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#304 · never sign profit-share deals (do this instead)

youtube ↗Offers

I've heard your guarantee offers quite a bit. When you say I guarantee you X days or you don't pay, how does the deal actually go? Do you generate and book a lead yourself by calling without charging anything up front until day X? Or do they get charged per booked appointment? Or do they pay up front and get a full refund if you don't achieve results in however many days?

I use a guarantee very commonly in cold email and other marketing methods — I'll guarantee X result in Y time or you don't pay. It's not exactly true if you take it super literally, since at some point in time they will have paid, but the framing is short and fits nicely above the fold of the copy. When somebody actually gets on the call, I clarify it's a money-back guarantee: if by the time I said I'd achieve the results I haven't, they end up in the same state they started in — the state where they didn't pay. I haven't had many problems with this, but I'm also experienced at explaining the mechanics — I've heard of situations where less experienced people run a similar offer, get on a call, the prospect asks how it works, and they fumble the explanation ('well, you pay me and then later I give you your money back'), which doesn't match what the email implied. So it comes down to skill in framing it live: I'm happy to front-load the opportunity, get people on a call, showcase a ton of value, and let them arrive at trusting me based on my YouTube, Google presence, etc. — results may vary based on how well you can do that yourself. If you don't want to run the exact same offer, you can just change the language at the end from 'or you don't pay' to 'or I'll give you all your money back' — and nowadays I wouldn't even recommend a plain refund, I'd add something extra on top, like 'or I'll give you your money back and get you a night at your favorite steakhouse.' When you do that and actually mean it, it massively increases your top-of-funnel — maybe 300% more people through the door — and the cost is just a 5-10% refund rate plus a small bonus, which is nothing compared to the volume gained.

guaranteemoney-backcold emailobjection-handling

Related answers

youtube ↗Pricing

When you say 'I guarantee $15,000 in X days or you don't pay,' how does the deal structure actually work? Do you generate and book the leads yourself for free upfront, do they get charged per booked appointment with a card on file, do they pay upfront, and if you don't hit the target do they get a full refund?

Yes, that's exactly how it works. Something like: 'if I don't get you 20 booked appointments in 60 days, you don't pay' or 'if I don't hit you $20,000 in the next 60 days, you don't pay.' I use that as leverage to get on the call in the first place. The 'or you don't pay' part is a money-back guarantee — we charge X for the service, and if we don't hit the result, we refund 100% of it. It helps to make yourself credible in that moment ('I'm a real person, you can Google me, here's my ID' — my old business partner actually used to do that literally). The exact wording is flexible — 'money-back guarantee,' 'or you're out $0,' 'you will have spent $0' — it's just different phrasings of the same idea: if this doesn't work for you, you are literally no worse off than before.

guaranteesrisk reversalsales structure
youtube ↗Offers

Can or should you guarantee results that you're not 100% sure you can deliver?

I always do. A guarantee isn't just promising I'll do X; it's not promising I'll make you $50,000. In offer terms, a guarantee is: I guarantee you I'll make you $50,000, or I'll give you all your money back and then give you a $250 gift card to the restaurant of your choice. That's what I consider a guarantee. Many people worry when they start a new industry and someone like me says you should guarantee stuff, thinking they can't guarantee because they're not good at it. The reality is, if you don't have a guarantee in your offer, you're leaving about three times the top of the funnel on the table, according to my math, maybe more, at the cost of maybe 5% of your margin, because your refund rate will be much lower than you think. Assuming a 5% refund rate, mathematically you get 3x top line for a 5% reduction in bottom line. Doing the math, that's 285% of the money you'd otherwise make without a guarantee. Meaning it's illogical not to include a guarantee. I also think guarantees make you work harder from a motivational perspective. If you compare two universes—one where you offer a guarantee to a customer and one where you don't—you'll work harder in the universe with the guarantee, because you're personally incentivized to perform. So there's really no reason not to do a guarantee; it's better for you and better for the client, who gets better results. It is immoral not to guarantee your services—that's my takeaway.

guaranteeofferseo
youtube ↗Cold Email

Offering free value in cold emails instead of a hard CTA is a good way to boost replies — what kind of offers would work best for that? Would a Loom breaking down a specific workflow help, or maybe offering a simple free workflow? I'm targeting online coaches and agencies.

The overplayed version is 'hey, I noticed one thing that could save you $5,000/month, want me to send a Loom?' — everyone's inbox is full of that. If I were you, I'd actually just send the Loom rather than gatekeeping it, though that runs into a scalability wall (about 5 minutes per Loom means you can only realistically do 5-10 a day). The strongest offer, though: 'I will make or save you this much money — if I don't, you don't pay a cent, and I'll keep working until I do; and even after all that, if you don't love the result enough to want me to continue, I still won't charge you.' It sounds almost ridiculous, and the likelihood someone actually follows through on all of it is low (maybe a 30-50% refund rate on that kind of guarantee), but it generates a lot of front-end interest — and as a beginner, going all-in like that gets you conversations, which builds skill fast for future pitches. So don't gatekeep the specific workflow breakdown — offering to implement a simple, personalized workflow for free that ties directly to a clear ROI is solid, it's really just a balance between risk mitigation and how strong a guarantee you're willing to make.

value-first offersguaranteesfree valuecoaches niche
youtube ↗Offers

Simon G. Hostrilli asks: I'm planning to sell AI automation for immigration, visa, or documentation services. I'm confused as to what should be my front-end offer and my backend offer. My second niche is accounting and bookkeeping firms. Can you let me know the front-end offer and backend offer for that niche as well? I'm planning to do my outreach with cold email. My main thing is that I'm willing to sell a complete system to those service business types as they have a lot of documents to handle something related to document processing.

Well, you can sell literally whatever you want, but my goal is always to get as close as possible to revenue. What I mean is I can literally guarantee them revenue — I've done that before. I say, 'Hey, I will guarantee you $15,000 a month in recurring revenue in the next 60 days, or you don’t pay a cent.' That sounds pretty sexy. If a business makes $45,000 a month (about $500–600k a year) and someone says, 'Hey, I want to guarantee you another $180–200k a year equivalent, and if I don’t achieve it, I won’t charge you a cent,' wouldn’t you be at least somewhat interested? It almost sounds too good to be true, and that’s the closest revenue‑based front‑end offer you can give. Many people don’t want to offer revenue because they feel they lack the ability to deliver it, which is fine — I felt that way too. So they step back one level and guarantee leads instead. For example, a common front‑end offer is: 'I will book you 20 meetings in the next 60 days for immigration, visa, or documentation services, or you don’t pay.' From the client’s perspective there are three outcomes: zero meetings (no cost, no harm), 1–19 meetings (you get prospects and likely close a few), or over 20 meetings (you make money and pay a small fee). That creates an ‘all roads lead to yes’ scenario. Whatever your front‑end offer is — revenue, leads, or something related — people are far more likely to say yes than if you’re selling something complicated. As for the backend offer, Simon, it will probably be something just related to document processing. I don’t know the niches very well, but I did used to work with an immigration lawyer in Vancouver, so I know it depends on location and where you want to do business. The best way to figure it out is to ask a client who signs up for your front‑end offer: 'Can you give me an example of everything you do to fulfill a customer?' Then you can say, 'Hey, I could probably do that — let me try and create a simple clawed routine or something.' Those are very simple and easy to do.

front-end offerbackend offerlead generationrevenue guarantee