to come up with a disconnect. And I have a more trained eye, so I can quickly goback and 'audit' my work to make sure I have put in all the elements I need. It's much, much easier.

5) Can you tell us about your experience with the group and the difference it made? I was the only girl in my small group, so sometimes I would 'sneak out' and read what was going on in the other groups, with people I knew from the Cartoon Course.

But my small group was fine, and we kept nudging each other along and the accountability to do the work was excellent. We didn't lose anyone!. Now that the forum has opened up to Group 2 I really appreciate being in a smaller group most of the time – sheesh, having all of us buzzing around would have been overwhelming.

6) Can you tell us why the forum helped? And where it helped? I love working in the forum because it's so flexible. And you get almost instant feedback because of the different time zones. Instant feedback is so motivating. And you could get so many different comments on your work. And go back and correct it to make it better. And read other peoples work to learn from their mistakes

7) Can you describe to a newcomer how this course is taught? ( teaching methodology) It's like working with a gemstone – you are polishing a single facet of the gem before you worry about any other facet. And you just trusting the process that when you finish, the gem will look magnificent. That's where you have to trust Sean (and I did, because I had seen great results cartooning!)

Describe Sean as a teacher (yes, even the irritating part). I did not find Sean irritating at all. I found him to be unfailingly (and surprisingly) patient and prepared to revisit things and help even further (like the extra calls, the Mistakes audios etc) and explain again and differently. He was very insightful and excellent at deconstructing errors and showing how to vapourise them.

I also noticed on other threads that he is very robust and unprovokable. A very mature teacher who does not take complaints personally. And overall, he was just everywhere. Don't ask me when he sleeps or how he keeps up with everything. I'm just grateful he does. And inspired to push my own envelope more to achieve what I want to.

9) What was your toughest moment? How did you overcome it? I did not have a particularly low point. I knew it was going to be hard, I had been warned, I expected it to be hard and it was! But I made a pact with myself that I would show up every day and post an article. So in my mind I was never going to miss a day, even if I wrote a crappy piece that I was not happy with and just could not stay up any later.

10) Did you have any personal experience (e.g. The moment I understood the one-word, it was a special moment because in the past….etc). 'One word' was certainly my biggest breakthrough because a break through there flows into everything else.

I have been reading Sean's stuff for a couple of years now and struggling to pin down this One Word thing. But it suddenly clicked and I don't know why. It's not that I hadn't seen its prominence on the first chapter of notes and audio – I just could not wrestle it into submission. And with writing mostly travel stuff, different angles etc felt elusive.

So the breakthrough came when I was outlining about different towns . And each place had a very particular character. So I realized that what I wanted the reader to take away was what the feeling or vibe of that place was. And that was my one word. So one place was 'party place' and another was 'tranquil' and so on. I have now managed to capture that for other types of topics the baby stuff and the finance stuff. It's a really powerful feeling.

10) What would you say are the big benefits of this course? Being able to assess my own stuff better, to know where I am most likely to fall short and hone in on that. Outlining so fast! And seeing the outlines more clearly and easier.

I think the most unexpected learning was the work process/ work flow. Of choosing a series, and outlining it, and then writing. That is of immense help to me, I struggle with strategic planning.

11) How did the extra classes? Audio on Mistakes etc. help? The Audios on mistakes were invaluable. And having the calls recorded. The extra calls, these last 2 Thursdays, were very valuable too. Surprisingly so, who would believe so much benefit could come from recapping stuff this late?!

12) Why would you recommend it? It works. If you are prepared to follow the process through, Sean gets you to the other side.

13) Can you describe why you (personally) find it unique? I love the 'Psycho' approach Sean uses to punch you through the Bully Brain zone. I love working with people from all over the world. And I love working hard with others who are determined to work hard and succeed too.

14) Have you done other courses with Psychotactics? OR have you signed up or considered signing up for another course? Why? Cartooning – for fun and to get my creative brain working and to challenge myself to do something I had never thought I could do.

I would consider doing the Info products and the Copywriting and Pre-selling course once my bank balance has recovered from AWC.

15) What advice would you give to future participants? Decide beforehand that you will not quit. Clear your decks if you can, and expect it to be hard

16) How did the course personally help you? It gave me a good realization of how often we make excuses.

So I started asking myself in other areas of my life "Do I want to do this? Yes? Then how will I make it happen?" instead of putting things off and being passive. Getting an insight on Sean's personal program has encouraged me to push my own personal envelope to achieve what I want to.

17) Anything else you'd like to add? Thanks. A huge whole lot. It's been great and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Useful Resources

1) Do you know why some businesses get wonderful clients, while others seem to get clients that are a pain in the neck? Find out more here.

2) Find out: Why Clients Don't Buy (Understanding The Elements of Risk)

3) About 5000bc: How to get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems