How To Use Guarantees To Increase Your Sales

OK. Now as I promised last week, I’m going to tell you how to craft a winning guarantee.

A guarantee is absolutely crucial in any marketing campaign.

Here’s why…

You see, a guarantee is about risk reversal. That is, you take the risk from your prospects shoulders and place it on YOURS.

It means that your potential buyer cannot lose. Either they get the result you promise, or they’re compensated.

So…what have they got to lose by buying your product. Well, nothing really. And that’s why guarantees are so important.

But let me give you the #1 piece of advice for guarantees.

If anybody ever asks for one, you give it to them. Dont argue and dont try to talk them out of it. Dont delay it either. People are always going to ask for refunds. Its part of business. The problem is, complaints and negative publicity can be a disaster for your image. And not only that, complaints to your merchant provider could result in your merchant services being suspended or cancelled all together. And this can make it harder to get facilities again in the future.

But dont forget, the extra sales you’ll make by having one will far outweight the cost of any returns you might have to make.

Now, here’s the funny thing. Most countries legally require you to offer money back to purchasers if the product didn’t meet up to expectations.

So if that’s the case, and you have to refund money anyway, then…

…why not turn it into another opportunity to advance the sale?

The most basic type of guarantee is the satisfaction or money-back guarantee. In other words, if you’re not entirely satisfied with XYZ then I’ll refund your investment in its entirety.

But if you push a little harder, there are all sorts of combinations you can try which will grab attention.

For example, Brett McFall’s Ad Camp DVDs (which I sell) guarantees the purchaser that they’ll make 10 times their investment in 12 months…or they get their money back AND they get $200 for their time.

You see, you have to be confident in what you’re selling, otherwise you’re just selling junk. And if you’re confident, you should keep making your guarantee stronger AND STRONGER until you feel scared. Its not until you’re scared that you’ve created a great guarantee.

Let me give you a couple of examples you can use:

“Your pain will be gone, or your appointment is absolutely free” – good for physiotherapists, chiropractors and masseurs

“I will show you how to save money on your home loan, or I will give you $100 for your trouble”

“I’m so confident that this letter is going to show you how to XYZ. So confident, in fact, that I’ve guaranteed it for $20. That’s right. I guarantee you XYZ from reading this letter, or you let me know and I’ll gladly send you $20 straight away, just to say sorry for wasting your time.”

The general rule of thumb is to make a strong PROMISE, and then tell them if they dont achieve what you promised, then tell them what their compensation will be.

For example, here’s a short guarantee I wrote a client in the last couple of days for an internet marketing seminar:

“Here’s my rock solid, no BS guarantee.

In the next 12 months I guarantee you’ll make £50,000 from your online business, just by following the simple rules I give you.

But if at any time you don’t think you’re going to make £50,000, I WANT YOU TO ASK FOR — AND GET — EVERY SINGLE PENNY BACK.

And you keep every single thing I’ve given you, including all the pre-reading material and the DVDs of the event.
“
…and then I go on to explain how the purchaser either wins by having their own high profit internet business, or they win by getting a great education with heaps of bonus materials for nothing.

There’s another great guarantee called the 30 day hold.

Basically you get the buyer’s payment, whether its credit card, cheque or whatever. But you dont cash the cheque or process the credit until 30 days after the buyer receives the product.

So, they’ve got 30 days free use of the product, and they know if they dont get certain results, then let you know, and they will never be charged.

Also, its a mistake to offer too short a timeframe for your buyer to achieve their results. So, I generally recommend 90 days instead of 30 days, because the buyer who only has 30 days is under pressure to check the product out. And if they rush, and they dont get the results they want, then they’ll feel the pressure to get it back to you ASAP. But if they have 90 days, all that pressure disappears.

You know, a really strong guarantee doesnt mean that people will return products if they dont achieve the results you promise. A lot wont even try. Others will blame themselves. Others again will want to hang on to their product because they know it’ll be valuable to them in the future.

So there you have it. Great advice on creating guarantees. If you stick to what I’ve told you here, you’ll get a massive increase in response. Just dont forget. Taking away the risk from your customer is going to make it far more likely they’ll agree to buying.

Next week I’m going to cover testimonials. These are often under used, but they should never be underestimated. I’ll tell you why in my next post.

Until then, take care

hugh-thyer