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The Warranty Everyone Laughs At…

People Laugh And Mock When I Mention This Warranty In Contractor Marketing Seminars... But I'm Serious As A Heart Attack

People Laugh And Mock When I Mention This Warranty In Contractor Marketing Seminars... But I'm Serious As A Heart Attack

But The Effect It Has On Your Customers Is No Joke.

One Of The Best Ways I’ve Seen To Prove Your Trustworthiness.

By Rich Harshaw

Public speaking is widely considered to be a nerve-wracking experience. The reason has very little to do with the actual speaking; I think it’s the potential negative reaction from the audience we tend to fear. Negative reactions could range from boredom to heckling to cartoonish tomato throwing.

But the most dreaded—and humiliating—negative reaction of all has to be laughing.

Not “you just told a joke or a funny story and I’m laughing with you” laughing. I’m talking about “I’m laughing at you because I can’t believe I showed up here today to listen to somebody spout such garbage” laughing.

Which is the kind I always get in contractor marketing seminars with remodelers when I recommend they offer their customers a 100% money-back guarantee.

(insert your laughter here)

No, I’m serious. Offering a 100% money-back guarantee can be one of the most explicit, clear-cut pieces of evidence you can provide your prospective clients that they are going to get exactly what they pay for when they do business with your company. It can instantly separate you from the crowd; it shows you are trustworthy and diligent. It communicates confidence and competency.

And best of all, believe it or not, it won’t put your company at risk of financial ruin.

To understand how and why, first answer this question: If there is a problem with an installation that you do for a customer—for whatever reason—that legitimately causes a problem for the customer… are you the kind of company that’s going to do what it takes to take care of your customer? Or are you the kind of company that’s going to make excuses, point fingers, and shirk responsibility?

If you’re the latter, I have no interest in talking to you and this idea isn’t for you. I hope you go out of business.

If you’re the “takes responsibility for legitimate problems and does what it takes to make things right” kind of company, then there’s absolutely no reason NOT to use this warranty.

Here’s why:

  • Because you are the one offering the warranty, you get to set the terms and conditions.
  • The above doesn’t mean that you want to be squirrely about things; it means you don’t have to agree to anything you don’t want to agree to.
  • You’re only going to agree in writing to things you already are 100% willing to do anyway.
  • There’s a pretty good chance none of your competitors are using this warranty.

Before I give you the warranty and explain it to you, I want to tell you where I got it—I did not think this up myself. I got it from one of my clients in about 2005 or 2006; it was a sunroom, window, and siding company in Savannah, Georgia. The owner of the company told me he had found this warranty from somebody else. So if you know where this originated, please let me know as I’d like to offer full credit to that person.

So here’s how we’ll do this. I’m posting a copy of the warranty below. Read it through CAREFULLY two times, then read my comments on it below. Okay, here we go:

Click Image to Enlarge

Click Image to Enlarge

Here’s the important talking points:

  • First of all, your guarantee is based on your products being installed to building codes.
  • You are specifically not guaranteeing their satisfaction with aesthetic components of the project—color choices or styles—and your guarantee does not cover their being satisfied with the cost.
  • If there is a problem, they have to give you written notice within thirty days of the installation, then they have to give you 120 days to fix the problem. Remember from above: you are already the kind of company that’s going to take care of your customers ANYWAY!!
  • The customer agrees to give you access to the home.
  • The homeowner agrees to have another company install a replacement. In other words, they can’t just “change their mind” and decide they don’t want to do this project after all.

Tell me: is there anything in this guarantee that scares you? If there is, you might want to reconsider your business practices.

Here’s the underlying principle: If you take the things you already do well and PUT THEM IN BLACK & WHITE WRITING, they become much stronger and more believable. People believe what they read, not what they hear. All we are doing is taking what you already do and crafting a written statement to back it up. We actually show our customers how to do this with several elements of their business—from a no-pressure sales pledge to a jobsite cleanup roster, to bank and supplier reference letters…and more.

The idea here is to create HARD EVIDENCE that you will do what you say you’re going to do. All those laughing contractors find themselves scrambling to take notes after I explain the nuances of how this ingenious guarantee works.

And here it is for you for free. All you have to do is take it and customize it for your business… and laugh all the way to the bank.


Free Marketing Review: Send us any piece of marketing—advertisement, brochure, web page, etc.—and we’ll check it out and give you our unvarnished opinion of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what needs to happen to make it better. Do this BEFORE you spend big money on marketing. Contractors, fill out the form below.
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© 2014 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.

  1. When I owned my remodeling company, we had the ‘I Love It Guarantee.’ “If three friends, neighbors, or complete stranges don’t tell you they love your new space, we’ll refund 100% of your design fee.”

    It was scary at first, but in the three years we offered it not one person took us up on it. It was a fun thing to talk about and the testimonials it allowed us to talk about in the sales process far outweighed giving back a design fee.

    It’s definitley something I think remodelers need to embrace.

    Keep up the awesome articles!

  2. PS- Our lawyer hated it!! lol

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