I read a fantastic post recently called the 25 reasons you didn’t get the gig. There’s one specific item Jon mentioned that I wanted to talk about: testimonials. In a recent post I talked about the catch-22 of not having a portfolio as a budding freelancer, right when you really need it to get clients.
Client testimonials are a similar catch-22. Do you need them? Does anyone really care?
In my experience, they haven’t really mattered so far, at least not so drastically that I’ve struggled financially. In fact, in the three years I’ve been semi- or full-time freelance I’ve only started featuring testimonials within the last few months. That seems like a contradiction and it probably is. I do that sometimes.
But the reason I feature testimonials now is simple: yes, I’ve gotten plenty of work without them, but who knows if I could have had more? I’d bet that over the span of three years there would have been more work. Maybe not a lot more, but more regardless, and sometimes freelancing comes down to “every little bit.”
And there’s another reason. I noticed a trend among potential clients who’d ask about things like my communication, hours of availability, speed of delivery and even whether I’m an easy guy to work with. Those are all testimonial territory, folks.
If you were in court, testimonials would be your character witnesses. They speak of who you are, how you do what you do and what the client can expect of you. Not your work, but you.
While you may have a slick portfolio, none of the items in it say you’re available 24 hours a day, or that you work fast, or that you’re pleasant to work with. If you find your clients often ask about these things, it could very well be that you need some testimonials.
My opinion on testimonials is that they play second fiddle to a good portfolio. Your client wants to know how good you are, how sexy his logo or website will be, etc. I would venture that the more fantastic your portfolio becomes (which is sort of testimonial in itself), the less important testimonials are.
But that said, I’d still say 100% that you should have them. At the very least, they will save you from wasting time convincing every client that you don’t bite the heads off rabbits in your free time.
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Finally...a book on freelancing that's not just about taxes, client acquisition and time management.
2 comments
Good insight. I read freelanceswitch’s blog and found your site there. I agree I only have two testimonials but who knows, the random emails I get from people inquiring about my services, could they have read them and became throughly convinced? NOt really sure but I added them to my services section in case what I had to say about myslef wasn’t enough. Good post. Now I am going to add a tiny more effort into working in good testimonials.
I’m with you. It’s one of those things that’s really hard to test. It may appear to make no difference, but how do you really know, right?
In 2008, I’m gonna be all about testimonials and trying to track whether or not they do any good, which will be a trick in itself.
Let me know how it works out for you.
C
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