Josh Spector’s Post

Bonus tip: When I reference the 100% money back guarantee, I also add this line which I think helps reinforce it: "I have no interest in taking money from anyone who doesn't feel they got significant value in exchange for their investment."

Another bonus tip: If you worry about your buyers taking “advantage” of your refund offer, then you’re attracting bad buyers. It’s not a refund problem - it’s an audience problem. If you don’t attract jerks, you don’t have to worry about buyers acting like jerks.

How do you avoid (or at least minimize) window shoppers who buy knowing they're going to ask for a refund (in your words, "jerks")? Is it a pricing problem or a positioning one?

Great advice, Josh. I heard a related quote from Perry Marshall on guarantees to the effect of (paraphrasing): "In every transaction, *someone* is taking a risk. The question is: 'who is taking the risk, and why can't it be you?'"

Josh, how do you think about it when, for example, a consultant's offer is a long engagement (say, 6 to 12 months) in which there are a lot of elements that need to be carefully thought through and built out. Once those elements are in place and working, then the client starts to get results. Certainly, a consultant like this could offer a guarantee on the first step of a process, say an analysis where some insights are gleaned. It wouldn't be too painful for a consultant to hear from a client at that point, "this isn't working for us." But the client won't really see if that consultant is producing results - it's too early. And it also doesn't seem reasonable for a consultant to deliver a huge engagement over many months and then have a client ask for a refund for the entire engagement. One thing I have been considering is a guarantee that the work will produce the client's intended result. Of course, that kind of guarantee has to be offered judiciously. Thoughts? To the folks that are asking about 1:1 power hours - it seems that a guarantee is perfect for that kind of situation. The offerer has only spent an hour.

Do you think this should also apply for 1:1 “power hours” with people? Because I’ve paid $250 for some of these and been extremely disappointed.

great advice and do when selling products - make it easy for people to get their money back if they did not feel it was worth it

YES!!! I agree and always do this. I once had someone ask for a course refund, which I granted and then they came back later and joined a membership. You never know how that goodwill will repay you

Yep. If someone asks for a refund I refund them right away. I always want to know why they didn't love it, but they don't have to tell me. End of story.

That would take an important shift of mindset which would be difficult to achieve. Here's why. People here where I am learn economics and business upside-down or crooked, so they don't really understand how it's really supposed to work, regardless of access to some of the best quality of education from around the world. So when you learn from a child that money is everything, maximum profit is the key objective, and risk of loss is to be eliminated or try to avoid at all cost, you see how you'll enter into a conundrum. Their principles and beliefs that form their laws to live and do things by is based on one premise: if everybody keeps coming to return the stuff they buy and require or demand their money back, you will not make any money. Bare in mind here that they don't really understand economics, business or how money really works either. There's nothing about offering value and quality for money, giving people their money's worth, providing value for money by focusing on the 3 most important things to people: 1) satisfy their wants 2) solve their problems 3) serve their interests. You'll quickly see how this all goes nowhere when you refuse to do any of this but you just want to make money.