How to Boost Your Sales with a Strong Guarantee

How to Boost Your Sales with a Strong Guarantee

Reader Comments (38)

  1. I never understood the ‘guarantee’ world.

    But this post has opened my brains to the ‘guarantee’ world.

    “The truth is, you may will get ripped off by a few people. But in the long run, what you gain from additional sales will far outweigh what you lose from those scant few cheats.”

    This was the eye opener for me. Now I finally understand the purpose of a guarantee. MANY people do not get the above (including me). You have to think BIG in a business, and those words were very BIG indeed.

  2. I didn’t realize how much guarantees impact my own purchasing decisions until I read this article. I do hesitate when it comes to purchases, but a guarantee makes me feel secure in moving forward. The funny thing is, I’ve only returned one product in my entire life.

  3. Hey Dean,

    I’ve purchased a lot of great products online because of the guarantee they provided. In my traditional business I use it all the time. Provides security and that you stand behind your product or service.

    Chat with you later…
    Josh

  4. “Does a guarantee pose a risk for you?”

    I think it’s fairly short sighted to broadly say that the gains will outweigh the risks of offering such a guarantee.

    This may be the case assuming a business already has ample sales and traffic, but for start-ups and websites that are struggling to get traffic, let alone sales, this could be a fatal assumption. A guarantee isn’t going to be a make-or-break benefit for most websites, so one couldn’t assume that some flood of new shoppers will appear just because the guarantee exists. This would be like saying using an EV SSL certificate guarantees a positive ROI for any website. Sure, it will probably pay off for someone doing $50K+ per month, but for the struggling site doing a few thousand per month, most likely not.

    The other caveat of such a guarantee is for very expensive products, those that are easily damaged or broken, or those that can never be resold (such as branded software). If you end up selling your $5000 product and it get’s returned, where you are not able to resell it, you just lost a lot of money. Again, for the large site, this tactic may provide a positive ROI, but for the smaller website a single return could do some serious damage.

    My other criticism is “The only time you run a risk is when you offer crappy products. ”

    You don’t need to offer crappy products to suffer from a high return rate. Software is the perfect example of this. Even with the best product descriptions, consumers often purchase the wrong software, or decide they don’t need it. It could be the best software, at the best price, and there’s no way to eliminate returns because of consumer knowledge and buying trends. Add in the non-transferable licenses and a no-hassle guarantee just got really expensive.

    I think that many websites can use and will benefit from a great guarantee like this. Ideally we would all like to shop at and provide a guarantee like this, but I think to say the boost in sales will surpass any potential loses for everyone, is a dangerous assumption.

  5. Wow, Dean! Your post is a terrific reminder that guarantees (especially when well written) can help give that final bit of reassurance to our customers, clients, etc. Thanks so much for the insightful post!

  6. Dean, from a copywriting-for-hire standpoint, wouldn’t it be wise for a copywriter to ask the client seeking their skills to ask what the guarantee for the product is before accepting the job to write copy to sell it? If the guy says, “The product has no guarantee,” wouldn’t that affect whether or not you took the job? Just curious on this.

  7. When I get people who ask for a refund on one of my products – and I issue it without delay – they turn into fans.

    Seriously – I have more testimonials (that I have to find a use for) about my amazing customer service and trustworthiness – than anything else. It’s because people are shocked to be treated fairly.

    Use that to your advantage. Give a guarantee and be proud to stick to it. I was shocked to see what a difference it made to those that the product DIDN’T fit for (some asked what else I offered, could they buy something else from me).

  8. “The answer? You have to reduce the perceived risk people feel so there is no hesitation to take you up on your offer.”

    An excellent point that I definitely see even just in my own spending habits.

    Dean, I am further wondering what you think about shipping costs.

    When ordering online, there is the added perceived risk of shipping cost. Even if an item is guaranteed returnable, if I have to pay for shipping and return shipping, I hesitate.

    So for instance in your example of the lectures, if I opted to get the DVD version shipped to my house, I would be more assured if I also knew shipping fees would be covered. My confidence would be boosted an extra level. Just another thought to consider in reducing perceived risk and costumer loyalty – depending on the type of product and its means of transmission, including shipping costs in your refund guarantee could further reduce hesitation, securing that the costumer is not losing money to ship something they are unsure of.

  9. Great information. You have really read the mind of the customers. A guarantee definitely goes a long way to eliminate doubts in customer’s mind in case of a online purchase. For example I always prefer to buy things from Amazon.com even if sometimes it is a little bit expensive than some other unknown site or even a store, the reason is their reputation and 100% return guarantee. I am always sure that if something goes wrong I am totally covered, although it is very rare I had to return my purchase.

  10. I’m a big fan of the guarantee. I think it’s a “must have” for e-products, which fortunately don’t involve shipping costs and can’t be damaged by the end consumers, as per the concerns raised in some of the other comments.

  11. Thanks for a great article on how to convert your customers with a strong guarantee. Now I think about it, that’s probably why companies like Costco do so well, with their guarantee.

  12. Thanks for sharing this, I’d never realised the importance of this. I thought it would apply for expensive products, but I guess it applies equally to lower priced ones too.

  13. The thing that took me from “oh, nice article” to – “wow, gotta talk to my partner about this and my website person and take some action here” was the piece about how guarantees can remove the last vestige of doubt from the customers mind.

    @Jestep – you raise some interesting points for more discussion, more on the ‘dark side’ of guarantees, which I reckon are worthy of being discussed (by someone who knows more about it than me, which would be just about anybody).

  14. Personally, I don’t buy without a guarantee. If you’re not so confident in your product that you’ll offer me every penny back, that tells me everything I need to know.

    Guarantees, even beyond being a great way to ease buyer fears, show potential buyers that you’ll put your money where your mouth is. It says that you’re selling something you have supreme confidence in.

    I’ve also found it’s best to have an “all-or-nothing” guarantee. This would include lifetime guarantees or guarantees where the customer gets to keep the product and still gets their money back. Those show that you have no fear that they will be disappointed.

  15. The truth is you have to have a quality product with a guarantee. When you have the quality product, you have nothing to worry about with the guarantee. The fact with guarantees is that most people won’t take the initiative to get the money back guarantee even if they end up not being satisfied. It’s the same reason companies give you a rebate that you have to mail in instead of just giving you a lower price. Most people never send in the rebate.

  16. I totally agree with you. Laying down your terms and conditions clearly will attract more people to buy your product/service. Since transparency is the key on getting the trust of other people.

  17. ‘ Guarantee’ is one of the best sales pitch strategies, The author has dealt with the subject in detail. The points under ‘How to write a risk-eliminating guarantee’ were interesting. The final part ‘Does a guarantee pose a risk for you?’, apt way to conclude. If you are confident about the quality of your product, Guarantee really does not pose a risk for you. A very Good Article. Thumbs up!

  18. Choose words carefully for guarantee to be definite that it resonates together with potential customer. We can see from these few points how significant guarantee is in closing the sale. Strong guarantee is a powerful factor in making the final push to persuade our potential customer to buy from us..

  19. Dean,

    The power of the guarantee cannot be stated enough. Since in many situations it is the law that you have to have a return policy of some kind, it would be in the marketer’s best interest to put that baby up front instead of burying it down deep in the copy.

    One great trick for really expensive products is delayed billing. This is how Bowflex and Nordi Trac have made millions. You let the customer try the product out for free and then agree to bill them later if they keep it. Most people don’t want to give the thing back once they get their hot little hands on it.

    This is great for expensive products, but can work with anything.

    -Joshua Black
    The Underdog Millionaire

  20. Hi guys,

    I love guarantees. I usually don’t buy a product without an guarantee, because buying products online is risky. Thanks for sharing.

    Kind regards,
    Sam
    X

  21. Does anyone have any advice on how this would apply to a product that is free? People have doubts about products, even when they are free. How do you allay their fears when you can’t give a guarantee for a free product?

  22. I agree with the article.Most of the people nowadays are scared to death on online purchases sometimes even ‘with’ guarantee. I feel bad because sometimes, people return their product because they are not satisfied and yet haven’t got what was written on the ‘guarantee’ condition.

    I guess being more transparent will make you ahead of others. Stick with your guarantee condition and definitely people will trust you and your product.

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