One of the best ways to counteract this skepticism and doubt is to offer a powerful, air-tight guarantee. And –as you probably already know – We mean air-tight from the customer’s standpoint.
An iron-clad, no-questions-asked guarantee goes a long way towards letting customers know that you’re reliable, and that if they aren’t satisfied with what they received, they won’t lose a thing. This is especially important on the web, where the majority of your first time customers don’t know you and don’t have any reason to trust you with their business.
The minimum length of any guarantee that’s expected to carry any weight with your customer should be 90 days. We’ve personally never see a guarantee for any of our clients’ products or services that’s less than one year.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, you take pride in all your products and services, and you want your clients to know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Also, you feel that the client deserves this type of consideration if they’re going to pay you their hard-earned money.
Next, a guarantee of one year is a powerful motivator for closing the sale. Look, if a customer is on the fence and can’t quite decide whether a product is worth it to them, do you think a 10-day guarantee is going to win you the sale? We guarantee you that it won’t!
On the other hand, a guarantee of one full year has some real substance to it. And that substance will more than likely close the sale for you.
Finally, a one-year guarantee can be presented with real impact in your copy. Listen to how wimpy this guarantee sounds.
Take 10 full days to examine and use this home remodeling course. If it doesn’t live up to your expectations, you won’t be out one red cent. Just return it and we’ll refund your entire payment.
Now, listen to the same guarantee, but expanded to one year.
Take one full year to examine and use this home remodeling course. That’s right. You have 365 days to put this valuable course to work in your own home. Or on any project you want, wherever you want.
Imagine all the money you’ll save this first year alone. No more having to hire professionals to do those simple jobs around the house. You’ll easily save 10 times the cost of this course during the first year.
Plus, if you aren’t satisfied for any reason, or it doesn’t live up to your expectations, you won’t be out one red cent. Just return the course and we’ll refund your entire payment. Right up to the final day of this 365 day guarantee!
That’s quite a difference, wouldn’t you agree? The 10-day period is flimsy. But the one-year period provides a solid foundation that you can build a compelling sales pitch on.
One final item on longer periods for guarantees. Many people who have never used a guarantee or only offered a 10-day guarantee are fearful that by offering a six-month or one-year guarantee, they’ll be taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous customers.
You actually run very little risk of losing anything. In fact, just the opposite happens. First, very few people go to the trouble of returning anything.
Unless they’re absolutely infuriated, people are either too busy or too lazy to go to the trouble of returning something. It’s another sign of our times. But more importantly, you should be a savvy enough marketer not to do the kind of things that absolutely infuriate customers.
But just for argument’s sake, let’s say you do experience a few returns. Say, for example, that on a given promotion you usually sell 1,000 units, and by offering a powerful, one year guarantee you’ve managed to increase your sales by 10%.
That means you have now sold 1,100 units without investing another cent in your marketing. But now you begin to experience some returns. However, remember that very few people ever actually return things.
Let’s just say though that you get a whopping 10% of your new orders returned (which you won’t). 10% of 100 (the additional sales your new guarantee brought in) is 10 orders. So now you’ve increased your orders by 90 rather than by 100.
Do you see where that leaves you? You’ve still gained 90 extra sales that you never would have seen without offering a powerful guarantee… 90 extra sales that didn’t cost you a cent and required almost no time or effort on your part.
Case closed!
Now, it’s time to see some real guarantees in action. Here are some powerful guarantees that our clients have. We took the first example from one of our clients.
Order With Confidence
Our Take-It-To-The-Bank
G U A R A N T E E
Order any report, video or
audio tape at our risk. Try it
for one full year! You must
be 100% satisfied, or return
information for a full refund.
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