Maybe because we take our businesses very personally, but it seems most microISVs don’t know what to do with unsolicited praise. Antanas Marcelionis is a Lithuanian microISV who sells a very cool flash chart component I’m using on Project X and another project, so I get his emails re amCharts and amMap.

Yesterday, here’s the email he sent out quoting one of his customers – it’s a little long, but this is the sort of email you get once a year in this business if you’re really lucky:

Wow! I must say that your products are amazing!

With just a little bit of time on Google I found your amMap. Of course, when I first saw it, I thought “Cool! But we can’t use it.” Because I needed a custom map of Missouri, I didn’t think your product was viable. But, I kept coming back to it – it just wouldn’t leave me alone! It was way too cool! Well, the more I evaluated, the more viable it became. And the documentation about creating customized maps sent it over the top. Nothing else – and I do mean NOTHING – that I had reviewed came anywhere close. It was very intuitive and easy to use. Well, in a very short time, I was able to complete the project. It debuted on “Super Tuesday” (Feb 5, 2008) at http://www.sos.mo.gov/enrmaps/.

The basis of the project was to provide a series of maps/charts that showed who was leading the 2008 presidential preference primary in Missouri based on party and which counties had completed their vote totals. With the live data we already collected with an older application, watching the maps and charts change dynamically was really exciting! We usually get quite a bit of traffic anyway, but it increased with the interactive maps! We were mentioned by Karl Rove on the national Fox News broadcast and have been receiving many comments since about how fantastic the pages were and how did we do it.

Of course, I owe it all to you! I’m debating on whether to continue being selfish and hording you as my secret weapon, or being nice and sharing the info. Of course, in the end I’ll have to share, but I wanted to first contact you. Again, thanks for such wonderful products! Keep up the excellent work!

Erica Gage
Missouri Secretary of State
http://www.sos.mo.gov

Now that’s one hell of a testimonial. It’s a gem. But I guess through an advanced case of modesty, Antanas squanders the opportunity. He’s his home page, with the link to his blog where he has this testimonial circled in red:

What Antanas should be doing with this beauty is:

• Send out a press release – “Karl Rove likes us!” Whatever you think of Karl Rove, a pr with that as the title, explaining where and when he said he liked Missouri’s charts, made possible with amCharts/amMaps and then explaining these charts were made possible by a microISV would get play.
• Feature it on your web site – bigtime. Like half the page, with Missouri’s charts, the letter edited down.
• Have a link off the main menu – “Customer Gallery” where you have a page with a javascript gallery of this and other testimonials.

Testimonials are like gold. When you get them, use them (once you have permission to) in every way you can. Don’t let false modesty cost you sales.