National Clothesline

Overcoming a prospective customer’s resistance and then establishing a level of credibility are among the most difficult and costly tasks in marketing, but the rewards are well worth the investment in resources and effort.

The key to success lies in gaining a prospect’s trust and one of the most effective ways to accomplish this is through a letter of endorsement.

This is one of the most powerful

and cost-effective marketing tools you can use to build your business. It’s really quite simple and any cleaner can do it.

In short, a letter of endorsement is a sales letter written by someone else to his or her own customers about your service.

Instead of trying to sell to a cold list, your message is directed to your endorser’s customers. Even though they are not yet your customers, the fact is they will be much more receptive to your sales message than cold prospects would be.

Readers will be more open to an endorser’s story about their experience at your business than they would be to your own selling message. Praise of your business by another party always helps build a perception in the prospect’s mind of objectivity, honesty and believability of your service claims.

But for an endorsement letter to work, two requirements must be met. First, the recipients of the letter must need your service. Second, they must trust the endorser.

To find an endorser, look first within the industry or within the allied trades. Obviously, a direct competitor would not be a good choice, but often companies within the cleaning industry will serve different customer needs. For example, a drycleaner who wants to increase his business may be able to get an endorsement from a carpet cleaner or a maid cleaning service.

Vendors can also be excellent candidates for endorsement, or may be able to direct you to some of their other customers who are likely candidates.

Ultimately, it is important to your own credibility and to the success of the endorsed mailing that your endorser be regarded as honest and diligent.

An endorsement letter program can and should be a mutually beneficial arrangement. If the endorser doesn’t wish to exchange endorsements, you can offer to pay a flat fee, a commission on each sale, or to provide services in trade. If the endorser is a friend, he may be willing to endorse your service for free.

The endorsement letter may be written on the endorser’s letterhead, in which case the endorser addresses the reader in the first person; i.e., “I value your continuing patronage and want to share with you the benefits I’ve received from Prime Time Cleaners.”

Or it may be written on your letterhead quoting the endorser; i.e., “John Price of Rainbow Carpet Cleaning counts you among his best customers and he felt you would want to know about our service.”

The former is a stronger sell and should be your first choice.

It is usually best to write the endorsement letter yourself since you know your service better and have more at stake in making the letter effective and timely. This also reduces the burden on the endorser.

In fact, it is best to handle every detail yourself, asking the endorser only for a signature on the letter and a current mailing list.

The best types of endorsements are those that tell a story about the endorser’s experience with your company and service. Such a story cannot be realistically faked… which means the endorser must be your customer.

Stories are effective because, instead of empty praise, they provide a concrete reason for the endorser’s satisfaction. It’s easier for a reader to be skeptical of a general statement of praise than a specific event reported first-hand.

Such stories can include case histories such as: “Would your drycleaner open his doors at 10 p.m. so you could dress for an important meeting next day?”

Or you can use before-and-after accounts like: “Before I discovered Image Cleaners, my entire wardrobe and especially my white dress shirts had a dingy cast to them but now my colors are bright, my whites are dazzling and there is absolutely no odor to the clothes at all!”

It is important that the letter state specifically what the endorser liked about your business. The more details, the better.

Generalizations like “it’s wonderful” or “they’re really great” might make you feel good, but they lack credibility to the reader. Instead, specifics have the ring of truth.

The most powerful endorsement statements give immediate proof of a benefit claim, like “True to his guarantee: It’s ready, it’s right or it’s free, my drycleaner, Jim, personally delivered my misplaced order with a sincere apology and no charge for $78 in cleaning.”

Another approach is for the endorser to offer the prospect a free gift of your service.

For example, the carpet cleaner could say, “As a loyal customer, we appreciate your patronage. You obviously know the value of fine cleaning so we’ve arranged for you to get $25 of quality drycleaning free of charge at Central Cleaners. Try them, I know you’ll be happy with the service. Just mention my name to Bud or any of his staff when you drop off your order.”

If you’ve come to the end of this article and you’re still a bit skeptical about the effectiveness of an endorsement letter program let me relate a personal experience.

From 1998 to 2000 I was part of a local mastermind marketing group which was comprised of business owners and operators from a variety of industries.

The group included a locksmith, a safety expert, a motorcycle salesman, two dentists and a guy who manufactured school furniture… to name a few.

At one of our meetings, Larry, who owned a collection service, handed out a letter and asked each of us to mail it to our customers on personally endorsed company letterhead.

I don’t remember all of the results, but my letter was directed to a list of 270 and returned 74 responses.

If Larry had mailed the same letter to my list on his own, it’s likely he would not have received even one call. In fact, I bet most of the people on my list would never have opened the envelope.

Make your marketing dollars count. This one is simple. An endorsed letter is one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing tools you can use to build your business. Any cleaner can do it.