This is part 15 in a free online tutorial about writing sales pages.

You are getting closer to finishing your sales page and releasing your offer into the world, but before you start to draft your copy, take a moment to think about what your guarantee terms are going to be.

Your guarantee is there to give your customer confidence. It eases any last-minute doubts that the product may not be exactly as she’d hoped.

We have no problem buying from the high street these days because we know we can return most products pretty easily. Online there is still healthy scepticism about whether a company has a simple or convoluted returns policy (or even any returns policy).

Guarantee terms will differ here and there depending on the style of product and company or individual offering it, but here is a simple 5 step process you can use to create your own personal, persuasive guarantee.

1. Restate the benefits

We never get tired of benefits around here, and starting your guarantee by reminding your customer why they’re going to love it also shows the confidence you have in your product or service. What sort of things should you mention? How about:

• The results they can expect to get
• The benefits of those results
• The number of other happy customers you have

For example:

I’m confident you’re going to love our new ABC widget. More than 1,500 people just like you have used it to improve their fashion sense and report feeling more confident when they leave the house each day. 

Once you’ve reminded them why they wanted the product in the first place, you:

2. Introduce risk-reversal

This is where you introduce the idea that if your product doesn’t quite fit with them, something can be done (we’ll look at ‘what’ in the next section).

The key here is to sound confident and pleasant. You don’t want to be snotty with your customer and tell them something like: “if you’re not smart enough to make this work for you…”

You might choose phrases such as:

• If you change your mind and decide that [product] isn’t for you…
• If you don’t see [results] with [product] in [days]…
• You have [cooling off period] to try out [product] with no obligation

What you want to do is establish simply and clearly that if the product isn’t for them, they have options. We spell out those options in the next 2 sections:

3. Explain the refund amount

Different products and services come with different levels of refund. From zero to the full amount.

You need to decide, if your customer will get a full, partial or no refund. Not sure which is best for you? Consider the below:

No refund

When I’ve experienced clients who offer no refunds, it is usually because the delivery of the product involves a lot of their time and is overly subscribed: a live course with limited paces for example. In these situations, the company or service professional will usually offer a free ‘consultation’ call or provide another application process to determine suitability before any money is paid.

Partial refund

Similar to the above, this tends to occur when there has been an investment of time, but the customer has the option to decline future services.

For example, paying to attend a 2 day conference, but only staying 1 day. Or signing up for a 6 week course, and deciding in the first session that it’s not suitable, or a monthly subscription service that can be cancelled. Or it may be where the customer has a physical product that cannot be resold. As a result the company may wish to refund a partial amount as goodwill.

Full refund

You might decided that you are happy to offer a full refund. If your product is delivered digitally and you don’t lose a lot of income on returned sales (other than the initial sale) you may feel it’s worth offering a full refund to encourage new customers to have the confidence to try you out.

Full refund and additional compensation

Some products even compensate their customers if they’re not happy with a product. This has been done often with conferences where a customer will incur costs to try out the product. The organiser may decide to refund the amount of the product, plus any travel / hotel expenses. Will you?

Whatever you decide, just make sure your terms are clear, so the customer is under no doubt that he will receive:

• No refund
• Partial refund
• Full refund
• Full refund and additional costs

Okay, so your customer knows why they want to buy it, they know there is some form of guarantee and they know how much money they will get back if they pay and don’t like the product.

Now you need to spell out your:

4. Details of the guarantee

What are you going to ask your customer to do to qualify for the refund?

Now, what you want them to do (short of hopping on one leg and jumping into a bucket of beans) doesn’t matter so much as keeping the details simple and clear. If your customer feels any kind of confusion around your guarantee terms, or feels it will be too complicated, you’re not going to win their confidence.

So at this stage have a think about what you want them to do, for example:

• Nothing, simply email, send a proof of receipt and they qualify for the refund
• Return any materials or physical product
• Show proof that they tried to use the product
• Complete tasks that prove they have followed instructions
• Cancel their account online
• Call a certain number
• Issue it in writing

You get to choose, just make sure it’s crystal clear.

Finally, to round off your persuasive guarantee, you want to:

5. Finish with confidence

Instead of leaving them with the idea of returning the product, remind them why you’re confident that this is unlikely.

For example:

• We’ve never had anyone return [product] which is why we offer such a bold guarantee
• I want you to have complete peace-of-mind when you use [product] to get [results] which is why I’m offering this guarantee
• Our customers love [product] but if you find it’s not quite a fit at least you know you’re covered

And there you go, in just 5 steps you’ll be on your way to a rock solid, powerfully persuasive guarantee.

What guarantee terms make you confident to buy? Have any put you off a purchase? Let me know in the comments