Setting the Rule on Your Guarantee how to Turn this Tricky Strategy into a Point of Distinction
Setting the Rule on Your Guarantee how to Turn this Tricky Strategy into a Point of Distinction
What's fascinating about this heralded strategy is that from:
• a customers perspective — it makes you feel all warm inside
• a business owners perspective — often you're damned if you do dammed if you don't.
A guar*antee puts your prospective customer at ease, giving them an eas*ier decision to buy from you. After all, if you don't stand behind your product or service 100%, why should they buy from you?
On the other hand, with service-based businesses such as consulting, programs or products where your customer has to apply themselves to get results, it's much harder to guar*antee results.
Let's look at what a guar*antee really is?
• something that assures a particular outcome
• a formal promise that a product will be repaired fr*ee of charge if it breaks or fails within a stated period, or that substandard work will be redone
• a formal promise by one person to take responsibility for the obligations of another person if that person fails to meet them.
• to promise something or make something certain.
Large brands and stores that sell products usually offer mon*ey backed guar*antees like:
Mon*ey Back or Satis*faction
Price Match
Within a Certain Time
Internet marketers typically adopt this practice as well by betting on the fact that people often forget what they buy online — even to a point of putting it on a shelf without using it. They bet on numbers and the hassle it takes to return something.
Mon*ey back based guarantees can work well if you sell products, especially if you subscribe to the “numbers theory”, or you deeply believe in the quality of your physical product. Plus, you can always get the product back to sell again. Bottomline: in the words of actor and director Clint Eastwood, “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.”
But what if you don’t sell a product?
What if your results are completely linked to the effort your customer puts in? This is where a mon*ey back guarantee gets tricky.
If you put in the time and you deliver the services you promised, if your customer changes their mind, how can you get them back? It’s like eating an entire meal at a restaurant... then deciding it wasn’t what you wanted.
In this case, you can either decide to forego a guar*antee and concentrate on selling with the aid of referrals and testimonials, OR, you can decide to offer another kind of guarantee — which is what I do in my guided programs and events.
Since branding is an extremely clarifying process that a client has to go through, in entirety, to experience its powerful results, I offer something more valuable than mon*ey — I offer myself — and my sixteen years experience with brands large and small.
I offer a “Personal Satisfaction Guar*antee” which is inline with my brand’s value and core promise:
...the only path to multi-million success is held in taking full responsibility for ALL the results in your business. That means you.
The type of work that is done in this process in such short-periods of time requires a person’s entire focus to complete it. They run the risk of not committing themselves fully to the process, if they hold the thought in the back of their mind that they can withdraw for any reason, and get their mon*ey back.
Building a business doesn’t work that way, either a person is committed or... they’re not! Actor Morgan Freeman said it perfectly when he said, “The best way to guar*antee a loss is to quit.”
Instead, my commitment is to hold my customers accountable for turning their business vision (the idea) into a reality, at least for the time they have chosen to work with me.
What I offer instead is extra attention and my time, to make sure they walk away with what the product or program delivers.
To save you from jumping in on the guar*antee bandwagon just because everyone is, answer the following:
1. Do you sell a product that is solid on its own?
2. Do you off a service that works without your customer?
3. Do you offer a service that relies on your customer’s involvement for results?
4. Can you really “assure a particular outcome” ?
5. Are you willing to “take responsibility for another person if that person fails to meet them” themselves?
6. Are you prepared, as a business, to shoulder whatever happens even if you’ve answered no to quest*ions four and five above?
If you still decide to offer a guar*antee, turn to your internal brand value and core promise to decide what kind. Your power as a business, no matter what the strategy, always resides there.
Fortunately in over 15 years, I have only come across a handful of unsatisfied customers who didn’t like my guar*antee philosophy. Usually it’s because of self-responsibility and/or mon*ey challenges. And I have to admit it makes me said that I couldn’t help them — every single time.
And while I couldn’t make them happy in the short run, I believe I have helped them raise the bar on themselves as a business leader in the long run. That is a price I’d gladly pay, over and over and over.
© Castle Montone, Limited
Setting the Rule on Your Guarantee how to Turn this Tricky Strategy into a Point of Distinction - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
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Should you or shouldn't you — that is the question. The answer comes from you — and setting the rule on your guarantee.
What's fascinating about this heralded strategy is that from:
• a customers perspective — it makes you feel all warm inside
• a business owners perspective — often you're damned if you do dammed if you don't.
A guar*antee puts your prospective customer at ease, giving them an eas*ier decision to buy from you. After all, if you don't stand behind your product or service 100%, why should they buy from you?
On the other hand, with service-based businesses such as consulting, programs or products where your customer has to apply themselves to get results, it's much harder to guar*antee results.
Let's look at what a guar*antee really is?
• something that assures a particular outcome
• a formal promise that a product will be repaired fr*ee of charge if it breaks or fails within a stated period, or that substandard work will be redone
• a formal promise by one person to take responsibility for the obligations of another person if that person fails to meet them.
• to promise something or make something certain.
Large brands and stores that sell products usually offer mon*ey backed guar*antees like:
Mon*ey Back or Satis*faction
Price Match
Within a Certain Time
Internet marketers typically adopt this practice as well by betting on the fact that people often forget what they buy online — even to a point of putting it on a shelf without using it. They bet on numbers and the hassle it takes to return something.
Mon*ey back based guarantees can work well if you sell products, especially if you subscribe to the “numbers theory”, or you deeply believe in the quality of your physical product. Plus, you can always get the product back to sell again. Bottomline: in the words of actor and director Clint Eastwood, “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.”
But what if you don’t sell a product?
What if your results are completely linked to the effort your customer puts in? This is where a mon*ey back guarantee gets tricky.
If you put in the time and you deliver the services you promised, if your customer changes their mind, how can you get them back? It’s like eating an entire meal at a restaurant... then deciding it wasn’t what you wanted.
In this case, you can either decide to forego a guar*antee and concentrate on selling with the aid of referrals and testimonials, OR, you can decide to offer another kind of guarantee — which is what I do in my guided programs and events.
Since branding is an extremely clarifying process that a client has to go through, in entirety, to experience its powerful results, I offer something more valuable than mon*ey — I offer myself — and my sixteen years experience with brands large and small.
I offer a “Personal Satisfaction Guar*antee” which is inline with my brand’s value and core promise:
...the only path to multi-million success is held in taking full responsibility for ALL the results in your business. That means you.
The type of work that is done in this process in such short-periods of time requires a person’s entire focus to complete it. They run the risk of not committing themselves fully to the process, if they hold the thought in the back of their mind that they can withdraw for any reason, and get their mon*ey back.
Building a business doesn’t work that way, either a person is committed or... they’re not! Actor Morgan Freeman said it perfectly when he said, “The best way to guar*antee a loss is to quit.”
Instead, my commitment is to hold my customers accountable for turning their business vision (the idea) into a reality, at least for the time they have chosen to work with me.
What I offer instead is extra attention and my time, to make sure they walk away with what the product or program delivers.
To save you from jumping in on the guar*antee bandwagon just because everyone is, answer the following:
1. Do you sell a product that is solid on its own?
2. Do you off a service that works without your customer?
3. Do you offer a service that relies on your customer’s involvement for results?
4. Can you really “assure a particular outcome” ?
5. Are you willing to “take responsibility for another person if that person fails to meet them” themselves?
6. Are you prepared, as a business, to shoulder whatever happens even if you’ve answered no to quest*ions four and five above?
If you still decide to offer a guar*antee, turn to your internal brand value and core promise to decide what kind. Your power as a business, no matter what the strategy, always resides there.
Fortunately in over 15 years, I have only come across a handful of unsatisfied customers who didn’t like my guar*antee philosophy. Usually it’s because of self-responsibility and/or mon*ey challenges. And I have to admit it makes me said that I couldn’t help them — every single time.
And while I couldn’t make them happy in the short run, I believe I have helped them raise the bar on themselves as a business leader in the long run. That is a price I’d gladly pay, over and over and over.
© Castle Montone, Limited
Setting the Rule on Your Guarantee how to Turn this Tricky Strategy into a Point of Distinction - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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