It was Capt. Kirk that said, “Risk is our business.”
And he was right.
Sure, our online enterprise might not involve flying a spaceship through galaxies far and wide or a romp in the hay with a sexy, green-skinned alien or two, but managing risk is critical if we wish to convince our prospective customers to hand out their credit card information and SPEND.
This is why money-back guarantees are vital to your offer. Your prospects, to a greater or lesser degree, will always feel as if they’re taking a risk when they exchange their hard-earned money for your goods or services.
The reassurance that they can get their money back if things don’t work out, helps them to reduce the feeling that they’re taking some kind of gamble. But does that mean adding a money-back guarantee to your offer removes all sense of risk, resulting in soaring profits?
Of course not!
But, it’s a start. A good start. However, adding refund options to your sales page is not a panacea for poor conversion rates.
Risk is a Complex Business
We’ve all seen offers that say something along the lines of, “Make 3X your investment within 30 days or get double your money back.”
So, if the product works you triple your money, and if the product fails you double your money…
It sounds like a no-brainer, right?
And yet, how many times have you seen an offer like that and still passed?
The reason is because risk is more complex than whether or not your investment is in jeopardy. There are other considerations. Things like, will I have the time to use the product? Will I be able to understand the instructions? Will the vendor honor the guarantee promise?
Some of these are still, ultimately, financial considerations (there is not a soul alive, or dead, that WANTS to lose their money), but there’s more at stake than a simple weighing of values.
Here are the top ten risk-based questions some, or all, of which will run through your prospects’ minds when they consider your offer.
1. Is this product right for me?
The product SEEMS to work well for all these smiley people in your testimonials, but will I turn out to be the exception? What if it turns out to be a bad fit for the way I go about doing things. Sure, I can get my money back if it doesn’t work out, but how much time will I waste in the meantime?
2. Am I making the right choice?
I’m pretty sure there are at least three other vendors on the market offering similar products. What if this is the dud of the group? What if one of the others is better, has more features, or costs less? Maybe I need to do more research before making a decision.
3. Is this ALL I need?
I bet there are some hidden costs. There’s probably an upsell that you have to buy if you want the product to work properly.
4. Can I afford it?
I’m convinced the product is good value for the money, but I’m not sure if I have enough cash in the bank to make the spend. I wonder how close I am to my credit card limit?
5. What if it doesn’t work?
This could be really disappointing – yet another product that over-promises and under-delivers. I wonder how easy it will be to get my money back? Will I have to explain why I want a refund? That would be an awkward conversation.
6. What will my friends, family and peers say?
Are my friends going to roll their eyes when they find out I’m giving this is try? For sure I’m going to get an earful from my partner.
7. Who are these people?
I think I’ve heard of them, but I can’t remember if it was because people were praising them or slamming them. Are they a legit business? Are they going to take my money and run? Will they honor the money-back guarantee if I need to make use of it?
8. Is this the right version?
I’m using a MAC, and I don’t know if this software is Windows-only. Plus, this product will be useless if it doesn’t have the Torbenbooble feature – I can’t figure out if it has it or not.
9. How much time is all this going to take?
It says I only need 30 minutes a day, but that sounds too good to be true. What if it ends up like that other dongle that I used for two weeks and then it all just got too time-intensive?
10. Is it going to be easy to use?
I’m not stupid, but this is all pretty new to me – how complicated is this going to be? It says training is included but for all I know that could be a one-page PDF with a couple of diagrams. I don’t know if I’ve got the energy to start learning something new and complex from scratch?
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See, that’s a lot of questions!
And there’s no getting away from them. Every single one of your prospects is going to ask themselves one or more of these questions when considering the buying decision.
If you don’t make it easy to find a clear answer to their question…
They’re going to pass.
Don’t be discouraged by the level of risk you need to overcome. Remember, risk is OUR business. It’s not our prospects’ business, it’s OURS as entrepreneurs. The solution isn’t complicated. Just be sure to address each of these questions somewhere on your sales page.
And really think it through.
Take the last question, as an example. You might think that mentioning that training is included is enough to satisfy people that they’re going to have the tools they need to learn how to use the product or employ the strategy, but you may need to go deeper and outline exactly what is included and the form the training takes.
If it’s a step-by-step PDF, great! If it’s a series of training videos, even better! If it’s weekly webinars that include live Q&A sessions, you’ve nailed it.
But you need to tell your prospects what to expect. Don’t make any assumptions about what they know and don’t know.
However…
When it comes to addressing risk, there is one way to sidestep the issue altogether. We’ll discuss that risk removing Unicorn in the next article. Stay tuned!