How Charley Valher Used Testimonials To Improve The Conversion Rates Of HIs Traffic Funnel & Explode The Growth Of His Business
In the podcast:
02:25 – How Charley started his journey08:13 – Trust Funnel10:37 – Starting point of Charley’s business12:26 – How to convert the people20:23 – How trust funnel initially started22:17 – Effect of trust funnel26:07 – How to get video testimonials for your business28:07 – Sample of a good testimonial32:05 – Maintaining integrity against objections
Charley Valher reveals his ‘The Trust Funnel’ strategy. It was this specific strategy that he used in his business to explode its growth. This funnel is so versatile, it can be used in ANY niche.
Welcome back to another episode of Talking Web Marketing. I’m your host, Ilana Wechsler and today I have a very special guest. His name is Charley Vahler and he is the co founder of Outsourcing Angel. He’s the host of a podcast called Confessions of a Business Owner and he also runs the association community. So he has his finger in lots of different pies, but he is no stranger to the online world and he actually also used to have a PPC agency like myself.
So Charley has come on today’s show to reveal one specific traffic conversion strategy that can really contributed to the growth of his Outsourcing Angel business and importantly it’s a traffic strategy or a conversion funnel strategy that really you can apply to any kind of industry. So for all you listeners out there that you thinking I don’t have an outsourcing company. I can’t use this strategy. You’re wrong. You can apply this strategy that he reveals in detail, I really think in any industry. So let’s get stuck in today’s episode right away.
Charley: It’s lovely to be here. Thank you so much for having me Ilana.
Ilana: It’s a pleasure. So I asked you to come on today’s show, because I can relate to you. You are a fellow PPC person. So I think and I know you know my world especially but invited you on today’s show to talk about some strategies that you are using in your business. But before we kind of get stuck into some of the nitty gritty, I wondered if you could just give us a quick intro about yourself and what you’ve done and kind of what you’re doing now.
How Charley started his journey
Charley: Yeah, of course. And I often like to think of myself as a recovering PPC addict. So once upon a time, I did have a PPC agency, but I’ve moved on from that project and I’ll take it back a little bit, because I want to give a bit of context.
Ilana: Cool.
Charley: So for me, where this all started was actually in a band of all places. So when I was quite young about 15 or 16, I was playing in a band that ended up doing reasonably well and I thought I had made it so I just want to take you through it. I was 16 I thought we were making CDs was selling a lot of T shirts, we’re playing a lot of gigs and touring and I thought I’d made it as a rock star I thought I was done you know your next step when you do that at that age you sit there and you look at your life and you look at school, for instance, and you think, well, I don’t need that. I’m a rock star like truly I don’t need to be concerned about higher education or finishing my high school or anything like that so that can just have a bit of the backbone.
Ilana: I see where you’re going with this.
Charley: Well, as you will learn groups of creative people are really, really hard really hard to manage. I often kind of you know joke it’s like trying to hold water. So what kind of happened for me or how I ended up in the digital marketing world is that I was in this band had to kind of screwed up my education to the point where I wasn’t going to go on to university or anything like that.
My heart had to find a way to kind of make it in the world and the internet just seemed like the easiest way the time. So that’s how I kind of ended up in the whole internet marketing space. Now I first started on eBay and had a successful ebay store that grew up at the time because eBay was burning, it was really easy and I always like to say this as well. It was luck not skill just right place, right time.
Ilana: What were you selling on eBay.
Charley: Now this is even better. We’re selling men’s hair loss products.
Ilana: Oh wow, that you got from where?
Charley: I was getting them from overseas. So I met this guy and he was basically just buying stuff on eBay in the USA and selling it on a day in Australia. That was his business. I was like, Well, I can do this. This guy doesn’t seem like a genius and I did and always do simply doing what’s kind of known as arbitrary but this was like 2006 2007 area. So this was like mind blowing stuff at the time and eBay was new and the price difference between retail and Ebay was dramatic and I was like, well, this is it.
Now, sadly, that didn’t work out too well for a few reasons. One is that eBay started to change and a lot of competition came into the space and my lack of skill really did start to shine. There was some clever business people in there that just knew what was up and then the other side of that is the ability for people in the US and China and things like that to sell directly on eBay in Australia that had to come through and this was quickly turn into something where I recognize that didn’t necessarily have what it takes to do well, not to mention is that I knew nothing about logistics and moving things around. It was kind of just winging it.
Ilana: Interesting and I guess that arbitrage window just narrowed and narrowed slowly, there’s the wholesalers was with direct?
Charley: Yeah, well, that’s what tends to happen. So on the back of that the question came out that will I need to learn how to make sales online like I need to learn how people like you know have a website and buy stuff that was the mindset of the time. So in the beginning I tried to hire people to help me do that and I got burned quite a few times in all honesty I bought a lot of snake oil.
Ilana: As we all have.
Charley:I don’t think there’s anyone in PPC that hasn’t been burned.
Ilana: I think it’s just the rite of passage you know.
Charley: Well out of necessity, where it really came is I was like whoa, can I swear on the show? Or I get in trouble for swearing.
Ilana: You won’t get in trouble for swearing.
Charley:Okay we’re good on that one. I’m sure there’s everyone looks after it and I was like, Well, I’m gonna learn this i’m gonna i’m not going to be reliant on the snake oil salesman. So that was my party into kind of learning digital marketing websites and all that stuff from there. And then I went on to eventually found my PPC agency which was I’ll say my first true love in business.
Ilana: Yeah. Nice. So you built up a very successful PPC agency which you told me about on another occasion we were chatting, but then you decided to move on. So can you maybe sort of touch on what you embarked on mixed?
Charley: Yeah. And this is something that I kind of look back on and reflect all the time of like you know the PPC agency. I was very green in business. When I started it, and I had a whopping ego on my shoulder at the time to make it even better. So necessarily didn’t ask for the help I probably should have but I grew a business really around me. So we got to 15 staff and well on our way in revenues. I’m like, we’d gone into the seven figure range and everything like that.
And I really thought that was what success look like, but the downside of that is my life was actually a nightmare, it was horrible. So I was working stupid amounts of hours in something that would be probably described as the hustle these days. But in reality, my quality of life was just incredibly poor I was incredibly burnt out.
I never spent time with my friends or family and my relationship at home was suffering and I had this moment of awakening of going well this isn’t really what I signed up for this isn’t what I wanted to achieve like I got into business or I could make great money have freedom and flexibility and a half time and I don’t have any of these.
Well, I’ve got the money side of things kind of working but the other two particularly would like this was at zero and I couldn’t really kind of work my way out of this. So I went on to eventually kind of sell off parts of that business either quietly saw systems, I’d built and things like that and moved on to my next company, which was outsourcing Angel and I still have that company today
Ilana: Right and that’s kind of what you’ve come on today’s show to talk a little bit about which let’s get stuck into that area. So you want to talk about something that you have called your trust funnel. So can you kind of touch on what you mean by your trust funnel.
Trust Funnel
Charley: Yeah, absolutely. so sorry Outsourcing Angel was the new business for me in there and that’s a company that specializes in my virtual assistants in the Philippines and virtual team members, just for context.
Ilana: Sorry to interrupt you one sec. So that’s for business owners looking to hire a virtual assistant. So that was like a recruitment company?
Charley:Yeah, very, very similar. So it’s that if a business owner was looking for a virtual assistant or virtual team member were a handheld solution. So think of it, kind of like upwork. I guess you would call it, but with someone that’s you know vetting the staff recruiting the right people then ensuring that you know it’s the right fit for your business and it’s actually going to work. The analogy I often use is that upworks like a meet and greet service. outsourcing angel is like a meet, greet and integrate service that will actually get the team member up and running in your business.
Ilana: But ultimately that person becomes an employee of the other business or they go outsourcing agent Angel always retains that person?
Charley: Yeah. So we look after the person in the Philippines, in this case here and have them a part of our community and you would hire them through us, and we stay involved in making that work really well why this is become something that I think works really well is that all of the A’s and team members have their own community in the Philippines and team to work with that we train and educate and do things over there and I don’t think the average business owner has the capabilities to do what we do. So we produce a high quality of staff and team member and better quality talent, then might be available than someone can just find on their own.
Ilana: Cool. Awesome. So you got that from scratch, I believe?
Charley: Yeah. So I have a business partner in that business Lin Fidelity, which if you ever listened to this episode in big shout out now. Effectively what happened in the birth of that company’s it kind of leads into this too is that I was, you know, coming out of PPC, Lin had the idea for this business and was really really skilled at doing the thing, but her weak spot was the marketing so we kind of combined forces and I was like my job was, you know, leads and sales make it happen. Make it rain and her job was to fulfill it.
And that’s the birth of the company in hindsight, you know, we probably should have put some more effort into that but we got along so well and like Lin is a true and different to this day here and I trust her completely and we just hit it off when you right for each other.
Ilana: So I guess you know the challenge of getting something off the ground is, you know, what’s the starting point like do you stop doing the PPC stuff or where did you start with building.
Starting point of Charley’s business
Charley: Yeah, so I inheritedly like in my journey met a lot of other agency owners along the way. Okay, so my first point of call was just contacting everyone I do from the agency world and saying, look, we’ve got something going here you’re going to want to get involved in this and that was Ground Zero is we just worked out networks that works really well because I had a really good understanding of marketing agencies and online business because that was my strength and then how the A’s and virtual team is could be used to dramatically lower their overheads.
So that was like after this random things from there. And that was the starting point that kind of got us off the ground and go to ask those few clients. But then, of course, like you network starts to what I want to say run dry because they’re fantastic people but you know there’s only so many people in our network and we went to look and apply the skills I had in PPC and go. Well, that’s what we’re going to start tackling So Facebook ads was our first approach I could see that as the place to be for I wanted to do.
Ilana: And how did those ads go?
Charley: So in the beginning, we used a strategy which is, I think, known as a two step funnel. Okay, so we would put lead magnets or ebooks on Facebook that things like you know 50 ways to use a virtual assistant or how to say five hours a week using a virtual assistant, things like that nature and they did really, really well. And then on the back of that we would put an offer to have a console with one of our either sales people or myself and I would spend like an hour with someone showing them how to use a virtual assistance in their business and that was at the time, a really good strategy work well in the beginning.
Ilana: So just touching on that, how many people would actually take you or not how many but like what were your sort of conversion rates to get people on to that call because I would imagine you know some people might feel it’s quite a sales opportunity in this sort of a God still up in terms of, like, well, I don’t know this person. Why am I gonna jump on a call with him. How was your experience with that?
How do you convert the people
Charley: Yes. Either beginning i did work well I won’t lie like I’m looking at some numbers that I grabbed beforehand and like our cost per lead was about $35 to get someone’s phone number and for a call that was kind of running from their ebook download was about like at the time. This is a long time ago. But we used to get reads through about like five bucks for an Ebook and then about 35 bucks for a console phone number.
Ilana: That’s great. And I guess when you do acquire a customer that recurring aspect as well. So, therefore, there’s an ROI there for you.
Charley: Yeah, so it was brilliant. Now I will disclose that at that point about half the people who did opt in, you know, we didn’t even get them on the phone so only half of that you kind of got a double it. If you’re being honest. We’re paying about $70, you know, to get someone on to the phone. But over time, that number has started to blow out more and more and it got harder and harder to get people on these calls.
So as I kind of was becoming in tune is into everything in this PPC is like the strategy never stays still like the tactics move constantly. So, I mean, we can look at a really simple way. This is like back in the day of AdWords when it was one cent keywords you just go nuts, you know, really great. And then as keywords got more expensive. We had to get more clever with, you know, the strategy behind it and what keywords will use because you know when you’re paying $10 for a click it, you got to get really, really more savvy.
So for us, what I looked at from here and going well. This is just getting worse and worse and honestly I got to a stage where like it’s not that the CPL moved that much. The like getting the you know someone to put in their phone number and wanna call we still getting that reasonably well i think it crept up to about 45, even the 50, but what killed us on the back end was just how hard it was to get a quality lead through and also actually have them you know show up to the call. Stay with us, like the actual quality of business, we’re producing from the strategy got worse and worse and worse.
Ilana: Interesting. I wonder if it’s a function of the fact that people maybe you know online marketing really developed over the years and people became a lot more savvy and and I guess more wary, to some degree, and therefore weren’t quite willing to jump on a call or maybe the quality of the leads were getting generated the front end, you know, might be a combination.
Charley: And something I noticed is more and more of a competition was copying what we were doing. There was more people in the space doing it. There was more awareness to what we were doing and I mean we would only ever sell to someone, we could actually how we would never you know unethically try and close people that it was clear that you know this was getting to diminishing returns and the sales people like the feedback we were getting from them, was it was just so much hard work to actually close people on the phone like there was so much skepticism that was spending like the duration of this sales calls themselves was increasing massively which was, of course, increasing our expenses as well.
Ilana: So, time for a change of strategy.
Charley: Yeah, definitely. And this was a strategy. I’d used you know before and I just saw it could be really, really strong again and it’s something I call my trust funnel and I still use this today in other ways, or abused in the past and other ways but time and time again it’s started to be true is that instead of, you know, trying to just give people you know lead magnets and ebooks and things like that.
What we started really promoting is the success of our clients. So if someone let’s say this case downloaded in ebook instead of trying to get them on the phone for a sales call what I’d really love to have them do is watch a testimonial video or watching interview with a client where they could see a client getting results and that really changes the frame of what someone seeing from you.
Ilana: I love that it’s a classic, kind of, you know, social proof.
Charley: Absolutely.
Ilana: So someone would download the Ebook and then would you put that video testimonial or interview like on the thank you page or will be emailed to them later.
Charley: Yeah. So this is where it gets a little bit technical, but I think your audience has got it covered if there are into PPC so this is how we would kind of look at it and going alright so someone’s downloaded an ebook on the back end of that the thank you page, we would have a testimonial video or maybe just even some like text based image ones, but we would also have remarketing pixels on these pages.
So what we got into or what I love doing the most is actually using that remarketing and putting videos on Facebook like having the interviews and testimonial videos and success stories as content on Facebook. So all of a sudden they’re seeing the success of our clients everywhere. So what I kind of viewed was like if someone downloads an ebook that is, you know, 50 ways to use a virtual assistant right they qualified wanting to know how they can use a virtual system and then all the information. I’m really giving them after that rather than trying to sell to them what I’m doing now. We’re showing why were the best solution and there’s more people like them that have had success with us. That’s what I’m really trying to get across.
Ilana: Yeah, nice and in that testimonial video or content in whatever form. Did you have some kind of call to action on there or was just a testimonial.
Charley: Yes, we did. So this is where of course we want to be able to quantify what we’re doing. I think anyone who’s in PPC if you can’t measure your results you’re screwed.
Ilana: Especially when you have to answer to clients.
Charley: Yeah, well I mean at least the positive thing here is I was only burning my own money, you know, but wasn’t as deadly.
Ilana: You were the client.
Charley: Yeah, but I’m a harsh clients or even more. Yeah, so the why would kind of do that is, I’m a really big fan of actually uploading the videos themselves into the Facebook platform or into YouTube and then having links or call to actions. From there, but in a really subtle way like I don’t like being the sleazy type marketer online so it’s like you know if you liked this video and would like some help with outsourcing, then click here and we’re more than happy to have a call with you.
Ilana: Nice. Okay. And when you were running those remarketing ads with the video testimonials. Did you find that people were sharing those videos or commenting on the on the ads themselves?
Charley: It’s a really interesting one. And I find you know if you’re in PPC you inherently find people fascinating. You’re really good. And some people really did like the videos and found them helpful and they would often quote the videos in like the other side of it. Of course, you know, I saw this video and this is what I really want to achieve, which I’ll go with that exactly what I want and then on the reverse of that is like we would get some haters as well.
Ilana: Haters will always be haters, won’t they?
Charley: Inevitably. I mean, even in doing podcasts and things like that. I’ve inevitably managed to have haters and everything I’ve done and I think that’s kind of a good sign. I’ve kind of come to the if you don’t have any haters. You’re not trying hard enough.
Ilana: Totally. I love that. So that sounds like a really interesting strategy and I can from a psychology point of view, totally see that working because you know they’ve kind of put up their hand, I guess I’m interested in this, but my God still up because I don’t know who you are and it’s a great way to yeah build up your credibility and through social proof, which is the ultimate kind of way of doing that really isn’t it.
Charley: Yeah, well I really started to think a lot about in how I like to be so true because you’ve got to look at it and this is one of those harsh things is inheritedly. We all like to buy stuff like I got ton of stuff around me that I bought and I’m even looking at buying other things. But when I look at how people sell it makes a huge difference to whether I actually buy or don’t buy and if I feel like someone’s pushy or just trying to really benefit themselves. I don’t enjoy that and I don’t want to be a company that does that to other people.
So in this method from here I really started to take on that. That’s not what people are looking for. And when I kind of shifted that and put the one is going to show you what we can do for other people and show you other people that have had the success with us if you’re like one of these people and this is the type of thing you after then we’re likely the best solution and it was like a huge shift a huge shift like company wide.
Ilana: It’s yeah, it’s like rather than tell you I can do and I’m going to show you that I can do it.
Charley: Definitely.
Ilana: Awesome. So how did you come up with this. You said that you kind of had used it prior in what way did you use it prior that you to apply it this way?
How trust funnel initially started
Charley: Okay. So go back to the first time I applied the strategy now because very early on in the agency world is we have to figure out how to get clients and I had a mentor at the time who said to me that you know the best way to go about it is just find three people who have your target audience.
So I wanted to work with business owners who are looking to grow their business with online marketing so he’s like find people who have that audience find three of them go to them and say you work for them for a month for free. And then after that month they have to pay you based on the results you are getting them but they also have to make you a testimonial video and show it to their audience brilliant strategy that is so so applicable today. I wish I could say I came up with it, but I didn’t.
Ilana: That’s all right, you’ve applied it in your own way.
Charley: Yeah, so that in the very start of my agency. I did that. Now, one person that just didn’t work out with their what needs to be done ethical and that would be dodgy and I think there were more trying to take advantage of my free month of labor than the long game, but the other two people it weren’t smashingly. Well, like I was able to produce really great results for them where I turned them into raving fans really really quickly and like I’ll be real for that month. All I did was focus on them. I communicated well. I was running so many ads like I brought the best version of myself to that experience and like they were raving fans and both of them turned into longtime clients like that experience turned into the inner for your clients but on the back of that the amount of referrals.
I got from that experience and how many people not even just through like who they showed their audience that they were telling their friends that were saying like, Well, look, you know, you should speak to Charlie. He’s just done this stuff for me and like interest productions into rooms, I wouldn’t have been able to get into.
Ilana: That’s amazing. Do you have an idea of kind of once you started using this new method that the testimonial method, rather than going straight for getting people on the phone call. Do you have some idea of the effect that it had on the business at that time.
Effect of trust funnel
Charley: Yeah. So at the time. I think my agency. Before I introduce these we would do and maybe 10 grand a month and then like correlating looking at that next window was we went from doing like 10 grand a month to like 60 to 70 grand a month, like in a very, very short window like three or four months like was absolutely exponential growth which was a problem of its own to be dealing with.
But you know I mentioned that ego earlier, well, that type of growth fed that ego very well and I think I became a little bit arrogant at the time and I want to see but like you know what an experience but then it really opened up a whole other side of business that I hadn’t dealt with, like, people often glorify fast grows and I thought you know I was a big deal in or watch out from there. But it was a nightmare. Because that is what fit into like I had to hire people we had cash flow issues. It opened up all the other challenges business that I just was ready for.
Ilana: Yeah, I guess, as I say, your problems don’t go away. They just change really don’t they.
Charley: Yeah and ultimately what happened there is I couldn’t pay myself for a good six months I just had to keep investing in talent and tools and resources and equipment and offices and all kinds of things like that to ease that out.
Ilana: An amazing learning experience for you.
Charley: It was and when I, I suppose, think about you know how these had a role at outsourcing Angel. So to loop back to that story is like, you know, I’ll lead quality and all those issues were coming through and then when we introduced the trust funnel like the quantifiable results were just awesome. And I’ll go through some indicators that were really, really cool now because I think people like the details on this stuff is the number one thing that I noticed, which was an impact for me was the sales team.
So the guys said that it became less like a sales call and more like just taking an order call they felt like they were like, you know, at the McDonalds counter and someone was ordering a Big Mac and so did massive duration saved in people making the sales and like we actually found like a day loaded that side of the business in a really, really good way. The second indicator is the retention.
So the types of clients that we were attracting and being appealed to by being I suppose marketing in more of this. This is what we can do for your way instead of trying to sell what higher quality clients. So in a business that is recurring churn is like the absolute enemy. If you’re creating a high chair and write your costs. It is so escalated because especially in what we do with like constantly needing to recruit new people for new clients. So that was the second one was gone when people are staying longer.
Ilana: As I say churn is the enemy of growth, isn’t it?
Charley: Oh definitely. But as for the front end of things though you’ve got to imagine now that we were actually spending more money on actual ads so to get someone on the phone was more expensive. So because we were going and I will do the ebook. Still, and then we’ll do the remarketing ads and then we’ll bring them to a landing patron offer we kind of added in a whole extra step and no longer allow to come through.
So our CPL did go up. We did get me, I suppose, more to that $50 range or even, you know, in some cases, close to the $60 range but I was completely okay with that based on the effects. It was having on the other side. One of the things in PPC I look at so so often is that and I think we can all be guilty of this. If you’ve ever had any form of PPC business is we can get obsessed with seeing that conversion number and try and optimize for that rather than trying to optimize for the success of the whole business and that was a really good lesson I took from this experience.
Ilana: Interesting, I guess, as you say, you know, like it’s not about the quantity of the leads. It’s the quality of the leads and I would totally agree with that i would any day for a client be happy with 100 quality leads and 1000 really low quality leads. So for our listeners who are getting excited about how they could possibly apply it to their business. What are some things that you need to do in order to do this, obviously, like how, how do you facilitate getting a video testimonial. I wouldn’t imagine some people might be feeling a little bit. I guess hesitant or shy to kind of ask for it. So what are some strategies that you’ve used to get that these testimonials.
How to get video testimonials for your business
Charley: Yeah. So I think you’ve we will go through a few things here. First off, if you’re in business these days. It’s not a matter of if it’s a matter of when you have to start doing this I think everyone needs to be better documenting the success of their clients, the testimonials for their clients and the journey we take people in.
So if you’re not doing that at all. Right now the low hanging fruit is starting to introduce that in your business and making sure any potential new clients are seeing that information. So how you go about it. He’s like honestly we are spoiled for technology now I didn’t go further back into my story. But the first thing I did my first role or job was that I actually used to develop people’s photos at Kmart
I did back in the day when we had film. And so, of course, being a little bit knowy in my space like what an iPhone can do compared to what a camera can do, then I’m like, Oh, it’s just unbelievable. It’s absolutely unbelievable how far the technologies come so to get video testimonials from clients now is so easy. They walking around in their pocket with the thing that can do it.
Ilana: But I would imagine some people like feel a little bit shy getting on camera.
Charley: Yeah. So we had that a little bit as well. And I had some people in like they would do videos and I’ll be real. They weren’t good not usable.
Ilana: What do they need to do that It makes it usable?
Charley: Yeah. So having a good script so we would look at, you know, helping clients understand how to structure it and it’s not that we would insert the words or tell them to, you know, hey, say these exact things or anything like that we would just give them a bit of a framework where they could insert their comments and be a little bit more confident. The second thing is that I think some of them go for way too long, like your testimonial videos you know attention spans are hot enough like a minute. A good minute is amazing. Obviously, you know, there’s no such thing as too long really true boring, but I think that takes a lot of the pressure off.
Ilana: So going back what you said before about some kind of good script. Can you give me an example of a way to help someone give you a good testimonial.
Sample of a good testimonial
Charley: Yeah, definitely. So the best testimonials. We get so first part is obviously the intro yeah so yeah Hi, I’m Bob from upstream photos, you know, so it’s saying who they are and what they do, because we want whoever’s watching this testimonial to be able to relate who they are. So without the intro. No one’s ever clear on if it’s suitable for them. And I think that gets overlooked. You want people to say what industry there in.
Ilana: So it’s sort of relatable.
Charley: Yeah, because I’ll give you a really we can look at that in context. If I say, Hey, I’m Charley from the investment house Charley, you know, unless you’re in investment banking right that’s not going to be as relatable. So making sure that the people you were using a relatable to your ideal customer really important. Second part of that is that what you want to go through next did a really simple context is the way you were at before and then where you’re at after.
Take people in the transformation. So, you know, before working with Bob stream polls i was really dehydrated and thirsty. I just constantly was always looking for where my dream bottle was and then after working with these guys. I felt like always hydrated all the time and had a fantastic during portal and I’m just using a drink water because I have one on my desk loosely you can apply that to anything and good people, you know, the context of the before and after the next part is the impact. Okay, so it’s like based on this happening you know what impact has that had on your business. So what well now that I’m hydrated. I’m so much better at PPC and like our results have doubled or making an extra knowing those awake.
Ilana: Awesome. So this is always like a copywriting formula to some degree.
Charley: It is, it actually is a copywriting formula.
Ilana: I recognize it.
Charley: It’s funny when you work in PPC for a long time. It’s like copywriting is one of those skills you to pick up along the way and you can’t have to take it everywhere going to be careful. I even use it like it you know at home. All right, notes on the fridge I close my wife into an idea.
Ilana: Oh, that’s funny and is there any kind of way that you recommend ending testimonila, or you just end with that impact.
Charley: So this is the crux you ready. This is the secret sauce.
Ilana: Okay, ready.
Charley: Okay, so we’ve done all these things from there. And then the last part is what we want to do is look for the objection. Okay, so what you would say is, you know, on this last part here is removing any doubt. So if there’s a common objection, you get with from there. That’s where I really like to throw that in because inevitably when people go through our marketing right if they’ve got an objection in their head, they don’t feel the soul. They don’t buy.
Okay. And this is such a crucial lesson in many, many ways. So give you an example. That’s probably more reliable than they put a one here is like with the virtual assistants. One of the common objections is that you know is the English going to be good enough. So in the testimonial at the end if I can include something that says, and the English quality was amazing, then that person is going to go objection going in that kind of triggers that buying momentum.
Ilana: So I’m just curious, like in you. I guess facilitating that right context because you know you as the person wanting that testimonial know what the objection is how do you then say to your success client, do you ask them to kind of address that objection or how do you facilitate that?
Charley: So I’m a big believer in integrity. I know, never, never give a client an objection that I want to be said. So what I actually talked to them about and obviously like you’re giving them this information as I get them to think back and I’m like, what was your objections. What did what were the things that you were thinking about that we’re going to stop you from buying or stop you from becoming a customer, like, what did you doubt. We’re going to pull off.
Ilana: I like that because I too am a big believer in the lever, but I guess I to, you know, integrity is super important to me. And in this industry that we’re in, you know, there are so many sharks so that I feel that at the end of the day. That’s all you really have so that’s I guess what, where I was going with that question. Is that how do you maintain your integrity while still getting those objections addressed?
Maintaining integrity against objections
Charley: Yeah. So that’s, I mean this is that if someone’s recording on their own method that’s can be really good. I will give another method that’s working incredibly well also. And that’s interviewing. So what I did and I think if you jump on YouTube and search for outsourcing Angel, you will see we’ve got a channel or testimonial from there. I’ll make sure I give you a link to it, but some clients they were just super awkward, as you said, but they didn’t have usable content. It’s okay.
Not everyone’s, you know, get on camera and doesn’t mean they’re not talented at what I do in any way shape or form. But I would actually do a video interview with them on zoom or like on Skype or something like that and we would record that and I would ask questions and Mike, I could be very leading that and go like, oh, how did you find the quality of English from the virtual systems. So I can ask questions that are the objections.
Ilana: And did these people mind being used, you know, in the remarketing ads like why did they mind their video being used. Obviously you up front with him about it but did you have any people that don’t want to do that?
Charley: Of the people we asked. I don’t think we had anyone that was against it. In all honesty, I never had a flat out. No, that’s not to say couldn’t happen but this is the thing is if you’re providing a great service or something at outsourcing and he says we’re so big on it like we aim to be the best at what we do. I just don’t see a point in being average. So it’s like when it comes to how we deliver we put everything into it and I say our customer service is some of the best in the industry. So because we aim for that level of delight. I almost feel like there’s a little bit of people are happy to do it for us a little bit. They like well yeah I’m having a great time. I love to share the stuff.
Ilana: What has been the most interesting thing that you found by doing this.
Charley: I think the most interesting thing that came from. This is how well we come to understand our clients from it. So there’s like a reverse of these is like we can all anyone who’s in the PPC and listen to the interview to this point can say this old logically makes sense. And like we can see the beneficial games of putting more trust in our marketing but the reverse of that is if you’re having more conversations with your clients and understanding the objections understanding how their transformation has pains or what they perceive as the winds being giving you all the ammunition, you need for your content that giving you like everything you need to be presenting to your clients. So in reverse. It was like we felt like we knew what marketing material would be useful or working.
Ilana: That’s amazing. And I think anyone listening to this, like, although the most likely not in an outsourcing Angel style industry. I’m sure their heads probably reeling of thinking how can I apply this to my own business because I think absolutely you can, these are like core sales funnel principles that can be tailored to any kind of industry. I’m like, struggling to think of an industry that I can’t see it working in actually.
Charley: Yeah. So this is something I like to think about, you know, this is this trust funnel that I talk about the context of it. It’s not sticky to one platform. It’s not like this will only work on Facebook. Yeah, it’s designed like this is a marketing principle and it’s like you’re just using the tactics of a desired it to apply it. Do it in a messenger, I’d do it via email, put it on your website.
Ilana: Now, I love that and I love kind of taking those classic marketing and sales fundamentals and just applying it online, because I think people get lost in this whole you know online what I’m gonna do online its or its own different beast, but it’s not. It’s the same core principles just replicated in an online manner and you’ve you’ve done exactly that, so that that’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that wonderful strategy.
Charley: Well, it’s funny, what I actually think the biggest mistake is in PPC on the back of this is looking at it and going, there’s a lot of people out there trying to apply tactics to a strategy and it’s like you can’t necessarily do that knowing the lightest Google tactic doesn’t make a business.
Ilana: That’s right I would imagine that this is very scalable strategy as soon as you start getting more customers and you got more testimonials and just add water social proof and it sort of just, it’s a compounding effect.
Charley: Yeah. And if your clients aren’t willing to give you testimonials, you’re at. That’s a sign you need to work on your business. It’s like, I needed to change what I’m doing. So people want to give me a testimonial.
Ilana: Wow. That is awesome. Thank you, Charlie. I’m sure anyone listening to this wherever they’re at in their business and whatever industry, they’re working in I’m sure they can apply it in some form to their own business. So thank you so much. I know you’re a very busy busy person. So thank you for taking the time out of your day. Where can people find out a bit more information about you?
Charley: Yeah, so I’m going to do a shameless plug of my own podcast.
Ilana: You should absolutely. This is your opportunity.
Charley: Yeah, definitely. So this is the trust funnel. We’re out here, no, I’m kidding. This is something we’re looking at so I do have my own podcast called Confessions of a business owner, which Ilana, you were just a guest on and had a great time recording that with you. That is definitely the best place to start and hear more about what I’m getting out to for anyone that’s looking for virtual assistants or virtual team members then outsourcingangel.com is the best place to go from there.
Ilana: Awesome. So yeah, Confessions of a business owner, I’ve listened to the podcast myself and can definitely endorse it as well visit testimonial. That’s right. Thank you so much for coming on today’s show and sharing your wisdom with our listeners, I really do appreciate it. So yeah, check out Charlie’s work and we’ll catch you on the next episode.
Charley: Thank you so much for having me.