Let me explain this further…

Let’s say that at the moment you’re really happy with your car. You’ve got no intention of changing it. Therefore every advert, every mailing or any contact you have with a car dealer or car manufacturer is wasted on you.

Letters go in the bin without a second thought. You pick up your newspaper when the adverts come on TV. You simply aren’t interested. And nothing will prevent you at this stage from even considering changing your car.

However 3 months later your circumstances have changed.

You need to do more travelling and so you decide it’s time to look for a more suitable car.

Now every mailing, advert, or communication to do with cars is instantly given attention by you.

You’re “in the market” for a new car, and you develop an insatiable appetite to find out as much as you can about the cars which would suit you best.

This happens every single day when people are buying products and services.

If you don’t keep in touch regularly with your prospects you’ll never get “lucky” with the timing (this is also known as ‘The Moving Parade’ – people move in and out of the market depending on various circumstances).

By keeping in contact once a month the chances that you’ll hit the prospect at the right time are increased ten fold.

Do this one thing and your sales will increase.

Do NOT take this lightly.

Keeping in touch (or follow up as I call it) is one of the simplest yet rewarding marketing strategies you can use to significantly increase sales.

However, if you lower or eliminate the risk, then the natural consequence is people will be more inclined to buy from you.

That’s the secret of creating a powerful risk reversal.

Your risk reversal is nothing more than a simple method that takes the ‘barriers’ away from the prospect, and ensures they keep progressing towards the sale.

As soon as you add a risk reversal or guarantee to your business you…

• Remove the risks, gaining more clients, customers or patients

• Automatically differentiate your business from your competition (remember 'differentiation' back in Marketing Mistake #2?)

• And, your prospects will value your products or services much more, because they’ll automatically assume your product must live up to expectations or you must be excellent at delivering your service (why would you offer a guarantee if your product or service wasn't great?).

The result is a BIG increase in sales, and an avalanche of new clients or customers!

The ultimate is to guarantee the result or main benefit of your product or service and add a ‘penalty’ should your service or product fail.

Here’s a simple example of how risk reversal works:

A man wants to buy a puppy for his daughter. He responds to two ads in the local newsagent window. He examines the first puppy and it seems ideal in temperament, and looks. The man says to him, “If the dog isn’t right for your daughter, bring it back in one week and I’ll give you your money back.”

Clearly he appreciated the value of risk reversal but he didn’t fully understand it!

The man then goes to look at the second puppy…

Again it seems ideal in temperament, and looks. Only this time the owner says, “Your daughter is obviously looking forward to her new puppy and it’s important that she’s totally happy with it. Please take the puppy, let your daughter play with it, look after it, and get to know it. If after three weeks the puppy is perfect for her, pay me for it. If not, just bring it back and owe me nothing!”

Now this man really understands risk reversal. First he extended the “trial” period. He knows that his puppy is a good dog. He also knows after three weeks the puppy and girl will be inseparable. He totally reverses the risk.

You also need to understand this…

The company that reverses the risk, automatically gains competitive advantage and wins more business – in fact much more!

This competitive advantage is very significant when attracting new clients, customers or patients to your business.

Here's another good example. I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s from a pest control company called BBBK. Their guarantee is aimed at hotels and restaurants:

“You don’t owe one penny until all the pests on your premises have been eradicated…if you are ever dissatisfied with BBBK’s services you will receive a refund for up to 12 months of the company’s services…plus fees for another exterminator of your choice for the next year.

If a guest spots a pest on your premises, BBBK will pay for the guests meal or room, send a letter of apology, and pay for a future meal or stay…and if your facility is closed down due to the presence of roaches or rodents, BBBK will pay any fines, as well as all lost profits, plus $5,000.”

Although I don’t know for certain, it’s easy to assume several things about BBBK from this guarantee:

• They are very good at pest control.

• They understand the concerns of their clients with regard to hygiene.

• They are very successful at attracting new clients!

• They are probably providing very similar services to their competitors. However, they understand risk reversal and their profits I’m sure will reflect this!

Interestingly, they charge 10 times MORE than their competitors!

...and that's another huge advantage of having a powerful guarantee...

Because it differentiates you, you can charge more!

Hopefully you now have a basic grasp of guarantees and reversing the risk and what it can achieve for your business. If you’ve given any thought to the strategy one question may be entering your mind…

“What about people taking advantage of my guarantee, won’t people try to abuse what I’m offering?”

The key of course to successful risk reversal is this – if you offer a good product or service and you only guarantee what you control, then you have nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately I cannot say no one will ask for a refund or for their money back (or whatever your guarantee states).

What I can say is that for every one of these, you will attract many many more prospects and clients, customers or patients by simply offering a risk reversal in the first place.

Don’t worry about this.

Your risk reversal strategy is usually the one thing that tips the scales in your favour. Because you offer risk reversal your prospect thinks and assumes the following things about you…

1). If you’re offering this risk reversal guarantee, you must be very good at what you do

2). You must be foolish to offer such a guarantee if you were poor at delivering your promises

3). In the prospect’s mind, your risk reversal has ‘proven’ to him or her that you can give them exactly what they need.

4). More importantly, when most people choose to buy a product or service, they choose it for perfectly good reasons and intentions. And they spend time making their decision. They wouldn’t choose you in the first place if they wanted to capitalise on your guarantee.

Isn’t it time you started to use your very own guarantee?

It’s actually much easier than you may think. All you need to do is use client, customer or patient testimonials.

Again, I can’t tell you how often I see businesses trying to sell and market their products or services without the use of testimonials.

You make your life very, very difficult if you don’t use testimonials. Testimonials have the power to get clients or customers by the handful.

And remember, ever since Amazon first created 'reviews' they changed forever the way people now buy.

And because of that, testimonials are even more important now.

And don’t think ‘my customers won’t give me testimonials.’ For example, our unique ‘Testimonials By The Dozen Letter’ ALWAYS works.

Here’s a simple example (the legal firm thought their clients wouldn’t send in their testimonials because of the sensitive nature of the work they do)…

Notice the number of benefits in this one testimonial alone…

• Understanding and helpful
• Took time to talk
• Returned many calls
• Nothing was too much trouble
• Helpful home visits
• Worked hard to get the best result

If you were looking for a personal injury lawyer, don’t you think this testimonial would make you believe this firm would do all they could to get you the best possible result?

And that’s just one of dozens they got, many with the damages amounts given, just like this one…

(Note: Ideally, each testimonial should include the full name and partial address of each client, although I’ve omitted them here for obvious reasons)

You can’t have enough testimonials.

Place them in all your marketing communications. Place them in every place where your prospects will see them – in your offices, in your reception areas, on your walls, in your website and landing pages.

Blow them up and parade them. You’ll see an immediate and noticeable difference in your sales and profits once you start using testimonials.