It's a common secret.  And equally common missed opportunity.  It's also something widely misunderstood. 

I'm talking about guarantees.

Guarantees are a great way to close business.  They give the buyer a level of comfort in making a decision -- a form of insurance if something goes wrong.  They're a deal closer.

The missed opportunity with guarantees is they're most effective when tailored to the opportunity.  When you can guarantee something the prospect values in the deal, it moves the decision forward. 

Guaranteeing things like satisfaction are increasingly less effective because they're common and in most cases norms of a business relationship.  The opportunity is to guarantee something at the close that puts the buyer at ease to complete the purchase.

That's also the rub.

The misunderstood part of guarantees is you can only guarantee things you control -- I can guarantee the things I do, but have no control of the things you do.  To guarantee the actions or results of others is foolish.  And unrealistic.  Yet it happens.  Which leads to disappointment, bad reputations, and lost business opportunities. 

The point of this post is to leverage guarantees to close a deal that's stuck and won't move forward.  Get creative in tying a guarantee to something the buyer values -- something that makes the buying decision easier.  But use caution to never guarantee things beyond your control -- to do so is foolish.

What say you?  Do you have a guarantee success story to share?  Have you seen a guarantee backfire?