Yes, You Need a Guarantee

I’ve always preached to my clients to make sure they have a guarantee. Most of them just don’t like to do them. Some worry they’ll lose money or their guarantee will sound cheesy. My solution? I just beat them up until they do it (not literally, mind you). But I have to explain to them, usually many times, that yes, you need a guarantee. And you need a solid one your entire company can stand behind.

A Vital Part of the Vision/Traction Organizer™

When a leadership team first completes its V/TO™, they may try to skate past the line for the guarantee. They can’t see how they need a guarantee as part of their marketing strategy. Yet I find this one of the most vital parts of the V/TO. 

While I’ll let them slide on the first pass, I won’t just drop it. I keep after them, insisting they need to agree on one eventually. Yes, I know as a doctor or financial planner, you might have to make a pledge. That’s better than nothing. But many times, if you think about it, you can take a pledge, change it a little, and make it a guarantee.

A great guarantee doesn’t have to make grandiose promises, either. In fact, your guarantee had better involve something you know you can deliver. Otherwise, your reputation and your balance sheet will suffer.

For example, as a business owner, I would guarantee my clients 100% happiness. Period. Nothing complicated about that. I mean, I sold live lobsters. For me, that was an easy guarantee. Yet it offered a beautifully simple way to put my customers at ease. 

Offering a guarantee takes the risk out of buying from you. It literally can mean the difference between a sale or no sale. 

A guarantee also makes your expectations crystal clear to your employees. And in this way, it automatically creates a level of consistency that customers love. If you guarantee your customers will receive X, everyone on your team had better know how to consistently deliver X. And by receiving X, you delight your customers, and they’ll come back to you again and again. 

Better yet, they tell their circle of influence about your company and help create new customers for you. 

Yes, You Can Have a Guarantee

I have several law firms as clients. As you can imagine, they’re the first ones to insist: Oh, we can’t have a guarantee. “Yeah, you can,” I tell them. “And I will wear you down until, during one of these quarterly sessions, you say, OK, we’ll do it. We’ll take it as a Rock.’” 

(Have I mentioned I’m pretty persistent?)

I do this because I know the power of a guarantee. I saw firsthand the impact having a guarantee can have on sales. Once I had a guarantee for my old company, Lobster Gram©, sales just went through the roof. 

Why? When no one else in your industry offers a guarantee, that can quickly become one of your key marketing points. You differentiate yourself by lowering the risk a customer faces by doing business with you. It blows away the competition. 

One of those reluctant attorneys finally gave in after two years and came up with a guarantee for her firm. Guess what? It blew her competition away. 

Many times clients already have a guarantee, but they don’t promote it. But that’s the key. You must promote your guarantee everywhere your prospects and clients can see it.

But if you run an entrepreneurial business, you need more than a good guarantee. To find out where else your business can get stronger, take the free Organizational Checkup™.