So hopefully everyone watching this on the replay, I hope you have got your worksheet, for this training at the right because we’re going to be referring to this, as I go.

I’m very excited to jump into guarantees with you because I know that for a lot of you in this group, the work that you’re doing not only in this program but also currently in the intensive means that you are in the process of finding your offers or even creating entirely new ones, raising your rates and also doing things like looking at, high value retainers for possibly the first time.

And I think that whenever you do something new, whether that is selling something at that higher price point or selling a new offer or working with a new kind of client.

When you do something for the first time, there’s always a leap of faith you have to take, to do the thing. And of course it’s my job to coach you over that. Because a huge part of mindset I think is that once you are doing the thing then you have the proof that you can do it, which, of course, can help, reduce, the sting of those mindset gremlins, as you move through your business.

So with that in mind, as you’ll know from the worksheet and from Sarah’s post, this workshop is all about crafting highly effective guarantees for your offers.

And this is really key because obviously an awesome guarantee will not only remove or reduce risk for your prospect to the point at which they feel really confident, opting into your offer and making that purchase, but they will also remove or reduce risk for you if you’re feeling a little bit wobbly about putting an offer out there or putting a price point out there for the first time. Because that means you’re not just asking your prospect to sort of trust that you’ll do the thing. You have actually an agreement in place that means that if you don’t do a certain thing, then they will get a certain thing in return. So the means of the exchange is really clear. And this is something that can really just help in a practical sense, you do one of those scary things for the first time.

Now, of course, the days of the super vague, if you do everything inside and don’t get the results you’re after, let me know and I’ll give you a full refund. The days of those guarantees working I think are over.

Although I do feel like there was a weird time in the late 20s where they did work for some offers.

But what I’m seeing not only in my own business but in my clients’ businesses and the work I do for them, what I’m seeing at the moment in terms of guarantees that work are those that are really hyper specific guarantees and also guarantees that are really easy to action.

So I wanted to show you a few examples of what those look like. These are real examples taken from various parts of my business.

And then I will also pull up the worksheet, just to, step through, what you’re looking at so you can hopefully understand what the questions and the prompts in the worksheets are asking for.

So hang on. Let me share my screen.

So I’m on a new on a new laptop for the first time, and it means I have a fancy new Zoom with buttons in different places than I’m used to. Here we go.

Okay.

There we are. Alright. Share screen. Okay. So you should be able to see, hopefully, a guarantee written here on a green blue slide.

Let me just make that bigger so we’re hanging out it properly. Alright.

So this was a guarantee that I wrote for one of my clients and this was actually quite a few years ago now.

But this was for a program for people with hypothyroidism.

So a condition that really causes like a whole raft of physical symptoms, none of which are very appealing. So things like incredible lethargy, weight gain, infertility, really bad mood swings, that kind of vein of things.

And when I was doing the voice of customer research for this project, which was a launch, I kept finding that reliably when I was asking, you know, what was the first shift in order to start joining the program? People would say that by day four or five, they actually felt like they had an insane amount of energy, like something they hadn’t experienced, since their thyroid had started playing up.

This was repeated by everyone I spoke to in my interviews and also in the, survey that I sent out to those I couldn’t interview. It was a really common response.

And speaking with Erin, who is the lady behind this program, she backed that up. She was like, oh, yeah. People always really see that boost in energy, you know, you know, in the first within the first three or four three or four or five days. So, well, I made this into her guarantee. And as you can see here, it reads, if by day five you don’t lose a significant boost in energy, I’m talking the most alive you’ve ever felt since your thyroid decided to pack up and leave the building, just email me to request a refund. That’s how convinced I am that this program will change everything for you, all with teeny tiny baby steps that take just fifteen minutes a day.

I’ll mention here too before I pivot from here into the worksheet so you can have a look at the mechanics, of what is working here with this guarantee.

The teeny tiny baby steps were really important for this program because obviously if you’re someone who is experiencing all those symptoms that I mentioned earlier, the idea of being able to find a half hour or an hour a day or something to implement the changes you’re learning about in the course is obviously going to be overwhelming. So, this is also a really important thing to put here and this links back into the minimum viable commitment.

So I will switch screens now but it will be clunky because that is how I roll.

Here we go. So if you look to your worksheet, you will see that the first prompt here is asking you to identify what the quickest valuable win is for the offer that you’re working with.

Now hopefully quickest valuable win is a familiar term for you. It’s one of RISE genius concepts, it’s in copy school. I believe Sarah sent through, in this week’s email, the links or the sort of bookmarks to, where you can revisit it if you need to. But basically, it’s based on the idea that, as humans, we are far more motivated by outcomes, results, or rewards that are in the near term.

So even though, you know, the big picture promise of your offer might be something much grander and in the case that we just looked at, it was much grander than having more energy, that fact that that was actually still quite a huge win for people, people who have been feeling flat as a pancake for so long, that promise is really appealing because it’s in such the near future. They can imagine that in five days from now, oh wow what if I do actually have that energy? That’s a really compelling promise to offer them. So when you’re thinking through this for your own offers, obviously, I’ve got here some just check points for you to make sure that you have actually identified the quickest valuable win. So making sure that it is actually quick. Right? And really the sooner the better.

Making sure that it’s also valuable. So being able to answer the question of why does that actually matter? Because if you answered that then you may have identified a quick win but it may not be powerful or meaningful enough to actually make that guarantee pack a punch.

The other thing that needs to be, here I think, and this is only in my experience, but I mean it definitely works, is that it needs to be measurable or demonstratable.

Because if it’s neither of those things, there is a bit of room for interpretation into whether your customer has actually got their end of the bargain. So the question here, how will you, you and or your client customer know they’ve actually hit this win?

And for the example that I just shared, the thyroid program, that was actually part of the fifteen minutes a day work that people went through. There was a three question check-in every day and one of those questions was how’s your energy today? It was a really simple Likert scale. I think it was even framed in frowny face to really smiley face. So a way for people to capture that information and also importantly a way for the course creator to capture that information.

In that case it was really simple, really quick, really effective and I’m sure for most people they had forgotten that that was the guarantee when they were answering those questions.

But that’s just one example to hopefully help your brain tick over. I’ve got a couple more examples too but I’ll just talk through these last, this last point on this page before I dive back in, to some guarantees.

So for DIY offers, so that’s things like courses or digital products only, I think it’s also really important that the guarantee requires a minimum viable commitment from your prospects.

So what do they actually have to do to realize this quickest valuable win?

And, again, this is a glorious concept from the brain of rye. But if you need a refresher, basically, it is all about the fact that, you know, your most most of your prospects are not going to be, you know, the gold standard of person when it comes to a course or digital product in that, you know, some sure will do, like, absolutely everything that’s available to them, take up every opportunity, devote the right number of hours, etcetera, etcetera. But for the average prospect, the idea of having to do that to get a result is quite overwhelming and is often reason for them not to purchase. So you need to think about how is it actually, you know, a reasonable effort on their part.

So for example, I mean, in this case, with the thyroid program guarantee, it referenced that fifteen minutes a day. So that is a way to really reinforce that hey, this is actually quite doable. Like on the sales page and in the emails, I talked about, you know, being able to do that, you know, first thing in the morning or even over your lunch break. So talk on the bus on the way to work. So Finding ways where you could make that really actionable and feel very approachable.

So as another example, like if you are trying to build this out for some sort of, course or workshop, obviously, it is much more appealing for your prospect to hear that you will have this quickest valuable win by the time you’re seventeen minutes into the first module, rather than by the time you’ve watched all the modules and done all the worksheets, because that can feel like a reason not to buy. So hopefully that makes sense. If you don’t have any questions on any of this, by the way, because I’m talking to myself here, please, please, please ping me in Slack. I’m so happy to unpack this further, to help it make sense, to help make it really actionable. So do not hesitate.

If we have a look at another guarantee, just to again get some more ideas flowing for what might be in front of you. This is a guarantee that I had for one of my own offers, which was a launch service.

So, a service that I actually marketed in what I think of now as quite an aggressive way. I the sales page was actually a teardown, although I hate that term, but that’s what it was, of, someone’s launch. And it was a personality here in Australia who’s quite a big deal. She just stepped into the online course market. I think it was six months prior.

And her launch strategy, her sales page, her emails, had many opportunities for optimization. So the sales page for this offer was actually that and then I segued into the offer, which explains why the first sentence of the guarantee here is if I can’t identify at least three key opportunities, like the ones above, for optimization during your next launch, I’ll shimmy your money straight back to you along with an apology for the hassle. No awkward email exchange required.

So this is an example of what a guarantee can look like for a one to one service.

And again, you know, this win is quite quick and valuable because the service itself is quite quick. It was a sixty minute launch day brief call, so as soon as they booked in they filled out their intake form, I then went through all their data, all their stats, all their thoughts about the launch, and then we had a sixty minute call where we could discuss that and I could feedback my findings.

So knowing that they would have at least three key opportunities for optimization by the end of that call was appealing because my prospect for this offer was someone who had launched, you know, more than likely, you know, two or three times. Something wasn’t clicking or something wasn’t working as well as they wanted it to, but they couldn’t pinpoint what that thing was. So this idea of being able to have real clarity around what they should focus on next time to yield some better results and yield some better conversions was highly appealing.

The other thing to point out here is that, obviously, this is really easily measurable, and I can do the measuring here. Like, if I don’t have at least three opportunities for optimization, like, I will know that, which is why I can also offer in this guarantee that, you know, there’s no awkward email exchange required because I’ll be able to see that. So it’ll be just on me to say, hey, I’m so sorry.

I could not meet my minimum standard for success with this offer for you. I’ve just refunded your money.

Which is probably a good segue into talking about some of what is on the second page of your worksheet for this workshop.

So this page here is all about what you’ll provide if your offer doesn’t deliver.

And as a quick note here, you don’t always need to offer a refund. There are absolutely other things you can offer, in the place of just returning someone’s money. And I think when it comes to this, it’s really helpful to think about the role that the offer you’re working with is playing in your business ecosystem.

So for example, let’s say it’s the first time you are trialing out your retainer offer.

It may be that it is worth it for you to get insight and experience into how this works in real terms to offer that if you can’t meet a certain benchmark of optimization after say three or six months, you know, that you will provide two months free.

Or if you are, working this through with, say, a bigger project, but, you know, it’s still a clearly defined project and one that doesn’t roll on, it might be that they don’t have to pay their final fifty percent if you can’t reach whatever the thing is that you’ve offered as a quickest valuable win for them.

It could also be that you may offer additional access to you. So maybe you offer an additional coaching session with someone.

You know, so extra hands on help can obviously, be really appealing depending on the offer.

Having said that, if you are looking at what to offer for a guarantee for something that is designed to help you really scale your business, so a one to many offer like a a course or a digital product that doesn’t really require any real time input from you for delivery, it probably doesn’t make sense to offer something like an additional one to one session with you, because that sort of defeats the purpose of that offer, if that makes sense.

Again, if any of this is confusing, please please please reach out in Slack, and I’m so happy to talk through it in a different way, that will hopefully resonate. So, sorry that was a lot of talking. So when you are thinking through what this is, two things here to check it. So make sure it’s compelling.

You know, why why is this actually a really compelling, enticing guarantee or exchange for your prospect? Is it compelling enough?

You know, you need to be able to look at this and say clearly, yes. It is. It really makes the option to purchase this for my ideal prospect a no brainer. That’s really what you’re aiming for here. The other thing that I think is incredibly important to think about and I think can really impact the effect your guarantee has on selling your offer is is it frictionless? So how can you make this easy for your client or customer to ask for if your offer fails to deliver?

I think there are far too many guarantees out there that really put the onus on the customer themselves to activate it. And of course I understand why that is, but I think what that can actually do is devalue the guarantee even if otherwise the exchange is quite appealing.

So as an example, I run a copywriting course called Braincamp. I think I’ve run it since twenty eighteen now. So a long time. But ever since I started, I’ve actually emailed people, like, two days before the guarantee period ends to check-in with them to see how they’re doing and let them know, you know, hey. Here’s your chance to reach out if you feel like, you’re not getting what you came for.

So just an example. But I also think that so much of business is built on reputation.

Particularly when you’re gaining traction and making a name for yourself in the space. So anything you can do to really stand by your guarantee and stand by the fact that you want to do some really awesome work with really awesome people and you wanna make sure that it’s coming off, I think that pays dividends one hundred percent.

Alright. Let me flick back to here, so we can have a look at one more guarantee.

This one was one I wrote for a Client who works, she’s like a virtual COO she calls herself. So she works to help people set up automations and systems in their business, to help them save time and increase productivity.

Her client is any creative professional, so copywriter, designer, podcast editor, anyone like that. But basically people who have repeatable processes in their business that they’re feeling bogged down by and really want be able to automate or outsource.

This was for a program that she was beta testing for the first time. So, she for added context, just in case it’s relevant, she was just coming back for maternity leave and she was looking for ways to sort of leverage her now more limited time in her business.

So was turning or had turned her one to one offering into an online course so that she could still serve people, ideally to get the same outcomes, but do it with a much lower time and energy investment from herself for the actual delivery of that of that service.

So the guarantee that we landed on was this. If you haven’t been able to set up a high end for them, low touch for you, onboarding automation for at least one of your offers fourteen days from now, I want to know. Email me directly, and there’s a script you can copy paste below to make it as easy as possible because I know reaching out to someone to let them know their program hasn’t delivered can feel incredibly awkward. And I’ll reply with the link to my calendar so we can book a call and work it through together. In other words, there’s no way you’re moving to the next month feeling as bogged down in your business as you are right now.

So to break this down with the concepts we’ve just looked at from that worksheet, quick is valuable when, you know, fourteen days after starting the program that they can have the onboarding automation for their for one offer. And most of them would choose probably their primary offer, like uploaded, done, running basically on autopilot, to open up some more time and space for them within their business to do the things that are more important than doing that task live.

It is very easy for a customer to activate this guarantee. And I actually do have the script for that email on the next slide, which I’ll show you just in case you wanna have a look at what that looks like.

So, you know, the thought of them being like, oh, this is actually a good guarantee, but, god, would I am I the kind of person who would actually go out of my way to, you know, to let Lauren know? Like, I don’t know. You know, that that worry is taken away from them.

The exchange here, so book a call and work it through together. So the reason that, my client and I landed on this as, her offer for or her part of the guarantee is because this was a beta test of this offer. So she really wanted, one, proof that it worked so that she could launch it and sell it at scale in the future, And also to social proof for marketing. So, for her, it was more valuable to be able to spend a bit of extra time with anyone who didn’t get to this quickest valuable win for whatever reason so she could find out why, what was missing from the program, she could optimize from there and also so that she could ideally get some really good social proof to help her with future launches and sales and eventual evergreening.

So just another very different example and hopefully something that can give you something else to pull from as you’re looking at your office suite or your client’s office suites and trying to really work out what fits.

Oh, and I’ll just show you here too. Sorry, this is copy pasted from a launch email that I wrote for her. But in the PS I included that guaranteed script and this is what it looks like just in case is an idea you want to pinch for yourself.

PS, here’s that non awkward guaranteed script just in case you need it. Hey, Lauren. I haven’t been able to set up that onboarding automation like you promised. Can you please send me that link to your calendar so we can get it sorted?

So hopefully, as you can see, that’s quite a compelling thing to include in a in a sales email, because it really closes the loop. It really reinforces that, she means this guarantee and she wants you to activate it if you do not get the thing that she has promised.

So I think all of these things make this guarantee real, tangible, precise, specific, all those things that I spoke about at the top of this workshop, that are really working, to cement and increase conversions. I think particularly in this era where, you know, world economies and all those sorts of things are not ideal. Right? People it’s not that people are afraid to spend money. People are afraid to spend money poorly. So to spend money on things that don’t work or don’t get them the things that they want. So if you can remove that risk for them, the decision to purchase becomes a lot easier.

And as I mentioned, the ability for you to stand behind and confidently sell your offer also increases, because you know you have this ironclad agreement in there. That, hey, like, I promise if I do not do x by y, I’m gonna do this. Like, I’m gonna make it good.

I want this to be a super solid investment for you and if it’s not, I haven’t done my job. So I’ve been able to have that conversation whether it’s on a sales call or whether it is a conversation that you have, on a sales page or in a launch sequence, it is really powerful. And I think can really help you and your offer stand out, and, of course, really help you sell with ease.

Now I think the only other thing that is on this worksheet is just a fill in the blanks, type thing. Obviously, this may oh, sorry. That looks funny. This may not, be the final form of your guarantee. But If you pull it all together into this, you’ll at least get a chance to see what it looks like together. And just check again, is it compelling? Is it frictionless?

Is the win here really meaningful? Does this look like something that my ideal prospect is going to respond to positively?

And does this feel like something that makes me more able to sell my big scary big hairy offers, in a new space or in a new way?

I was planning on using the rest of this time today to work through this with you, give you some time to go through the worksheet, help you troubleshoot, the guarantees, and also talk to you about the mindset side of things. So, try and dig into how or if this does change your confidence in terms of going ahead and selling that new offer or selling at that new price point, and also dig into some other things that may be lurking in there so that we can, workshop those, or build some exercises out around those for future workshops.

Because if you’re watching this it’s a replay, obviously.

I don’t think even Shane has the AI to make that sort of exchange possible, right here on this video.

But please ping me in Slack. I would love to help you through any and all of that, and I would love to see these guarantees out in the wild and hear about how they’re performing, how they’re helping you sell, make sales, and increase conversions.