What are you willing to do to get a client?
Thousands of books have been written on selling. After all, it’s the oldest profession! (And no, the other one isn’t – they first had to “market and sell” themselves.
And these books talk about one of the biggest barriers to a sale being a lack of trust.
But I think there’s actually something more significant that comes first, and that’s fear.
Fear that you’ll make the wrong decision. Fear that you won’t like the product or service. Fear that it won’t work and you’ll do your dough. Fear that should you change your mind for any reason (and buyer’s remorse is a very real thing), you won’t be able to get your money back.
So if you’re selling something, how could you combat this? How could you effectively remove the fear barrier to making a sale?
There are two main methods.
The first is to offer a free trial and the second, an outrageous guarantee.
Now a lot of sales people and business owners cringe at the thought of offering a free trial. They think people will take advantage of them, get something free the first time and never come back.
And while that might be the attitude for a minute percentage of the population, for the vast majority, this never happens.
So I’m going to give you some examples of free trials and guarantees that will surprise you.
If you’ve ever bought hiking boots, you’ll know that just walking around on the carpet in the store is nothing like walking through the bush or mountains, through mud, snow and rain.
You absolutely want them to be comfortable, not just for the 5 minutes in the shop, but in real world conditions.
So imagine a hiking boot manufacturer that allows you to try their boots in real world conditions. And not for an hour or two – but on 3 to 4 day hikes through the Swiss mountains.
One of Barbara’s oldest friends runs Lowa in Switzerland. It’s a highly competitive market. A few years ago they decided that people should be able to “try” their boots and use them in real world conditions.
So you can pick up a pair at a Kiosk at the beginning of a trail and walk through the mountains for 3 days and drop them off at your destination – with no obligation to buy them.
The MD told Barbara that they have about 30% of the market and attribute a lot of their success to this strategy. (There was a significant increase in sales once they started this)
Now what did surprise me was that Lowa had no precise tracking mechanism. They have no way of tracking how many people go from the free trial to buying. (You can’t actually buy the shoes at the kiosks – only pick up and drop them off.)
Personally, what I would have done was offer everyone who tried the shoes a coupon where they’d get a discount if they came into a store within a certain period of time and bought a pair.
I’d also make sure I kept marketing to them via email, physical mail and SMS – telling them what promotions were on, hiking news etc. They also sell skis etc., so there would be lots of cross marketing they could do.
The second example is an old client of ours. They’re a photographic printing lab that caters exclusively to the professional market.
Years ago I remember arguing with the business owners that they should offer a money back guarantee. They resisted big time, telling me that professional photographers were a finicky lot and they’d get swamped with people wanting stuff corrected all the time.
I finally convinced them to not only guarantee their work, but offer a 110% money back guarantee.
And you know what? In the 9 years since, NOT ONE PERSON has ever called them on the guarantee. But it alleviates hidden fears in their prospect’s minds.
And the final example is a new client, Alana Estate in New Zealand.
Alana sells reasonably high priced wine, generally by the case.
I told them that one of the biggest fears was likely to be “Will I like the wine, and if not, will I be lumbered with a whole case?”
So we instituted a guarantee which goes like this…
“Our Guarantee To You:
If you’ve bought multiple bottles of the same wine, try a couple and if you are not completely satisified for any reason, let us know and we’ll promptly organise to have the remaining bottles picked up and your money refunded in full.
If you’ve bought a case or more of mixed wine, try each one and if you’re not happy, we’ll promptly and cheerfully refund your money for every bottle you don’t like. If you want to return all the wine unopened, once again, we’ll organise to have them picked up and your total purchase including shipping refunded. Can’t be fairer than that.”
So far, no one’s called them on it. And even if they did, wouldn’t you rather a happy customer who knows that though they didn’t like this lot, might try others and also tell people about the great experience they had with the company?
The irony with guarantees is that it’s what you’d do anyway. But you can’t assume that your customers would know this. It’s up to you to tell them!
So what guarantees could you come up with for your products? What could you do to break down the fear barriers?
If you’d like specific help, we’re a phone call away. Call me for an obligation free chat and I guarantee you’ll walk away with ideas you can implement.
It’s out way of saying “thank you” for being a loyal reader.
And in case you’re wondering what our guarantee is… “We’ll edit any material we write until you’re happy with it and it meets any compliance (in the case of Financial Planners etc.) requirements you may have.”
Rashid.
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