For your customers, with every purchase comes RISK that the product doesn’t work for them as promised. When you remove the risk, you increase the number of people that are ready to buy what you sell.

You MUST create a bullet-proof guarantee because the guarantee transfers the risk from the buyer to the seller.And that shows the buyer that if the product doesn’t deliver, they won’t be out the money… thus eliminating the pain of spending. It’s how buyer psychology works.

Offering a guarantee sounds like common sense, and it is. Offering the RIGHT guarantee is extremely important. A lot of people tend to tack on the guarantee on the end. And they think very little about how to phrase it the right way… When you craft the RIGHT guarantee – one that people actually believe, and feel comforted by – it turns your offer into a no-brainer… and you’re set.

The 3 basic elements of every guarantee

A strong guarantee has 3 basic elements. They are:

Length:The length is simply the amount of time for which the guarantee is valid.Payoff:The payoff is what your customers get when they call on the guarantee. Do they get a refund or something else? Do they get MORE back than the value of the offer?Conditions:A guarantee can have ZERO or any number of conditions. This is where you spell out what satisfaction really means, and the exact steps people need to take to get the full payoff.Are guarantees with the LEAST conditions always the best?No…Research shows that if customers are uncertain about the outcome of using your product until they experience it, conditions actually make your offer MORE credible.

Guarantee #1: The Standard Money-Back Guarantee

Offering a 30, 60 or even 90 day money-back guarantee is pretty standard… and it’s better than nothing. An example of this standard guarantee would be this:

Put us to the test! Use [PRODUCT] for up to [LENGTH] days, risk-free. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied, simply return the product for a FULL refund. Just drop us a line at [EMAIL ADDRESS] to take advantage of our [LENGTH]-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

As a general rule, remember this:

The longer the guarantee period, the better for your sales.

At the very least, you have to give people enough time to figure out if the product is right for them.

Now, a simple money-back guarantee won’t make your business stand out from your competition, unless…

…you’re in an industry where guarantees are UNHEARD of.

Jay Abraham, in his book “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got,” cites a car dealer who DOUBLED his business by offering a two-week, 100% money-back guarantee on any new or used car. If you’re a car buyer, why would you go to any other dealer?

Or…

Guarantee #2: The Extensive Money-Back Guarantee

…if you want to go crazy, you can do something similar to what Zappos, The Great Courses, and Cutco did:

The Zappos 365 day return policy played a major part in the company’s success early on. In 2001, three years after they got started, their sales quadrupled to $8.6 million:

With Zappos Retail, Inc.’s 365 day return policy, there are no special catches or exceptions. All we ask is that you send the items back to us in the original packaging, and make sure that the merchandise is in the same condition. If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, you can return your order to the warehouse for a full refund.

Here’s another example of an extensive guarantee. This one’s from The Great Courses, who sell lectures online:

Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! If a course is ever less than completely satisfying, you may exchange it for another of equal value at any time. You may also return any course, within one year of initial purchase, for a full refund. (…) We guarantee your satisfaction for a lifetime because we want you to be our customer for a lifetime of learning.

Or what about Cutco’s “Forever” Guarantee:

Cutco stands behind every item that leaves our factory. With over 65 years of expert craftsmanship, Cutco makes knives and kitchen products you can depend on. Forever. When you send your well-loved Cutco products in for sharpening or repair they will be cared for as if they were our own. Your products go through a detailed multi-step process and are returned to you like new. There’s no receipt or registration required.

That’s pretty strong!

And clearly, offering an extensive guarantee has worked EXTREMELY well for companies like Cutco, The Great Courses, or Zappos.

One side note: When you offer a money-back guarantee, you must SAVE that money aside. Because there’s always a risk that your customers will “call” on that money-back guarantee. If you can’t honor it, you’re going to be in trouble. So pick the length of time that works best for your cash flow needs.

What else can you do? That leads me to…

Guarantee #3: More Than Money-Back…

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment:

When you decide to buy something, you’re not only risking the money you spend. You’re also investing time and passing up on OTHER opportunities.

So in reality, if you don’t like the product you still suffer a loss – even if you get your money back!

As a clever business owner, you can adjust the payoff of your guarantee and offer MORE than money-back to solve that problem…

The standard “more than money-back” guarantee, is the double money-back guarantee. Which means the payoff when people call on the guarantee is double the price.

Here’s a GREAT example from Afrihost, a South African Internet Service Provider:

We Believe We’re The Best Choice For You! So we’ve decided to take all the risk onto our backs. If at any time in the first 60 days you feel that we did not live up to our promises and you choose to leave us, we’ll pay you back DOUBLE what you’ve paid us on that package, up to the point that you cancel – no strings and no questions!

Offering a double money-back guarantee probably won’t increase your refund rate by much. So you will only need a small boost in sales to make more money in the end…

…but again, use this with caution.

If you’re going to test something like this, I highly recommend you test it with a limited number of people. That way you can see how many people buy, and then see how many people refund.

You don’t want to open your business to an uncontrollable risk without knowing your numbers. And something like this puts you at risk of doing just that.

So, before ever trying something like this, limit your downside by limiting the number of times you offer this guarantee.

Guarantee #4: “We’ll Fix It” Guarantee

There are other ways you can offer MORE than money-back, and make your guarantee stand out…

Here’s an impressive example, I call this the “We’ll Fix It” guarantee:

LifeLock promises to protect its users against identity theft. If their services don’t work, and you do get your identity stolen, you’d probably care less about getting your money back than actually recovering your identity!

That’s why LifeLock features this guarantee prominently on their site:

If you become a victim of identity theft, LifeLock will spend up to $1 million to hire experts to help your recovery.

Do you see how this works?

They’re going to promise to protect you – and if they don’t – they’ll fix it.

As you can imagine, this can apply in a multitude of ways.

Imagine if you’re a web designer. And the #1 fear people have about getting a new web design is ensuring that their existing content gets displayed properly in the new design.

Now imagine if you said something like, “When we make your new design live, we’ll audit your site to ensure all your content looks perfect. And if it doesn’t, we’ll fix it.”

You might think, “Well, that’s self-explanatory. OF COURSE I would do that!”

But you know what?

What’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to your customer and offering a “We’ll Fix IT Guarantee” may be a way for you to show them you’re different – even if everyone offers the same thing.

The person who says it gets the credit for it.

Moving on…

Guarantee #5: The Competitor Guarantee

Another version of a guarantee that offers more than money-back, is the “I’ll pay for my competitor’s product” guarantee…

I found this on a language tutor’s website, but it can work for any product:

If after the first class you decide I’m not a good fit, I will not just refund your money, but I’ll set you up with a different tutor and pay for your first class.

But be careful…

If you’re offering a service, and currently have lots of clients asking for refunds, this could backfire. If your refund rate is high, focus on making your product better first…

However, if you’re also selling a digital product, check out this next guarantee:

Guarantee #6: The “I’ll Work With You” Guarantee

This works for any consultant who’s selling digital products.

Here’s an example of a career coach. He offers the following guarantee on his digital courses:

If you don’t see real, lasting, exciting change in your career and life… if you aren’t clearly headed down a better and more fulfilling path… I insist that you email me and ask for a full refund. I’ll even cover the credit card processing fee.
PLUS, if at the end of 90 days you still haven’t identified one of your passions and started to make money from it, I’ll offer you a free one-on-one coaching session to get you back on track. These are full-fledged sessions I charged up to $250/hr before I closed my coaching practice.
If you put in the work and go through the process, you WILL find your passion and build a career around work that excites you. It’s worked for thousands of people before you in hundreds of different scenarios, and will for you as well.

I’m not a huge fan of it, because you might end up wasting your time with the most “difficult” customers. But it’s something you can consider in your business, and decide if it’s right for you.

That said, that’s why I prefer…

Guarantee #7: The Bonus Guarantee

I LOVE the Bonus Guarantee!

100% Risk Free: If you try Zippy Courses today, you get all these bonuses… and you have 30 days to try it all out. IF you don’t like it, email our support team (…) within 30 days, and we’ll give you 100% of your money back.

With a Bonus Guarantee you’re offering more than money-back WITHOUT putting any extra cash on the line.

Combine a bonus with a strong money-back guarantee, and your offer will be almost impossible to resist!

You see, if people Buy Zippy and don’t like it, they can KEEP the bonuses. No hard feelings.

Guarantee #8: The 100% Satisfaction Guarantee

In a way, all the guarantees we’ve seen so far are actually 100% satisfaction guarantees… By that I mean, there were no conditions.

For a short and sweet example of such a guarantee, take the Starbucks “Barista Promise”:

Our Barista Promise: Love your beverage or let us know. We’ll always make it right.

The Hampton Inn is also famous for their 100% guarantee:

Friendly service, clean rooms, comfortable surroundings, every time. If you’re not satisfied, we don’t expect you to pay. That’s our commitment & your guarantee. That’s 100% Hampton.

Here’s what’s amazing:

Only 1% of their total revenue goes towards honoring that guarantee!

So more often than not, people don’t want a refund… They just want to know you’ll make it right IF there’s a real issue. A satisfaction guarantee gives you that opportunity.

Next, let’s look at one of the most famous return policies…

Guarantee #9: The No-Policy Guarantee

Nordstrom is famous for their return policy because… they don’t have one! Here’s what it says on their website:

We don’t actually have a return policy for purchases made at Nordstrom stores or at Nordstrom.com. We handle returns on a case-by-case basis with the ultimate objective of satisfying the customer. We stand behind our goods and services and want customers to be satisfied with them. We’ll always do our best to take care of customers—our philosophy is to deal with them fairly and reasonably; we hope they will be fair and reasonable with us as well.

The company actually tells their employees to accept ANY return. No matter the condition or circumstances.

Is this right for you?

Maybe. If you’re selling physical products, you don’t need to worry about people stealing your time. So offering a guarantee without any conditions is probably the way to go.

And remember to make it EASY for your customer: Offer free shipping, include pre-paid return labels etc.

Guarantee #10: The “No Questions Asked” Guarantee

You can offer something similar to Nordstrom’s unconditional return policy even if you’re selling digital products. I call it the “No questions asked” guarantee…

Here’s an example (from type designer Sean McGabe Hand Lettering course):

I believe strongly in the quality of Learn Lettering to not only substantially increase your lettering skills, but also make you back 20x your investment. I’ve poured my heart and soul into consolidating a gold mine of knowledge that will enable you to make a living as a lettering artist.
I confidently back it with a 30-Day, Money-Back Guarantee. I want you to dive in deep and experience the full wealth of this resource without inhibition.
If you’re not satisfied, just contact me within 30 days of purchase, and I’ll refund your money. No questions asked.

Now, you’re probably worried and thinking:

“If I guarantee to refund money after people receive the product, everyone will just steal my product!”

You’re right.

Cheaters gonna cheat… So what can you do?

For one, offer a high quality product! The honest people won’t have a REASON to ask for a refund…

…and the dishonest people – research shows – are LESS likely to cheat, when they’re actually satisfied.

Plus: do you really want to penalize the good people because of the actions of a few unscrupulous people?

Probably not.

Of course, you can also introduce conditions. Not only to discourage cheating, but it can actually make your guarantee MORE credible…

Guarantee #11: The “One-Conditional” Guarantee

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing suggests that buyers must meet just ONE condition to get a full refund: They have to give you feedback on how to make the product or service better.

Here’s a simple script you can use:

If for any reason you’re not satisfied with [PRODUCT] we’ll issue a prompt and full refund. There’s only ONE condition: Please tell us the main reason you weren’t happy with the product, so we have a chance to make it better.

Guarantee #12: The “Show Me You Did the Work” Guarantee

You don’t ask for feedback, but you want to see that people actually USED the material. Here’s the script:

If you decide this isn’t working for you, contact our support team (…) show us you actually did the work (and completed the worksheets), and we’ll issue you a prompt FULL refund.

Let me explain why this works EXTREMELY well for a product:

The only way to really know whether the material in the course works is to actually USE it. Makes sense, right?

Everyone understands that. So if I offered a “no questions asked” guarantee it would actually make the guarantee seem much more like a sales “trick”.

The guarantee would be LESS credible.

As a general rule:

The less your customers know about you and your product before they buy, the less credible a no questions asked guarantee will seem…

But also…

Use this guarantee to scare off the people who just buy courses, never open them, and then ask for a refund.

Guarantee #13: The Minimum Result Guarantee

Instead of a vague “satisfaction” guarantee, it’s always better to be CLEAR and SPECIFIC about the RESULTS customers can expect… And that’s what a minimum results guarantee does.

Take for example this guarantee for a home teaching program:

If your grade doesn’t increase by at least 1 level, you’ll receive a full refund.

Now what if you offer a service?

Let’s say you’re a marketing consultant. You could offer something like this:

If I can’t increase your conversion rate by at least 6%, I will issue a full refund.

Or as a personal trainer:

Lose 7lbs in 30 Days or Your Money Back!

Now, I know that if you sell a service, offering a money-back guarantee can be SCARY.

I mean, do you really want to give all the money back AFTER you did the work? You can’t get your time back… So if a significant number of people take you up on the offer, you’ll be broke soon!

So here’s what you need to do:

Look at the results you got with your previous clients. And ask yourself: What is the minimum result I can guarantee?

Or even better…

Guarantee #14: The Conditional Guarantee

… combine your minimum result with the RIGHT conditions.

Take a look at this offer from Halevy Life’s, a private training gym:

Does your gym or personal trainer guarantee your results? Well, we do. Give us ninety days and we will transform you. And we’re so sure of it, that at the end of 90 days if you haven’t improved in at least three of five quantifiable fitness measures, we’ll simply return your money. To be eligible for Fitness Guaranteed® you must commit to working with us three times per week, for a period of three months.

Here’s why this works:

It doesn’t just say “we’ll guarantee you’ll be more fit”. That’s vague and subjective…

Instead, it tells you EXACTLY what will happen (“You’ll improve at least three quantifiable fitness measures”) and what’s expected (“work out at least three times per week”).

These are the RIGHT kind of conditions. Because they make the offer MORE credible.

Guarantee #15: Try Before You Buy

If you offer different versions of your product, remove the risk of choosing the “wrong” one with a “Try Before You Buy” guarantee.

There’s always a long line at the ice creamery.

Why? Because everyone wants to taste test several flavors before they commit… to ICE CREAM!

Apparently removing the risk of choosing the “wrong” flavor is worth waiting in line…

Guarantee #16: The Buy-Back Guarantee

If you’re selling physical products in large quantities, consider the Buy-Back guarantee. Think of moving boxes, for example…

The question for your customer is “How many should I get?”

That’s why U-Haul features this guarantee:

We offer 100% buy-back of any unused U-Haul boxes, with receipt, at any U-Haul center nationwide.

This is great for a few reasons…

When people need to buy something in bulk, they’re going to be scared they’re buying too much – and they may buy too little.

This is bad for the customer. It’s also bad for you because you won’t sell as much as you should have sold.

This Buy-Back guarantee, on the other hand, takes the “too little or too much” problem off the table. It makes people buy “too much,” under the guise of, “I can just return the extra.”

Guarantee #17: The On-Time Guarantee

You know how plumbers are notorious for being late?

That’s why the Benjamin Franklin Plumbing company branded itself “The Punctual Plumber”… and backed it up with their clever on-time guarantee:

At Benjamin Franklin Plumbing your complete satisfaction with both our service and our plumbers is 100% guaranteed. Our on-time guarantee is backed by highly-skilled, expertly-trained plumbers. If we’re not on time, we pay you $5.00 per each minute we’re late (up to $300).

If you provide an in-person service, being on time is probably important to YOUR customers, too.

Could you imagine if a doctor’s office did this?

Imagine if a doctor’s office said, we will see you at the time we promised – or your visit is on us.

That will never happen. Because doctors are notoriously horrible at sticking to the time they promise… but imagine if they did.

Guarantee #18: The Delivery/Turnaround Guarantee

How did FedEx outdo the U.S. postal service and become the go-to delivery service for corporations? With their reliability and overnight delivery guarantee, of course:

You can count on FedEx reliability. We have a remarkable on-time delivery record, and we back (…) shipments with a money-back guarantee.

When something absolutely NEEDS to be delivered at a certain time, a guarantee like that makes the difference.

How does this apply to you?

If you provide any kind of service or product where RELIABLE delivery or QUICK turnaround time is the main risk, you could introduce a similar guarantee.

Here’s a script you can use:

We know you absolutely rely on timely delivery. That’s why we guarantee [TURNAROUND TIME] day delivery on all of your orders. If we don’t deliver on time, we’ll refund your money in full.

How might this apply to online services and products?

If you’re a consultant, or web designer, or providing any type of service, you can guarantee a deliverable within a certain time period.

That will help your client know when you’ll deliver – and it will put you on the hook for delivering it.

Again, doing something like this might be scary. But it can also be the difference between closing the client and losing the client.

Guarantee #19: The Free Sample Guarantee

Can you offer a free sample of a DIGITAL product? Sure…

Think of Amazon. Publishers can include free sample versions of their e-books. That way anyone thinking about buying the book, can get a feel for the writing style and content.

It works if you’re selling a course, too. You can simply offer access to one of your lessons.

Or if you know how to launch your product the right way, the whole idea of the “Free Sample” is built into the marketing strategy.

And it sure does help increase conversions.

Guarantee #20: The Risk-Free Trial

If you’re selling a subscription or software as a service, the “Risk-free Trial” has become the standard risk-reversal…

For a software product, your first goal is to get people to TRY… and then buy.

When GetResponse prominently featured a free trial button on their homepage, the number of free accounts increased by 158.60%. There was no negative influence on the number of paid accounts created directly via homepage either…

The same was true for ArtsyEditor, a wordpress plugin for writers. Offering a risk-free trial brought 47% more people to their pricing page.

CrazyEgg replaced their money-back guarantee badges with “30-day free trial” badges – and boosted signups by 116%!

Now I’m not sure if I’d do the same thing for a non-software product. But I do like the risk free trial in one way:

I like it when people can try it, and if they don’t upgrade to the paid plan, they lose access to everything.

This is actually known as a “pain of disconnect”. And it works GREAT for software as a service companies.

Guarantee #21: The No-Catch $1 Trial

Instead of a free trial, some software companies offer a $1 trial. Here’s an example from Moz, a company that provides marketing analytics and tools:

They offered their free subscribers a 30-day full-featured membership for just $1.

While it’s not free, $1 is still a pretty low risk. Yet, some people still didn’t sign up. Moz wanted to find out why…

As it turns out, those people had one main concern:

“What’s the catch?”

People worried that there was a hidden catch, and that they would somehow have to sign up for a long-term contract.

Here’s what that means for you:

If you offer a $1 trial – or even when you ask for the credit card information upfront – make it clear that there is NO CATCH and that you will make it easy for people to cancel…

Because let’s face it… Some companies make it difficult to cancel their service during the trial, just so they can charge people!

That’s BAD business.

So don’t use this to trick people. The goal of your trial is to get people to actually USE your service, so they can decide whether it’s right for them.

If you’re selling software as a service, chances are you will get the best results if you focus on attracting serious prospects, and offering a free trial.

Guarantee #22: Lowest Price Guarantee

I don’t recommend you compete on price… But let’s face it:

Who doesn’t love a good deal?

That’s why travel website sunshine.co.uk offers this straightforward guarantee on their home page:

Find your holiday cheaper, and we’ll refund the difference.

The lowest price guarantee might not be right for you. Again, because competing on price means you’re in the commodity business.

But if you ARE in that business, then you could do it.

Guarantee #23: The Price Drop Guarantee

More than we love getting a good deal, we hate getting a bad one.

It’s a DISGUSTING feeling when you finally decide to buy something… only to see the price drop just a few days later!

The airline WestJet realized this. And that’s why they offer their price-drop guarantee:

Book the flight you want, and if the price drops after you book, right up until 2 hours before you fly, we’ll give you back the difference in WestJet dollars. No games, just peace of mind. That’s our Price Drop Guarantee.

Want to know what’s funny?

Many consumer credit cards have this feature BUILT IN to their credit card policy. Meaning, if someone buys something for $99 bucks, and a day later it’s $89, your credit card may offer protection against just that.

But here, WestJet just offered it as part of their policy.

Guarantee #24: The Price Lock Guarantee

This takes away the risk of getting quoted one price, only to see “costs” go up and facing a much higher bill.

That’s awful for your customer. But a price lock can fix it and help you close more deals.

Here’s an example on a home builder’s website:

Most “On-Your-Lot” and many other custom home builders will raise your price if material or labor costs go up. HiLine will never raise your price as long as construction begins within 90 days from order date. Once we start construction, your price is locked and will never be increased. Guaranteed!

And another one here, from a Payroll service provider. Different business, same idea:

Lock in your payroll price for two years with absolutely no increases and no long term contract to sign. We know businesses have to cut back and control expenses aggressively. You cannot raise your own prices or give anyone a wage increase, yet your outsourced vendors still demand their annual price hike…every year! Frustrated? Don’t be. Come to Inova Payroll and enjoy our innovative Two-Year-Price-Guarantee. It’s the smart thing to do.

If price increases are your customers’ main worry, the price lock guarantee is the way to reduce their risk.

Now, what if you sell a subscription or a recurring service? Take a look at…

Guarantee #25: No Contract Guarantee

As much as your customers like locking in a low price, they HATE being locked in a long term contract.

The No Contract guarantee takes that fear away. T-Mobile’s Un-contract is the perfect example. They even combine it with a price-lock AND price-drop guarantee! Check it out:

Trapped by contracts and phone payment plans? Say goodbye to old wireless forever—and say hello to The Un-carrier™, because T-Mobile breaks the rules to break you free. That means no more 2-year service contracts. No more overages. No more limits on our network. Join us and see why 1.6 million people have already broken free from their old carrier.
Here’s another reason to join T-Mobile. Now, we’ll guarantee your rates as long as you’re our customer, all without the restrictions of signing a long-term service contract. Here’s the best part: Your rates may go down, but they won’t go up. We call this approach Un-contract™.

Guarantee #26: The Anytime Money-Back Guarantee

A few hosting providers offer something like the “Anytime Money-Back” guarantee. But it works for any long term subscription.

Here’s a basic script from justhost:

Our cancellation policy is very simple – if you cancel your hosting account we will provide you with a refund for the remainder of the term.

This is great.

Because you can get people to sign up for a year – which is awesome for cash flow – but also reverse the risk of “What if I want to leave, do I waste my money?”

Moving on…

Guarantee #27: The “Get More” Guarantee

Your customers don’t want your service… they want a certain OUTCOME. And your service is only a way to help them get there.

That’s why I love the “We’ll Give You an Additional 6 months Free” guarantee from Match.com:

If you don’t find someone special during your initial 6-month subscription, we will give you an additional 6 months at no additional cost to you to continue your search. You’ll love your time with us. We guarantee it.

It’s a guarantee that’s focused on an outcome – in the case of a dating site, finding a partner – AND it keeps customers engaged with your product… while also turning someone who may hate you for the rest of their life into someone who may become one of your SUPER fans.

Guarantee #28: The Free Updates Guarantee

“Free Updates” work well for software and other digital products. It’s similar to the price drop guarantee: it reverses the risk of buying at the wrong time…

I’ve got two examples for you. The first guarantee is for a music software called FL Studio:

This might be hard to believe but buying FL Studio not only gets you the latest version but all future FL Studio updates free. This means you’ll receive FL Studio 12, 13, e.t.c., absolutely free as we believe you should have the functionality you paid for, bug-fixed and updated, for as long as we develop FL Studio.

Offering lifetime free updates is extensive… but it’s a STRONG risk reversal.The second example is for a CPA exam preparation course. Here’s the script they use:

Your CPAexcel course has no expiration date. Use it until one year after you pass. Course repeats, online content updates, and software upgrades are free.

Guarantee #29: The “Premium Support” Guarantee

Sometimes people don’t know how to use your product. Especially if you sell technical products or software. It’s a real risk people take when they buy…

… but it’s a risk you can reduce if you offer a “Premium Support” guarantee.

A good example is hosting: it’s a technical product, most people don’t really understand it, but it’s crucial that it works. Here’s a script:

With 100% uptime and secure, reliable servers, chances are you may never need to talk to us. However, if you do need a helping hand, our world-class U.S.-based technical support team is available 24/7/365. Codero offers a variety of convenient ways to communicate with us for technical or account support help.

You can also COMBINE the support guarantee with the “we’ll fix it” guarantee… That’s why TurboTax offers an Audit Support guarantee:

Our TurboTax Audit Support Guarantee gives you free audit guidance from a trained tax professional to help you understand your IRS notice and answer all your audit-related questions. This Guarantee covers all (…) federal and state returns prepared in TurboTax…

The TurboTax guarantee removes the risk of facing a tax audit alone, by offering a strong support guarantee.

Guarantee #30: The Implementation Guarantee

Huddle is a file sharing and collaboration software for companies. Their “Adoption” guarantee is basically a version of a premium support guarantee, combined with a minimum result.

Check it out:

The Huddle Adoption Guarantee is an industry first. We guarantee that within 90 days 100% of your initial user groups will be trained and using Huddle actively – or we will refund a full three months subscription value.

This is smart. Not only does it reduce the risk of people not using the software for the client, but it helps Huddle turn their clients into long-time, loyal subscribers.

Guarantee #31: The “If You Don’t Use It” Guarantee

Have you ever spent money on something you didn’t use?

What I call a “If You Don’t Use it” guarantee takes that risk out of the equation for your customers.

As an example, some car dealers offer this kind of guarantee on their vehicle service contracts:

Have you ever heard the statement: You can have your cake and eat it too! Well, here it is in real life! Our program allows the customer to have the benefit of a Vehicle Service Contract in case of a mechanical breakdown, and also get a 100% refund of the purchase price of the VSC if they do not use it. Your customer will not be spending money on something they will not get a return on. It is a win-win for your customer.

Guarantee #32: Partial Refund Guarantee

This is a weak guarantee… It’s basically LESS than money-back.

It COULD be a way to safeguard yourself against time-stealing clients if you’re in a service business. But it works best if you combine it with another type of guarantee like…

Guarantee #33: The Profit Guarantee

Punters.com.au is a horse racing website. The users on the site can make money by selling their betting tips. And they can choose to include a profit guarantee. Here’s how it works:

When a tipper has chosen to offer a profit guarantee (they have the option to do so when adding their tips), you will automatically be entitled to a 70% refund if their tips don’t make some sort of profit if you were to bet on each of them. Profit guarantees are a great way to ensure you are not paying too much for tips if they don’t perform.

It’s basically a partial money-back guarantee with a minimum result (making a profit).

As a business consultant, can you guarantee profits in a similar way?

Guarantee #34: Revenue Share

This is a proven model in a few different industries. For example, music managers traditionally don’t get paid a fixed fee, but a percentage of the income their client generates.

If you’re a consultant, but you only get paid if your client makes money, that pretty much takes all the risk out of it for your client. It WILL help you close more sales. But watch out…

It only makes sense if you have control over the implementation of your advice.

And if you want to build in a security net for yourself, you can combine a revenue share with a minimum payment up front.

Guarantee #35: The Authenticity Guarantee

If you’re an e-commerce business selling physical products, what’s one of the main risks for your customers?

Customers can’t touch or examine your products in person. An authenticity guarantee can take care of that.

ESPECIALLY if you’re selling pre-owned luxury goods, like watches, jewelry, clothes or handbags. Here’s the script from yoogiscloset.com:

We know that shopping for pre-owned luxury items isn’t easy and nothing will ruin your day faster than finding out that the handbag you bought on an auction or classifieds website turns out to be a replica.
We guarantee the authenticity of every item we sell or 100% of your money back including original and return shipping costs. Only 100% authentic bags earn the tag!

Don’t believe this makes a difference? Take the site ExpressWatch.co.uk that sells Seiko watches online. When they introduced and prominently featured an authenticity badge, their sales conversions went up 107%!

So if you’re a online retailer, or say a vintage-seller, the authenticity guarantee is for you!

Guarantee #36: The Content Guarantee

Ok, this might seem crazy but… Ever thought about offering a guarantee for the quality of your content?

Well, check this:

The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily newspaper in Winnipeg. The editor decided to offer a money-back guarantee for their paid subscription offer:

Even better, we will be offering you a money-back guarantee if you don’t like what you paid to read. In other words, you won’t have to become a subscriber to consume our content; you will be able to dine la carte in much the same way iTunes allows you to buy what you want when you want.

Guarantee #37: The Payment Plan

This is not exactly a guarantee on its own… but offering a payment plan AND a standard money-back guarantee TOGETHER – especially for a high priced product – is a powerful risk reversal.

That’s why language learning software Rosetta Stone offers this:

The 3-Pay and 5-Pay Easy-Payment Plans are a convenient way to finance your Rosetta Stone® purchase. This service is a courtesy to our customers, with the plan offered at 0% APR (no interest charges).

Now, you might be surprised about this next one…

Guarantee #38: No Guarantee

Say what?

Sometimes offering NO guarantee is the way to go.

If you’re selling a very low priced item, or there’s simply no way you can offer a money-back guarantee on your service…

Rather than just ignoring the fact there’s no guarantee, you can highlight that you’re so CONFIDENT in your product, that you’re not offering a guarantee on purpose.

Guarantee #39: The Exchange Guarantee

Instead of money-back, you can offer to issue a gift card or exchange the product for an item of the same value. Really, this only works for physical products, and it’s not very convincing.

But…

Let’s say you’re an artist selling sculptures. If the client doesn’t like the art piece once they see it in their home, you could offer to exchange it for a different piece of the same value.

Obviously, this doesn’t eliminate all the risk… so it’s not as strong as a money-back guarantee.

Even though it works for physical products, if you have a catalogue of several courses, it could also work for that too.

If someone buys one course for $500, and wants a refund, you can offer to apply that $500 towards another course that they want instead.

Even though I personally haven’t tried this yet, it’s something worth testing to see if you can turn a refunder into a buyer once more…

The Perfect Guarantee for YOUR Business

Domino’s Pizza was close to bankruptcy when ONE simple promotion set them apart from all of their competitors:

30 minutes or less… or it’s free.

It’s GENIUS. And it goes beyond risk-reversal…

Instead of trying to charm customers with “great taste” – like EVERY other pizza place – that simple guarantee probably saved the company.

If you can come up with a guarantee that no one else is offering, but touches on an important pain point of your customers… now that’s powerful!

So how do you find the perfect guarantee for your business?

Let’s recap in 3 easy steps:

Step 1: What are the main risks?

Remember, the main goal is to ELIMINATE all the risk for your customer.

So first you need to identify what the main risks are:

Are customers concerned about overpaying? Are they worried they won’t know how to use your product correctly? Are they afraid your product will break? Are they afraid they won’t get it in time? Are they afraid it won’t fit?

Answer those questions and come up with a guarantee to take away that risk.

Step 2: What does “satisfaction” look like?

Remember, simply guaranteeing satisfaction can backfire, especially if you’re in a service business.

But it’s also too vague to be effective. Instead offer a more specific “minimum result” or “performance” guarantee.

To make sure you attract the right customers, you can always add conditions, too.

Step 3: More than money-back?

Remember, there’s a cost of doing business for your customers – even if they get their money back.

Can you offer more than money-back or a bonus with your offer?

Ideally, your guarantee will become not only a powerful risk reversal tool, but make you stand out among your competition, and make your offer irresistible!