What many people do not know is that many of the testimonials that are floating around out there were written by people who have never actually tried or read or experienced the product they are talking about. Some testimonials are prewritten by the product owner and then signed off by the person. And I think that the worst offense is that the person has been paid to write a testimonial.

It’s like a little club, especially in business book writing where people can whip off testimonials faster than they can read a book. There are some authors out there, well-known, best-selling ones, who have given so many testimonials they would have to average three books an hour to have read the actual books for which they are singing praise.

What most people don’t know is that it is actually a profit center for some people. Sure, they say, I’ll give you a testimonial for your crappy book, it’ll cost you $500, and you have to write the copy for it. Now the FTC does have endorsement guidelines out there, but the FTC is so understaffed and overworked that 99 percent of the time it never catches violations. You’re supposed to disclose the fact that you receive your product for free or have been paid to endorse something whether it’s on a web site, a TV commercial, or even potentially a book cover.

There is nothing wrong with testimonials—they show that other people actually like your products. However, when you get like me and stop trusting them, you look at all of them with a jaded eye. I would much rather see a testimonial from an actual user. This kind of testimonial gives me hard numbers of what this product has done for other people. I get asked to give testimonials all the time for books, resources, and workshops, but I rarely have time to go through them and I don’t have the heart to tell people that I just don’t like their product.

One of the newest trends at conferences is to get video testimonials of the attendees about what they thought about the conference. They are not looking for honest feedback and constructive criticism but rather for a collection of “wow” clips to help sell the next conference or the recording of that conference.

The problem is when they force attendees to record it. I’ve had it happen a number of times. Someone will walk up with a camera from the conference and say, “Please say a few words about the conference.” Kind of puts you in a bad spot, especially when you didn’t like the event. So what can you do? I tell the person that I will either write something in an e-mail of my thoughts or actually be honest with the video reviewer and give a constructive criticism and maybe a compliment or two. Of course, for the one conference I criticized, the recorder cut out the criticism part and kept in the compliment totally out of context.

So for your business, get comments from real people, real clients, real satisfied customers. Be known as the person who doesn’t use the industry mouthpiece. Stand out from your competition.