When my wife and I launched the online course mentioned at the beginning of this book, we told attendees we had no idea what we were doing, and we fully intended to mess up quite a few things. Live on Zoom, we witnessed students’ reactions to this bizarre opening statement. What did they do? They laughed and then cheered.
But why?
Imagine getting on a plane and the pilot says, “This is my first time actually flying one of these, and I expect I’ll make plenty of mistakes, but don’t worry, I’ve spent over 100 hours in a flight simulator, and I’ve watched Airplane half a dozen times, so I feel pretty confident I can fix any trouble that arises.”
Would you laugh? Probably. But only because you wouldn’t take the pilot seriously. If you did, you might pull open the emergency door and jump down to the tarmac.
Imagine going into surgery and learning just as they start the anesthesia that your surgeon has never operated before. Or going into court and learning your attorney has never defended anyone before. Would you be laughing under such circumstances?
So why did course participants cheer when we told them we’d never taught this before?
There are three factors, which we’ll cover in the next three chapters.
The first is that we took the risk upon ourselves.
The reason you wouldn’t feel comfortable boarding a plane with an inexperienced pilot, being operated on by an inexperienced surgeon, or being represented by an inexperienced attorney is if they mess up, you bear the consequences.
Essential to the philosophy of Hurry up and Fail is that no one else should have to suffer for your mistakes. We call this Risk Reversal.
I get called all the time by salespeople who are supremely confident their product or service will benefit my business. They paint a picture of all the additional sales I’ll make, of all the additional profit I’ll enjoy. I always ask them the same question, “Can you guarantee your results?” 99% of the time, they won’t.
I call this sales approach “Pay and Pray.” They want me to pay upfront for their product or service and then pray it actually yields the promised results. This makes no sense to me. If they’re so confident of their results, why am I the one bearing the risk?
The participants in Dream, Design, Manifest weren’t at all stressed because we had eliminated their downside. When they signed up, we gave them all what we called our 10X guarantee. We committed to offering them value equivalent to 10 times what they paid for the course. If they paid $100 for the course and at the end felt they only received $900 worth of value, they could get a full refund and enjoy the entire course for free. I did the same with my Financial Fundamentals course, guaranteeing participants would raise their net worth by at least 10 times the amount they paid for the course. If they didn’t, they could get a full refund, and the course would remain theirs to enjoy for free.
It shocks me more businesses don’t employ Risk Reversal, because it’s such a powerful force. Imagine the following scenario: a business owner wants to redesign the graphics on an underperforming ad campaign and gets quotes from two contractors, Stan and Jane. Stan quotes a price of $500, proudly claims he won’t be undersold, and is confident everyone will be thrilled with his work. But when you ask about a guarantee, he says, “I can’t do that. I need to be compensated for my time, right? But don’t worry, I know I’ll do a great job.”
Jane’s pitch is totally different. “I have a concept I think will work great for you,” she says, “but the truth is, no one ever knows 100% how the public will respond to an ad. So here’s my offer: I’ll charge $1000 for the ad redesign. I’m not the cheapest option out there, but I stand by my work. In fact, I’ll guarantee you’ll see at least $2000 in new revenue from my ad during the first month it runs, otherwise I’ll refund the full $1000 payment, and you can keep the ad as my gift.”
Which of those contractors would you select?
If it was me, it wouldn’t even be close. I’d gladly pay more for someone who stands by her work.
Just by adding this Risk Reversing provision, Jane can charge twice as much for her time and close a higher percentage of deals. Even if she winds up missing her target 25% of the time, she’ll still come out way ahead.
With Dream, Design, Manifest, we had over fifty paid attendees, and exactly two of them asked for their money back. One watched a single session and decided our course wasn’t for her. Another thought she’d have time for the course but didn’t, and she might still come back and take it in the future. But by offering the guarantee, we probably signed up an additional 15 participants who were on the fence and wouldn’t have committed otherwise.
There’s a cockiness, an arrogance, that people commonly associate with salespeople. We assume they’re not seeking our benefit but their own. The more doubts we voice, the more assurances they offer. Of course, as I pointed out earlier, these assurances normally stop short of a guarantee.
My advice? Drop the assurances and stand behind results. My wife Chana has used this tactic successfully in her coaching business. Potential clients fear they’ll wind up in a “black hole.” Many tell stories of seeing the same therapist for years and spending tens of thousands of dollars, only to make zero progress.
Chana, on the other hand, is all about results. She’ll only work with clients she believes she’ll help and calms their fears with Risk Reversal, a technique almost unheard of among therapists.
I do the same thing in my Strategic Business Coaching practice. If someone is paying me thousands of dollars for business advice, I want them to be making at least ten times as much from working with me. If I don’t think they have the potential to hit those numbers, I won’t take them on as a client. And if I do take them on, I’ll back up my work with a full money back guarantee.
Many coaches try to accomplish the same thing in a less effective manner by offering free trial sessions. I don’t advocate giving away your time for free. Offering valuable services for nothing devalues them, implying you don’t value your time. Standing behind results does the exact opposite. It shows you’re confident, and believe you’re worth every penny.
Risk Reversal can be your psychological safety net. Many of us fear promoting ourselves because we question our ability to deliver the goods. We don’t want to take someone’s money and come up short. Rather than holding yourself back, move forward in a way that ensures only you will bear the consequences of your failures. Let’s look at a few elements that can help you construct strong risk reversal:
- What are the biggest fears you need to address? Consider polling potential clients and customers to find out what their fears are. Once you know them, you can start to address them.
- How can you remove or reduce that fear? Would a free trial eliminate that fear? A satisfaction guarantee? A results guarantee? What would make your offer irresistible?
- How can you minimize the downside to yourself? In Chana’s coaching business, she allows clients to get a full refund on a 12 session coaching package if they’re not satisfied after the first session. This way, she only risks losing an hour of her time, not all 12 hours.
Risk Reversal can ease concerns that working with you will be a costly mistake. As mentioned above, it’s a great tool for your sales process, allowing you to close more clients and potentially charge a premium. But Risk Reversal alone does little to enhance a client’s experience of working with you. In the next two chapters, we’ll examine two other factors that can cause others to forgive or even celebrate your failures.
