You’ve heard it before and you know it’s true – testimonials are rewarding for your business. When someone checks out your products or services, they read the reviews and testimonials for unbiased feedback from your customers.

It takes time and effort to get testimonials. Often you forget to ask for them. Or if you do ask, you don’t follow up on collecting them.

So here’s a twist on testimonials to get them working for you.

Think of what I just said. Prospects read testimonials and reviews. They may even go further and check you out to ensure the testimonial is legit. And this is where the magic can happen.

Recently, I sent a well-deserved testimonial for a program I had purchased and used. That testimonial was placed on the product page of the business Web site. It was a new product and was being promoted through various social media platforms so was attracting a lot of traffic.

Within a matter of days, someone considering purchasing that program saw my testimonial and checked me out (my photo and Web site link were included). And here’s where the testimonial twist gets interesting.

We had a telephone conversation to see how I could best help her and within a matter of days, she was registered for one of my coaching programs. Talk about easy marketing! All it takes is for you to write testimonials to help others that have helped you.

Whether you’re giving or receiving testimonials, make sure they are impactful. Don’t just say the “program was great.” Instead, tell us why it was great. What was your transformation? Be specific. The more specific you can be, the more impactful your testimonial will be.

You never know what will happen when you give a testimonial, but as the saying goes, givers gain.