When we teach and coach business owners to improve their marketing and sales processes, so that they can attract and convert more new customers, we often incorporate the idea of a “guarantee” into the strategy. A new potential customer who has never used you is taking a risk on you; they may be worried that you will not deliver what you promise, that their money will be wasted, that the product won’t be quality, that they will be embarrassed in front of friends, family or colleagues for having bought from you.
These are all legitimate worries; a potential customer doesn’t know whether you’re any good until they become an actual customer. Of course, the use of online reviews, customer testimonials, and other general sales and marketing principles such as appearance, behaviour, and communication can alleviate these fears to some degree. But a guarantee, in writing, generally is the one that really removes the risk from the customer and gives them the piece of mind they need to move forward.
And yet… I don’t offer a guarantee myself. Well, I kind of do. ActionCOACH UK as a company offer a 6-month guarantee that promises you will see an increased gross profit that exceeds your investment in coaching after six months, or we will return double the difference. In other words, you will make money from us no matter what happens. Sounds like a no-brainer, but you need to consider that there will be terms and conditions associated with such a bold guarantee, as well there should be, and usually is. For example, with ActionCOACH, the guarantee becomes null and void if you miss a coaching session. If you don’t do you the work. If you don’t test and measure and share your results with your coach. If you don’t attend 90-day planning. If you don’t do the learning.
In other words, results may be guaranteed, but they’re only guaranteed if YOU do the work, if YOU do the learning, if YOU show up! And that’s the way it should be. If any coach or mentoring company offers you guaranteed results without terms and conditions that explicitly assign the responsibility of results on you personally, then you may want to question them harder on how exactly they get results and how they are able to back those results up with a guarantee.
So, back to my “sort of do/sort of don’t” comment in the third paragraph. My honest impression of the 6-month guarantee is that it is unlikely that it would ever have to be honoured. Because it is unlikely that you, as the “coachee,” are going to do every little thing you commit to, attend every coaching session on time and in full, do every focus sheet, learn everything you need to learn, within the timescale laid out by the terms and conditions. Having said that, if you did do absolutely everything that I, as your coach, ask of you, then I would be happy to honour the guarantee; because in that circumstance I wouldn’t have to. You will very likely see results that greatly exceed the investment in coaching.
The bottom line is this: you, and only you, are responsible for your results. The only guarantee you should be interested in is the one you offer yourself. Do you back yourself to do the work? Do you back yourself to stay the course? Do you back yourself to do the learning, take the risks, try new things? If you back yourself, then you don’t need a guarantee. A good coach will help you get to where you want to get to, and will help you get there faster. So hire the coach that’s the best fit for you, back yourself, and get to work!
Find out more about what ActionCOACH can do for your business. Or if you simply have a question about something you’ve read here, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Email me at andrewgoldberg@actioncoach.com.
