When making a guarantee, should it be limited to what we fully control? For example, if we guarantee closed deals but can't control closing, is it risky if clients lie about closing or lead quality? Have you encountered such cases?
Absolutely brilliant question. One of the core things you should do in any guarantee is to guarantee only what you have full control over. If you're booking meetings for people, guarantee the meetings booked, not the closed deals, because once the meeting is booked many things could go wrong based on the prospect's inputs, and you don't want your results to depend on somebody else's actions. Sometimes you're limited to offering guarantees that involve some client input, but in perfect circumstances you should focus on what you entirely control. Outside of our control, a stoic mindset says don't worry, but since it's your business you can construct whatever guarantee you want.
You said you almost guarantee results; I guarantee results—I tell you you'll get X, Y, Z or risk mitigation. There's a difference between an emotional sales decision, where people feel they need to buy now, and an intellectual sales decision, which focuses on positive ROI. A guarantee addresses both: intellectually, it removes doubt about returns; emotionally, it feels like a no‑brainer. If you’re willing to guarantee your service—and refund if you don’t—there’s no reason not to move forward unless there’s another unresolved issue, you’re untrustworthy, or you haven’t built enough value. So, just offer a guarantee. Don’t pitch it as a demo; that makes you perform like a dancing monkey. Instead, frame it as one business owner to another: show them something cool you’ve built, like a lead extraction and enrichment system that worked for a seven‑figure business, and let them see it. That puts you on equal footing and feels like sharing something valuable rather than performing for approval.
You should absolutely guarantee meetings because guarantees align your incentives with the client’s and remove most of the downside. If you screw up you only lose time, but you gain experience and the client still sees value. For example, guarantee 20 sales appointments in 60 days. If you hit the target, the client is happy and you get paid, building a strong relationship for future work. If you deliver between 0 and 20 appointments, the client still gets some results, you may not get paid, but you leave a positive impression because you provided value for free. The worst case—zero appointments—is statistically unlikely; with a uniform distribution across 0‑20 there’s only a small chance of getting nothing. In practice, if you’re competent and consistent, the odds of hitting the guarantee are well over 50 %. That means, on average, you’ll earn roughly half of your fee per client (e.g., a $2,500 fee yields about $1,250 on average). Even when you fall short, you gain learning and goodwill. The key is to set a realistic guarantee, back it with a solid case study, and understand that the guarantee pushes you to deliver and helps you learn faster.
You should guarantee revenue. Do whatever it takes to get people on a call where you can explain the product. Remember, you’re not selling the tool itself but the outcome it delivers—revenue. A guarantee can be framed as: I will generate X amount of revenue for you within Y time, or I’ll give your money back. Focus on getting as many qualified calls as possible, then qualify prospects on the call to ensure you can deliver the promised results. For example, it’s easy to generate an additional $10,000 in revenue for a business that already makes $100,000 a month by identifying and fixing a few blind spots, which can boost total revenue by about 10%.
Nick says it’s difficult to guarantee outcomes you don’t directly control. In Maker School he guarantees a first client or a refund, which is downstream of his control but still offered. He notes that in practice, money is the strongest guarantee because it’s simple and quantifiable; you can offer a money‑back guarantee even without direct control, as the program’s overall value is evident—participants often find it valuable and may have a pipeline of leads even if they don’t land a client. He shares that his refund rate is very low because participants interact with him daily for 90 days. He appreciates the question, noting that most sellers focus on agents rather than outcomes, and thanks for the AI comment reframe. Regarding school growth boost, he says he would enable the feature, estimating it brings about 20‑30 % of net new people, so letting the platform take a cut is fine because you still grow your top line; he doesn’t know the exact percentage but sees it as acceptable.