The Risk-Reversal Guarantee by Jay Abraham

As you may have read on other occasions, I’m a big fan of Jay Abraham. I was reading his book “Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got” last night, and came across the chapter on risk-reversal guarantees.

You might be asking yourself what does that have to do with web copywriting or marketing? It has everything to do with it. Jay is a firm believer (as am I) that hype doesn’t sell anything. Hype as in hyperbole. Hyperbole is making unsubstantiated claims or using adjectives to describe your product, service or firm.

A good example would be, “Our product is vastly superior to all our competitors.” Claims like that immediately fire up people’s BS meter and you’ve dropped a big notch in their evaluation. According to Abraham, what really sells people is an honest appraisal of your product or service with substantiated claims (if you have them), and a guarantee that takes all the risk off of the buyer.

Risk-reversal guarantees can scare the living daylights out of business people. We start shaking in our boots imagining hundreds of screaming people demanding their (our) money back. However, if you don’t believe your product or service has enough value that you can give people a guarantee, then maybe you need to improve your product or service. Or get out of business.

One other point. Don’t make a guarantee unless you’ve analysed your business and fixed any problems. And make sure you pull the troops together and explain it to them so they understand that everyone’s livelihood (including yours) is on the line with this guarantee. Get their help, get their ideas, get them motivated. Everyone in the company must be willing to do whatever it takes to make good on the guarantee.

Here are a few examples Jay Abraham gave in his book on risk-reversal guarantees:

1. A car dealer he worked with doubled his business by offering - no questions asked - a two week, 100 percent money-back guarantee on any new or used car purchase. As Jay asked, why would anyone buy from any other dealer when they can get a guarantee like that? A few people did return the cars. But most of them had decided they wanted a more expensive or luxury model and traded up. So he made more money from them.
2. A company that sells a home teaching program to improve the reading skills of children offers this compelling guarantee: Your child will raise his reading or spelling grade by at least one grade level on his next report card or your money back.” If you’re a parent, you realize the power of that risk reversal offer.
3. A prominent builder-developer guarantees the development costs to his clients. If he goes over budget he pays the cost, not his clients. He’s the only person in his area doing this and he gets most of the business because of it.

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