by Robert Clay
Guarantee that your product or service will not fail, and up to 80% of people will be influenced to choose your business in preference to your competition, writes Robert Clay of Marketing Wizdom.
Giving a strong guarantee (or Risk Reversal), makes it easier for your buyers to say yes than no. And it gives you gain a decisive edge over most of your competition. It’s a simple concept. But it makes a massive difference to whether or not people will do business with you.
Risk Reversal is the sixth in an ongoing series of video articles based on my new online seminar: “10 ways to Outsell, Outsmart and Outperform Your Toughest Competition.”
If you missed the five previous instalments of this seminar, subscribe now to gain instant access to the full £297 seminar. It is FREE OF CHARGE, but only for a limited time, and for subscribers only.
Why Won’t People Buy From You?
So let’s start with this question: What’s the biggest reason people don’t buy products or services from a supplier, even though they’d benefit from it and can afford it?
It’s that they don’t want to make a mistake or look stupid.
If there’s even a small chance that someone can a mistake, it’s often easier to do nothing. That way they won’t be any worse off than they are already!
It’s therefore very important that you entirely eliminate the possibility that anyone can make a mistake or look bad when they do business with you.
Just as it’s important to identify what people really want when they do business with you. You should also identify the fears, frustrations, concerns and issues that hold them back from making a commitment.
You then address those concerns by eliminating the real or perceived risks for your prospects. Do that and they can’t help but take advantage of your product or service, in much bigger numbers.
How Ethical Businesses Look After Their Customers
What happens when a product or service doesn’t meet the expectation of a customer?
Any ethical business will gladly replace, re-do, make good or refund to return the client to a state of satisfaction. Yet few businesses ever promote that guarantee or tell you about it before the buying transaction.
However up to 80% of people say they’d be influenced in favour of a business that guarantees that their product or service won’t fail… over a competitor that doesn’t.
It’s important to realise this: Any time two people come together to transact business, one party is always asking the other to assume more of the risk than they do.
If you’re asking your prospect or client to assume the risk when they buy from you, a lot of them won’t do it. And a lot of your customers won’t begin to buy at anywhere close to their purchasing capacity.
Why? Because they don’t want to take that risk.
So if you can reduce or totally eliminate the burden of risk on the transaction for your customer, a lot more will buy from you. And they’ll buy a lot more, and a lot more often.
When you look at reversing the risk please understand that you’re really lowering the hurdle. You’re also reducing the barrier of entry. And you’re making it more advantageous for your customer to buy from you than not to buy.
There are many ways to do this.
Prism Pest Eradication Guarantee
Let me tell you about of the most stunning guarantees I’ve ever encountered. It comes from a U.S. pest eradication company called Prism.
Their guarantee is aimed purely at the commercial catering sector, i.e. Hotels and restaurants. They had a small market share at the outset, and going was tough.
They went on to develop a compelling offer based on what must be the ultimate in risk reversal. Everything changed as soon as they did this. And they started seeing enormous business growth.
Let me just share that guarantee with you. And as I do, just put yourself in the shoes of someone who has a commercial catering business, and needs this service.
At the end of it, tell me whether you’d accept their offer …
Here is the guarantee:
PRISM GUARANTEE
You don’t owe one penny until all the pests on your premises have been eradicated.
If you are ever dissatisfied with PRISM’s services you will receive a refund for up to 12 months of the company’s services … plus fees for another exterminator of your choice for the next year.
If a guest spots a pest on your premises, PRISM will pay for the guest’s meal or room, send a letter of apology, and pay for a future meal or stay
If your facility is closed down due to the presence of roaches or rodents, PRISM will pay any fines, as well as all lost profits, plus $5,000.
As I said, a STUNNING guarantee! And one I think you’ll agree GRABS the imagination and sets this company apart.
Now if you were in the commercial catering business, would you accept that offer?
If you think about it, it offers total peace of mind, doesn’t it?
There would be absolutely no risk in dealing with them, would there?
A Guarantee That Really Performs
Would it surprise you to learn that they managed to capture 80% of their market?
And because their guarantee gave people total peace of mind, they were also able to charge a premium for their service.
How much more do you suppose Prism can charge with a guarantee like that? 2 times more? 5 times more?
In fact, they were up to 10 times more expensive than their nearest competitor. Yet 80% of the market went to them.
So to summarise, a good guarantee will eliminate your customers’ “risk” in doing business with you. But it will not represent a risk to you.
What’s The Strongest Guarantee You Can Offer?
If you KNOW your product or service will provide an absolute minimum result or outcome, you should have no problem stating that performance guarantee.
The more specific, measurable, or tangible you can make the customers expectation of a specific outcome, the more appealing your proposition will always be.
If your risk reversal is clearly promoted it will get you a lot more business. It will also speed up your customer’s decision process dramatically.
But keeping it a secret will get you none.
Enough said!
So what can you do to eliminate the possibility that anyone will ever screw up, look bad or make a mistake that they’ll suffer for again. What’s the strongest guarantee you can give?
Risk reversal is a simple concept. It requires little or no investment. It makes a massive difference to whether or not people will do business with you. Most people in your industry are unwilling to do it. You immediately gain a powerful edge. It speeds up the decision-making process dramatically. And it’s yet another way to outsell, outsmart and outperform your toughest competition.
So that’s how you can make it easier for your buyers to say yes than no.