How to Use Customer Reviews in Sales Presentations?

Picture this: You are in the middle of a great sales meeting with a savvy presentation and hitting all the pulse points. Everyone wants to know how your service can revolutionize their business and bottom line. But when someone asks for concrete proof, you struggle to showcase your merits.

We live in a climate of fierce and relentless competition. So, it’s unsurprising that for every ‘unique’ offering, at least ten businesses do it at a lower cost. Clients are spoiled for choice, but they are skeptical. 

But there is a simple solution to promoting authenticity and standing out from your competition — using customer reviews in sales presentations. 

This article highlights the importance of customer reviews and how you can use them in your presentations. 

Examples of reviews in sales presentations

Here are a few tangible examples of how reviews can be used in sales presentations.

1. Droppe

Droppe uses customer quotes in all their sales presentations, as well as in social media and email campaigns.

“We like to keep the slides simple and let the numbers speak for themselves. Slides with customer reviews are powerful because they show that Droppe has been able to deliver the promised results for customers”, says Katharina Larikka, Growth Marketer.

Why should you add reviews to the sales presentation?

Simply put, customer reviews prove people are using your products and services. They directly indicate your business use case scenarios and convey valuable customer opinions. 

But it is not limited to consumers. Including solid customer reviews in your sales presentations helps you:

1. Build credibility

Beyond simple proof, customer reviews matter because they show your clients your business is backed by real-world experience and customer success. For example, wouldn’t you rather order a product on Amazon with over 4-star ratings and reviews than poorly rated ones?

Such rave reviews show your business is not just about promises but brings tangible results and has satisfied customers. This firsthand feedback instills trust and reassures potential clients they are making a smart choice by choosing you over competitors.

(Like what you see? You can create these review cards easily with Trustmary. Try for free!)

2. Enhance trust 

People tend to choose known items or services they are familiar with and trust. Your customer reviews will function as powerful social proof that assures your clients that they can trust you and your service; after all, countless other satisfied customers do. Even seeing testimonials on review sites helps potential clients be more inclined to trust your business.

For example, this Trello review on G2 showcases how the software is “so easy to use” even for “new users.” So, when your slide talks about UX, you can include a review like the one above.

3. Address objections

During presentations, people ask questions to clear their doubts. You can avoid sales pitch presentation mistakes by addressing those questions instead of avoiding them or strictly sticking to your pre-planned script. You can use specific examples from your customer reviews to address these objections and boost your potential client’s faith in your service.

Share anecdotes or case studies from customer experiences to highlight how your business improved customers’ operations or achieved specific outcomes. These stories serve as powerful selling points since they address objections while providing persuasive narratives that resonate with your audience. 

Iterating that your offering has a track record of success can significantly boost your potential client’s trust in your business and increase the chances of conversion.

4. Stand out from competitors

Analyzing your customer reviews can reveal meaningful insights. These could include your top product features or customer service. You can turn these repeated positive points into your USP and use them to stand out from your competition.

When you highlight precise features, you attract a specific audience that resonates with these strengths. In crowded marketplaces, leveraging these insights can give you a distinct edge and a compelling narrative that speaks directly to your ideal customers.

Similarly, when you share these in sales presentations, you are more likely to convince a potential client why your business is worth it.

5. Increase conversions

Many top brands have directly observed how gathering and using reviews positively impacts their online presence and effectively increases conversions. 

So, by including them in your sales presentations and pitches, you strengthen your case and encourage them to engage with your business.

But remember — while adding customer reviews in sales presentations is a powerful strategy, you must do so wisely. Overloading your presentation with reviews can dilute its impact. Instead, strategically sprinkle them across your pitch to maintain a concise and convincing narrative.

Additionally, the reviews’ effectiveness amplifies when they come from similar industries and companies of the same size. It resonates with potential clients since it indicates you understand their specific needs and challenges. 

It’s even more persuasive if the reviews highlight clients who have switched from a competitor brand to your product or service. It showcases your solution as a superior alternative with concrete evidence of its value. 

How to choose the right reviews

Now that you understand the importance of including customer reviews in your sales presentations, here are the top criteria for choosing the right reviews:

1. Relevant to the product or service

Customers have very different online presence patterns. So, they leave reviews on different social media and business platforms. 

You can use AI tools to identify relevant reviews and pick the best ones to share with potential clients during your presentations. These tools can also ensure you show reviews that directly speak to your product or service.

2. Has a positive and authentic tone

You can spot an authentic review easily since the buyer is usually direct and sounds natural in their write-up. They have specific things they highlight, and their intention is clearly to share their experience so that it may benefit others. A positive and authentic review need not be overly descriptive or use flowery language; it must simply ring true.

3. Recently shared

You might have the most fantastic reviews lined up, but if they are more than a few months old, they may not be convincing to potential new clients. You need to collect recent high-ranking reviews to display on your website, which you can then pull up live during your sales presentations. 

For example, 99 Designs proudly displays 37,555 ratings, starting from the most recent. 

Does handling multiple reviews across platforms sound overwhelming? 

With Trustmary, you can easily import these reviews from different platforms and showcase them.

4. Highlights specific benefits or features

Reviews come in many different forms, such as case studies, testimonials, online reviews, and surveys. You need to ensure you pick and choose the ones that highlight the specific features your products offer or boast of the unique benefits of availing your services. 

For example, Slack has dedicated an entire ‘Customer Stories’ page to highlight their top case studies. Visitors can even filter these reviews to fit their industry to see how the product benefits them. 

Similarly, you can find relevant customer stories. Then, track the various points covered in the reviews you show clients. 

5. Reflects target audience demographics

You can make the information you present more relatable and trustworthy by including the opinions of people from similar backgrounds. Generic reviews are not necessarily bad, but the more the testimonial speaks to your core target audience, the more specific it is to their concerns and choices, and the better their opinion is of your capability. 

Here’s what Katharina from Droppe says about it:

“When a quote comes from a person a new possible customer can relate to they usually become more interested. For example, showing a quote from a buyer in food production industry if you’re in a meeting with one you can see how their eyes open up a bit more and they are actively listening again. We had a fun moment where we didn’t even realize we showed a quote from a competitor and a new customer was ready to join immediately to not give competitive advantage to that competitor. Reviews definitely win deals.”

Katharina Larikka, Growth Marketer, Droppe

So, understand your target audience and choose reviews that reflect those demographics, preferences, and patterns.

How to get good reviews to use in presentations

What happens if you do not have the right reviews to choose from? 

You can sidestep this issue by actively putting in measures to garner good reviews to use across your sales enablement collateral. Here are a few ways in which you can achieve this.

1. Start by delivering exceptional products and service

Positive reviews depend on the quality of your products and services. It stands to reason that a thoroughly satisfied customer will most likely want to air their thoughts.

What’s more, tracking these positive reviews can help you identify what you are doing right and continue to maintain that traction.

2. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews via emails

That rather dismal statistic from the previous point starts looking better when you reach out to customers and request reviews. A survey shows that 71% of customers leave reviews if they are prompted to do so. 

When you are confident of the quality of products and services you offer, you should not hesitate to ask your existing customers to rate your business and their experience with you.

3. Collect customer feedback from social media

If you know how to leverage your social media presence, you have already won half the battle. Collecting customer reviews from your social media platforms and review sites is a smart way to do this. Then, display them on your website and highlight them in your sales pitches and presentations.

You can use specific incidents like the tweet above highlighting how Superhuman helped its user get close to “inbox zero” or combined positive reviews to make a case for your business. Sometimes, instead of a direct testimonial, you can even include social media mentions of customers requesting you to restock older products and collections.

4. Track third-party review websites

As mentioned above, you can use AI to gather relevant reviews and track the most impactful reviews from third-party websites. These reviews might be quite raw and unmoderated, but when they speak well of your business, they give you a huge lift that encourages potential clients to choose you. 

Top third-party review websites you can track:

• G2
• Product Hunt
• TrustRadius
• Capterra
• Clutch
• GetApp
• Trustpilot

5. Incentivize customers

Want to get more reviews from customers? 

Implementing even the smallest or simplest incentivization program can motivate clients to be more proactive with writing reviews. You can encourage customers to leave feedback by launching loyalty programs, holding contests, and hosting giveaways. 

Keep your incentivization messages short and simple, and remember to respond to all reviews, whether they are positive or not. It helps build consumer confidence in your business. Also, addressing negative comments promptly and respectfully can help customer retention.

For example, G2 runs email campaigns with simple yet creative incentives for users to leave reviews on software.

Next steps

Including customer reviews in your sales presentations and pitches is a solid way of better connecting with potential clients and convincing them of the value of your products and services. These reviews help you build a deeper connection and assure your clients of the authenticity and value of your offerings.

While it can seem intimidating initially, you can create an action plan that follows these 3 major steps:

• Find and collate relevant and relatable reviews, especially ones highlighting specific products or services.
• Include them in your sales presentations and pitches, using them as examples to boost audience trust and address objections. 
• Pair this social proof with irrefutable statistics to convert clients.

Trustmary can help you effectively acquire, collect, and showcase consumer reviews. You can easily collect reviews that matter and manage them on a single platform. Then, use them to suit your business needs best.

FAQ