Offering A Guarantee Without Losing Your Shirt

You may be offering a guarantee, but nervously, or perhaps not offering one at all. What if a bunch of your clients ask for their money back?

Sluuurrrrrpppp... there goes your business, down the drain. What makes a guarantee safe for you?

It helps to understand that very few people ever call in a guarantee. Why don't they?

The first and best reason is that you are putting your heart and soul into doing the best you can possibly do for your customers.

And your client is actually rooting for you-- they want your offer to work. They want to believe in you.

This means that your customers are cheerleading your efforts. They paid money, they've committed themselves, so they're actually on your team.

They also don't want to have to face having made a wrong decision. Something has to go pretty badly before they'll call in a guarantee.

Put those reasons together, the whole-hearted efforts on your part coupled with how much your customers are rooting for you, and you can see why guarantees hardly ever get called in.

You're still a little nervous, aren't you?

Well, I'm going to let you in on two secrets that will help you relax.

One secret to the guarantee

A guarantee only works if someone has already said "Yes" in their heart, but has voices of doubt sawing at their confidence. Then the guarantee comes leaping in to shrug off those doubts with, "Well, if it's a complete gash, at least I can get my money back."

This secret is strongly in operation with the first type of guarantee, which is...

The First Type: The unconditional guarantee

No conditions on the guarantee means that once they've received your offer, they can, for any reason, ask for a refund.

Use unconditional guarantees for offers that don't require your presence or input, meaning products, and not classes or one-on-one time.

We offer unconditional guarantees on our books and products for two reasons: one is that there is little risk for us, we merely shipped the product out. The second and more important reason is that I'm not present with them to help guide them. Because they have to be self-guiding in using the product, it seems only fair to let them be self-guiding in determining whether it worked.

The second type: The conditional guarantee (which contains the second secret)

When someone buys from you, they aren't stupid. They know that your offer only works if they follow through with their end of things.

If it's a nutritional supplement, they have to actually swallow the supplement. If it's a class, attending and doing the assignments is what brings results.

But how much is enough? What if you miss three days of taking the supplement? What if you can't make three of the classes?

Here's the second secret

When someone wants to buy a big something, they're wondering, "What do I have to do to get this to work for me?" The conditional guarantee answers this question.

With this question answered, your reader can relax and more easily trust the "Yes, I want to buy" that's in their heart.

You never knew the guarantee was working so hard for you, didja?

If you are ready to learn how to make the conditional guarantee work, and when not to offer a guarantee at all, read on:

Guaranteed Keys to Making a Conditional Guarantee* (*Must read all three keys for guarantee to apply.)

* The conditional guarantee.

Ask your heart this question: what's the absolute minimum someone needs to do in order to have a happy experience with your offer?

How many classes can they miss, how much do they have to take, what do they have to do in order to see enough progress that they are going to be satisfied? Whatever that answer is, it will be the core of your conditional guarantee.

* Now you have to get them to read it.

What do you do when you see a "100% money-back guarantee?" You say to yourself, "Oh, another guarantee." And you just rush right past it, don't even stop to scan through it.

When you do that, the guarantee doesn't really register in your heart.

The answer? Give your guarantee some personality. Not gimmicky, but authentic. For instance, here is a guarantee we offer for our classes:

"Best Yet- A 78% Total Guarantee (78%?)

"It's very important to me that this class helps you get where you want to go. You can decide, for any reason, up to six months after the end of the class in June, 2007 that the class didn't work for you and you want a refund. But, there are some conditions.

"And the 78%? The class works, but only if you attend and follow-through. If you complete 78% of the class: attend 11 out of the 14 classes, show up for 11 out of the 14 partner exercises, and complete 78% of the assignments, and you are still unhappy with the results, then I'll be happy to refund anything you paid towards this course."

* When not to give a guarantee.

The only time you shouldn't offer a guarantee is when, if push came to shove and your customer was really unhappy with what you offered, you still wouldn't give them their money back.

Who would do that? Would you? No, you wouldn't. And neither would I.

Since you'd give someone their money back, don't hide it. Get the most out of it, and offer a guarantee.

Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: www.heartofbusiness.com.

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