Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The Steak Guy Only Rings Once

I just had some guy knock on my door to tell me about the fabulous fish and steaks he distributes – perfect Alberta steaks from High River, best barbecuing ever, that sort ofthing. He seemed very sincere but I was just trying to get rid of him, cuz I have work to do.

Then he offered his fabulous guarantee: meat so tender, you can cut it with a plastic fork. And if it’s not, he said, with a grand sweep of his arm, he would come back and mow my lawn.

Well, that got my attention. It didn’t make the sale, but it did make me ask for his brochure. And it made me a lot more likely to try him out. Self-confidence such as that inspires confidence in others.

How can you inspire confidence among disinterested prospects?
What grand gesture can you make?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's definitely an interesting guarantee...mowing the lawn.

I think it's smart on this guy's part not to offer a money back guarantee. Lots of people do it, but in my experience a money back guarantee is a dis-incentive for people to really give something a try.

If they know they can get their money back, do they really care as much? I'm not sure they do.

But mowing the lawn (or some other guarantee) has the double effect of being a guarantee (which is generally a good thing) + being interesting/attention-grabbing.

Although not a grand gesture, with my site, we allow you to "try before you buy" (a fairly common practice I suppose), with the hope that you find it worth taking the next step and becoming a buyer...

But a guarantee is something I hadn't really thought about a great deal. I don't think mowing people's lawns will work...