“All of a sudden, my customers are evangelizing on my behalf.”
CUSTOMER
Listing Academy: business training for real estate agents
WHO
Tyler Fenn, Managing Director
BEFORE
Customers gave catchy one-liners on camera, with little he could use
WITH PROOFOLIO
Full stories, video, clips and quotes from each interview
REPORTED RESULT
“about twice as many interviews” as doing it himself
A Believer in Social Proof Who Needed the Real Story
He never doubted what customer stories are worth
Tyler Fenn is managing director of Listing Academy, which trains real estate agents in the business side of their work. He has never needed convincing about customer stories. “I've always known that social proof is the best way to persuade an audience,” he said.
What he needed was the whole story, struggle included, from the customers who had lived it.
“I wanted the real story. I wanted them to say that they struggled, and then they used my service and it got better.”
TYLER FENN · MANAGING DIRECTOR, LISTING ACADEMY
Interviews That Came Back Polished and Hollow
Customers knew it was marketing, and it showed
His customers knew an interview was headed for marketing, and they answered that way. “They almost came into it knowing that, hey, this is gonna be marketing, so they used catchy one-liners,” he said.
What he got back, in his words, “actually didn't have a lot of real meat that I could use in my marketing.”
Doing It Himself Wasn't Worth It
The effort kept outrunning the payoff
Gathering the stories on his own cost more than it returned. “The juice wasn't worth the squeeze.”
He is plain about where that road ended.
“I probably would have stopped trying to capture customer stories, period”
TYLER FENN · MANAGING DIRECTOR, LISTING ACADEMY
What Almost Stopped Him
A heavy AI user who doubted an AI interviewer
When Tyler came across Proofolio, he did not say yes right away. “Admittedly, I was a little bit hesitant because there's so much AI stuff out there right now,” he said. His doubt was specific: could an AI hold a conversation as well as a person?
“Any other interactive AI tools that I'd used up to that point, I didn't feel like they'd be able to do as good a job as a real person would.”
TYLER FENN · MANAGING DIRECTOR, LISTING ACADEMY
What Tipped It
He ran the test interviews himself
Tyler ran test interviews on himself first. When he finished, his reaction was immediate.
“Oh, man. This is different.”
TYLER FENN · MANAGING DIRECTOR, LISTING ACADEMY
He names what finally got him to sign up: “The thing that actually made me sign up was, was the promise that Proofolio made.”
What Came Back
More interviews, and each one complete
The first difference was volume. “I noticed that I was capturing about twice as many interviews using Proofolio compared to trying to complete this process on my own.”
The second was what each interview held. “I had transcripts, I had video, I had it broken down into testimonials and customer stories and case studies. I almost jumped out of my seat.”
And the stories started doing the selling.
“All of a sudden, my customers are evangelizing on my behalf.”
TYLER FENN · MANAGING DIRECTOR, LISTING ACADEMY
What He'd Tell the Next Marketer
Count what the alternative would cost
For Tyler, the comparison is simple.
“It would take two or three times the investment of time or resources to get what I get out of Proofolio.”
TYLER FENN · MANAGING DIRECTOR, LISTING ACADEMY
