Dear Friend:

The fact that you're visiting this page tells me you're at least mildly interested in my products and services.  That's good.  It's the first step towards turning your business into everything you've always dreamed it would be.

I'll get to the details of my unusual guarantee in a moment, but first let me share with you, a quick marketing lesson.

One of the most important concepts in The Art Of Common Sense Marketing is that of "Risk Reversal."  In fact, it's so important I devote an entire chapter of my best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide To Common Sense Marketing to it.

The basic concept is this... 

When a potential new customer is considering doing business with you for the first time, he or she feels a certain amount of risk.  The customer is going to fork over a certain amount of money in exchange for your product or service.

Now think about it...  The customer knows for sure exactly what that money is worth.  It's a known quantity.  But, on the other side of the exchange, all he or she has are your promises.  If your promises come true, it's a good value and the customer will be happy.  But, if your promises don't come true... well, you get the picture.

So the customer is risking his or
her money against your promises.

That's a lot to ask if he or she doesn't know you, isn't it?  No wonder so many potential sales never get closed.  Think about it.  Haven't you been in situations where you really wanted the benefits promised by a certain product or service and felt those benefits were worth the price, but since you weren't certain you'd really get those benefits, decided not to go through with the purchase?

That's the risk I'm talking about .  Now think back to that same situation.  How do you think you'd have felt if, instead of you shouldering all the risk of the transaction, the company transferred it to their own shoulders?  You probably would've made the purchase.

That's what I say when I refer to "risk reversal."  You simply reverse the risk of the transaction such that it's risk-free to the customer.  When you do that, you'll see your sales skyrocket.

There are lots of ways to do this.  I can't go into them all right here, but the most important (and most powerful) way to do it is to offer a strong guarantee.

Make it such that if your promises don't come true,
the customer can return the product and get a refund.

The longer and stronger your guarantee is, the more powerful and compelling it will be.  I'm talking about a long guarantee with no conditions and "fine print." 

By now, you're probably thinking, "If I offer a long, unconditional guarantee, people will buy my product and use it all they want and then return it for a full refund."

Well, the truth is, some dishonest people will do that, but they'll be in such a small minority compared to all the additional sales you'll make to honest people like yourself, you'll come out way ahead in the long run.  Just think of the "cheats" as a part of your regular overhead just like the phone bill, electric bill, or any other normal expense of doing business.

Now, that's the way it works in real life, but...

I've been teaching and practicing The Art Of Common Sense Marketing for nearly twenty-one years.  During this time, I've applied these concepts to practically any kind of business you can imagine.  I've applied them to retail, wholesale, mail-order, telemarketing, business-to-business, and business-to-consumer...

And in my own business, I've come up with the best guarantee in the world.  You can copy it if you like, but before you do, make absolutely certain your products live up to every one of your claims (as mine certainly do).

Since I know how good my products are, and I believe most people are fair and honest, I take all the risk of buying one of my products away.

When I sell my products through traditional channels (at seminars, through catalogs, joint-ventures (affiliates), or mail-order, I offer the following guarantee...

Iron-Clad
Absolutely Risk-FREE
Guarantee

"You can buy any of my products or services with confidence because if they ever (and I do mean ever) fail to live up to my promises simply give me a call and let me know.  I'll give you an immediate 100% refund of every dime you paid.  No static - No hassles.  And get this... You don't even have to send the product back.  But, since you don't want it, all I require is that you simply donate it to you local public library.  That way someone will get some use out of it.  How could I be any more fair than that?"

As I said, that's my standard guarantee when I sell my products and services through traditional channels.  And guess what...

Over the last five years, my refund rate has been so low, it's hardly worth even mentioning.

When people see such a no nonsense guarantee, it gives them the confidence to make the purchase.  And when they see the products, that confidence is validated.

But again, that's in the "real world."
 Now let's talk about "cyberspace."

I've spent the last three years researching the Internet.  I've studied virtually every (non-technical) aspect of it.  I've analyzed countless sites, pages, newsgroups, forums, chat rooms... I mean everything. 

I've discovered that the Internet is a culture unto itself.  It's different from the "real world" in some very interesting respects.  Take chat rooms.  Here's a "community" where everyone is anonymous.  And under that veil of anonymity, people say and do things they'd never even consider in the "real world."  In some cases it's harmless "pretending," but in others, it's downright scary.  Chat rooms can bring out the worst (and most dishonest) sides of people's personalities.

I've seen (and belong to) several "Discussion Groups" or "Forums."  Some of them seem to be much like "the real world" as far as people acting honestly, respectfully, and ethically. But, in some, the anonymity takes hold and people act more like they do in chat rooms.

Another interesting aspect of the Internet is the volume of free information available.  Unfortunately much of it is worth what one pays for it, but some (like this free marketing lesson), is valuable indeed.  

But, I've discovered that some people take the concept of "free information" to mean that everything on the Internet should be free.  And when an information provider decides to sell his or her information rather than give it away, resent it.

And some of them go
so far as to "steal" it.

They use their techno skills to hack into a site and steal what's there.  Or they'll acquire and circulate pirated copies of various informational products (including music, software, books, and anything else).

As an information provider, that scares the heck out of me.  I make my living providing exceptional value to my clients and customers.  I work hard to create my products, and like any other entrepreneur, deserve to be paid for my products.  I'm sure you agree.

The funny thing is that many of these "cyber-bandits" and pirates are otherwise honest people in "the real world."

So, the Internet culture
seems to change people.

I've seen these changes take the form of anything from a little harmless pretending to turning otherwise honest people into thieves, liars, and cheats. 

In view of all this, the question of how to guarantee my products and services such that I can make it safer and easier for honest people like you to benefit from them, while at the same time protecting my own living, is a tough one.

Against the advice and judgment of nearly every business associate and friend I have, I've decided to offer my standard guarantee on all my Internet sales.  At least for now.

This is a test (I teach you all about testing your marketing in The Entrepreneur's Guide...).  I'll be watching my sales and refunds like a hawk.  And if the refund percentage gets drastically different from what experience says it should be, I'll have to make some changes.  But for now, my regular guarantee stands.

By the way, make sure you subscribe to my free E-Zine, Common Sense Marketing NUGGETS.  I'll be reporting on the results of this (and several other marketing tests) as they arise.