(Time to read this blog article is about 40 seconds)
Whether you sell a product or a service, one of the most powerful marketing tools you can create is a compelling guarantee. The right guarantee will do these 5 things for you. It will…
- Clearly differentiate you from your competitors,
- Make you memorable…and perhaps ‘famous’,
- Create customer confidence,
- Focus every member of your team on delivering the compelling value that you guarantee,
- Increase sales and profitability.
To be most effective, your guarantee must include two things…
A) Promise a specific level of performance or a value that’s compelling to your target customers.
This could be a promise that something will happen if they do business with you (ie, “We guarantee that your parcels will be delivered anywhere in North America by 9:00 am tomorrow” …or, it could be a promise that something won’t happen (ie, “We guarantee that your car won’t rust for five years.)
B) Be specific about what you’ll do for the customer if you fail to deliver your promise.
My favorite example is, “Your pizza will be delivered in 40 minutes…or it’s FREE!” They don’t guarantee that it’s a great tasting pizza. No, this guarantee is for people who value ‘fast’ more than flavor.
Years ago, in my days as an award-winning fashion retailer, we created an outrageous and powerful guarantee that make us famous and grew our bottom line!
We came up with what we called, ‘The world’s most unusual guarantee!’ It went like this, “We’re so sure you’ll love our store that if you show up and think we’re ‘for the birds’…I’ll pay your gas mileage!”
This gutsy guarantee differentiated us and gave 1,000’s of new customers the confidence to drive up to three hours to try us out. It focused our staff on delivering the amazing customer experience that made it worth the drive…and in over 11 years, we paid out less than $200 in gas mileage!
What gutsy and powerful guarantee could you come up with in your business? What could you promise to do, or not do, that would clearly differentiate you, create confidence, focus your team and grow your bottom line?
But here’s the catch! A guarantee is a promise and breaking that promise will kill your business! So, here’s how it works…first, perfect your delivery, then make the promise. Don’t promise first, and then try to figure out how you’re going to pull it off. This will end badly.
