We all want to make sure that what we are doing as a business is going to keep us competing with the other companies and business.
A very successful and proven way of doing this is by giving your customers outstanding value and guarantees that blow the competition out of the water. You are not being asked to guarantee something that you cannot deliver on, you just need to make sure that what you do deliver is achievable. What I am now going to show you is an example of a company called BBBK who highlight this perfectly.
Their guarantee is aimed at hotels and restaurants., Just pretend, for a second, that you’re a restaurateur and you have a problem with rodents. You’re looking for a pest control company, and you see the following guarantee:
You don’t owe one penny until all the pests on your premises have been eradicated.
If you are ever dissatisfied with BBBK’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, BBBK will pay for the guest’s meal or room, send a letter of apology, and pay for a future meal or stay … and if your facility is closed down due to the presence of roaches or rodents, BBBK will pay any fines, as well as all lost profits, plus $5,000.
I defy you not to at least call them to find out more!
Although I don’t know for certain, it’s easy to assume several things about BBBK from this guarantee.
They are very good at pest control.
They understand the concerns of their customers with regard to hygiene and the potentially damaging effects of any infestation.
They are very successful at attracting new customers!
They are probably providing very similar services to their competitors. However, they understand risk reversal and guarantees. Their profits, I’m sure, will reflect this!
Hopefully, you now have a basic grasp of guarantees and what they can achieve for your business. However, several questions may be entering your mind. For example, ‘Won’t people try to abuse what I am offering?’ and ‘Won’t I lose a lot of money with this?’
The key, of course, to successful guarantees is this: if you offer a good product or service (which you do), then you have nothing to worry about.
And, as I said earlier …
ONLY GUARANTEE WHAT YOU CONTROL.
If you do that, you’ll never have to worry about your guarantee, although I can’t promise that no one will take advantage of it. But the way to look at it is that it will be a very small minority who do take advantage, and the increase in sales will far outweigh any refunds you have to give.
Therefore, you should be thinking about guaranteeing the results your products or services provide; guaranteeing delivery times on work; guaranteeing support services – you name it. Whatever you do and how you do it, you can guarantee it, and the bolder you are, the better.
One last point to mention is about adding ‘conditions’. You should avoid adding conditions to the guarantee, otherwise the guarantee is weakened. If the condition is ‘fair enough’, such as ‘normal wear and tear’, then fine, add it, but just remember conditions can sometimes make the guarantee virtually obsolete or worthless.
GUARANTEE THE PROMISE
The first thing you need to do is ‘guarantee the promise’. In other words, identify the ultimate result that the customer is buying, and then promise you will deliver on it.
PUNISH THE BUSINESS IF PROMISE NOT DELIVERED
When you apply the first part of the success formula, it will immediately translate into sales. However, by adding this second part, your sales will increase even further.
What you need to do is ‘punish’ the business if it doesn’t deliver the promised results.
If BBBK foul up, they refund the fees and pay for another exterminator, etc.
Be bold. Remember, if you’re only guaranteeing what you control, you can be really confident! It will translate into many more sales.
When you use a sensational guarantee or an irresistible offer, or you make a statement that could be hard to believe, then if you don’t back them up with reasons why, you’ll lose sales, because people will think ‘it’s too good to be true’.
The more sensational the offer or guarantee, the more reasons you need to back it up with.
Therefore, you use ‘reasons why’ to validate and make your message sound believable.
This is actually very easy to apply. All you do is explain in simple terms why you offer your guarantee or why you have an amazing offer.
Be honest.
There’s no need to make it up.
For example, here’s the guarantee for an estate agent:
‘If we don’t sell your house within a week for the price we agree, we’ll give you £500.’
Here’s the ‘reasons why’, word for word:
‘Why would we do this?
‘It’s quite simple really. Last year we sold 1,817 houses – more than any other estate agent in Leicestershire. We’re very good at it (read our testimonials).
‘But since you’ve never used us before to sell your home, we wanted to give you something that would put your mind at rest and reassure you that we can deliver (over-deliver) on our promises. That’s why we offer this fantastic guarantee.’
Do you see what we’re doing here? The ‘reasons why’ actually support and validate the guarantee, and makes it believable!
RATIONALE
The best way to think about this is that you just need to justify WHY you’re doing it or saying it.
For example, you could be the quickest at delivering X. If that’s the case, you need to explain WHY you’re the quickest at delivering X. Adding the rationale behind why you’re the quickest makes it believable and, in fact, adds even more sales power.
Here’s another example – it’s the guarantee we offer with our coaching programmes.
Join with Complete Peace of Mind with Our 90-Day, No Questions Asked, Money- Back GUARANTEE
ARTICULATE
You then simply need to articulate the rationale so it makes sense and completely overcomes any cynicism or doubts in the mind of your customer or potential customer.
And here are the reasons why.
All we’re really asking you to say is ‘maybe’. Don’t risk a single penny or cent with our unconditional 90-day money- back GUARANTEE.
The guarantee is in place to give you complete peace of mind. We know how good our coaching programmes are, and the guarantee shows we stand by them 100%.
Join today, and if within the first 90 days, for any reason, you want to cancel, simply let us know, and we’ll refund every single penny you’ve paid. We can’t be fairer than that!
SOCIAL PROOF:
What further supports your message and proves that you do deliver on your promises is the use of something that’s known as social proof.
Social proof is a term used to describe a set of credibility builders. The more credibility you have in your sales and marketing, the more believable it all becomes, and that instantly translates into transformed results.
Credibility builders include
- comments and testimonials from clients, customers or patients
- case studies
- membership of credible associations
- industry awards,
The more you include, the better.
Once again, the more aligned to your target market(s), the more powerful your social proof will be.
For example, if your target market is businesses who turnover £250k to £500k, the only testimonials you should be using are from businesses of a similar size.
If you sell to the affluent, then your case studies should be from affluent customers salivating over your product or service.
I cannot overstate the importance of this. Relevance is a key motivator, so the more relevant your social media (and everything else!) is to the target market, the more appealing you’ll become to them.
Think about your own purchasing decisions. Isn’t it more comforting to know people are pleased with their experience with the business selling the product or service.
How often do you book a holiday or hotel without looking at the reviews from customers? How influential is a bad comment and, conversely, a good comment?
Review sites are becoming more and more important, and ‘Reputation Marketing’ (as it’s now called) is playing a significant role, especially online, in purchasing decisions. That’s social proof.
As you can see, testimonials play a big part in convincing your target market that others have tried your product and service, and that they have had a good experience.
Ideally, your testimonials should stress a number of your key benefits. The more positive the reinforcement of your overall offer, the better.
You may think getting customer testimonials is challenging. It’s not. Simply write to the relevant customers and ask them to give you a few comments about what they like about your business, and ask for their permission to use their comments on your material. You’ll be surprised at the responses you get and how good the comments are.
