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"We would like to thank you for your presentation at our recent conferences sponsored for our distributors. The content was outstanding and right on target!"
Hewlett Packard

How to Guarantee Results:
A New Attitude About Sales

Would you consider the purchase of a new car from any manufacturer if it did not have a warranty? The buying public is suspicious of both the product and the motives of car builders and dealers -- a response not necessarily unique to the auto industry. Would you buy a dishwasher if it didn't have a guarantee? Perhaps. A guaranteed appliance though would certainly have a competitive edge over one without.

Guaranteeing results is not a threat to business. Rather, it is the needed next step in the sophistication, professionalism and increased profitability of any business. Guaranteeing results, standing behind what it is you sell, is an opportunity to shine, because it says to your market that you, in fact, have a high degree of empathy, expertise and problem-solving skills.

Guaranteeing results also allows your personnel to "tell the customer what he or she needs," rather than assuming a pleading posture, asking the client to "pick what they want." Additionally, it transcends competitor advantage, and improves professionalism.

If the thought of guaranteed results leaves you with sweaty palms and ready objections, it's likely your response is due to common misconceptions about guarantees:

Guarantees Threaten Return of Client Investment -Guaranteeing results does not mean that if you fail to achieve the objective you are obligated to return your client's investment. If you buy a new Chevrolet or Toyota, and the transmission fails, do you get your money back? Of course not. The company fixes it. The same process applies to guarantees at other levels.

Responsibility for Successful Performance Resides Solely With Seller - Guaranteeing results actually allows for the sharing of accountability for performance. Open the glove compartment of any new car and read the warranty. You'll find that, of course, the manufacturer is responsible and accountable for his or her product, as he or she should be. The buyer is also accountable for certain actions and activities, the void of which invalidates the warranty.

Guarantees are not just gimmicks that you can, if forced to, "worm your way out of." If you can't be ethical in the process, don't do it. Success requires customer accountability as well. You should check to make sure that the customer has done his or her part in insuring satisfactory performance of the goods or services guaranteed. Any number of necessary customer accountabilities can be detailed to put the guarantee in effect. The key point, however, is that by defining and listing the varied responsibilities not only will you be able to guarantee results, but your product will resultantly perform better as well.

Guarantees Make Additional Demands That Compound Work - Guarantees rest on a solid foundation of customer focus. Our motivation to discover the clients' true needs, coupled with our willingness to tailor solutions to meet those needs are the backbone of the guarantee. Not coincidentally this enterprise of tailoring systems that identify and satisfy customer needs is part of our usual sales effort. Guaranteeing results simply crowns our routine undertaking at thorough, excellent customer-focus.

It's not difficult to implement guaranteed-results marketing strategy and it's easier yet with certain controls that make the venture almost risk-free. Following are steps for implementing a guaranteed-results strategy:

Prepare customer-needs analysis - Develop a desire to know your customers' business as well as you know your own. That's good business even if you don't warranty what you sell. Question the client in-depth, uncovering strengths, weaknesses, objectives, goals and, in particular, what the client feels would point to success. This requires a physical survey of the business and an objective review of past campaigns and promotions with notations relative to the results of those activities. Only when you study the customer's past efforts will you know whether your offering will work or not.

Give the salesperson the power to stack the deck for success - Guaranteeing results dictates that the salesperson with staff support has the ability as well as the desire to really tailor the product or service. Work out a system or campaign to achieve the objectives.

Not everyone on your sales staff should have the responsibility to guarantee results - Guaranteeing results as a product is not an item to be sold in the arsenal of all the company's sales personnel. The selling person must earn the right to sell with guarantee and demonstrate a substantial degree of expertise and success to be allowed to continue to sell with guarantee.

Guarantee selectively to businesses with which you have a track record helping - Don't plan to market the guarantee across the board. What are those businesses and where are those industries or accounts that you have already had a great deal of success serving? Where are your strengths? Who are the consumers that will probably respond most positively to your offerings? Target business or markets where your chances of success are greatest. Then go after those opportunities aggressively and with knowing confidence.

Charge higher rates for the guarantee - The Chrysler Corporation can take the financial risk of offering seven-year or 70,000-mile warranties because they know that most of their products will perform beyond, or better than, the guarantee. They also know a few of those automobiles will fail, however, so they price the product with that safety factor in mind. Guaranteed results are a premium-priced service, and margins will reflect the risk taken in that warranty. The guarantee plan goes beyond charging premium rates for individual offerings, applying rather to the design and implementation of a total system of solutions. The guarantee points toward return on investment for the whole system.

The guarantee should only be offered within the context of a "business plan" - Guaranteeing results is a service and sophisticated in-depth analysis of the customer's business. It must reflect the time and energy expended on that analysis. The guaranteed-results component is available only when we market "business plans." Business plans are six or twelve-month marketing strategies and approaches to a client's business, usually encompassing a longer period of time and a substantial investment.

Require everyone involved in the product to "sign off" on the commitment to perform - Everybody should buy-in to the commitment to ensure the results. This is not something a salesperson does on his or her own. Simplistically, requiring management to approve the package, although vital, is not enough. We need everyone involved in the product to "sign off" on the commitment to perform. This will vary depending on the industry, of course, but could include the account executive, sales manager, engineering, marketing and customer service representatives. "Signing off" involves a review of the business plan and determined objectives by each of those involved parties, including the client. Each individual actually signs a "commitment certification" indicating their willingness to do these things in a plan for which they are accountable, demonstrating their obligation to achieve the numbers.

Quantifiable and qualifiable goals are the only ones that warrant the risk - What exactly is guaranteed is also important. You'll mentally migrate to wanting to be vague and elementary in your commitments, i.e. number of people through the door, number of coupons redeemed or individuals volunteering purchase of the product or service. That is not good enough because your client's needs are more specific.

Sales dollars during the period, number of particular items sold and/or the attainment of specific quantifiable and qualifiable goals are the true measurements to which you must be accountable. These goals represent the commitment and risk you will have to take.