Offering A Guarantee Without Losing Your Shirt

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:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com .