I got asked yesterday why I don’t offer a money back guarantee for my next course, or even for my coaching in general.
If online groups are anything to go by, many coaches believe that it can be a useful marketing tactic allowing you to demonstrate confidence in your own products or services, whilst at the same time helping to persuade people who are on the fence to put their trust in you.
There’s certainly an element of truth to that which is why I implemented a refund policy for two consecutive Coach The Life Coach courses a couple of years ago before withdrawing it.
And the reason I withdrew it was because I was encouraging people to roll the dice on a new career rather than making sure they were totally and utterly committed beforehand.
Being a professional coach and working from home with people from all over the world can be an alluring prospect for anybody who likes to help others and who isn’t already in a job they love.
However, the fact that it’s appealing is also the reason it’s highly competitive with lots of people wanting to do it.
The coaches who succeed are not the ones signing up for a course with one eye on asking for a refund if everything doesn’t immediately slot into place. Or if it all seems a bit too much like hard work.
Similarly, the clients who are going to be the best to coach and who are going to do the work are, for the most part, not the ones you persuaded to hire you because they could have their money back if everything wasn’t perfect.
You are only part of the equation when it comes to coaching.
No matter how good you are, you will still have clients who don’t make the changes they wanted to see and frequently it won’t be your fault.
Can you imagine a therapist or counselor offering a money back guarantee?
They’d all be bankrupt.
And whereas we’re not therapists or counselors, there are a lot more similarities than there are differences because what we do is not an exact science.
You have to put a value on your time and what you can offer if you’re to build a sustainable practice.
Offering to hand money back to a less than delighted client when you know damn well you did your very best and maybe they didn’t, is not the wisest route.
The only time I’d consider offering a money back guarantee is if I were selling a digital only product – one that doesn’t require any of my time once it has been set up.
Most of the successful online marketers do this, but guess what?
They cost their offering based on the knowledge that 20% to 25% will ask fo a refund.
Some will genuinely decide the material isn’t for them. But a good proportion will just be hoping for something magical that doesn’t require much effort, or be flat out ripping the supplier off and taking the material for free.
Your job with your marketing is not to persuade lukewarm people to hire you because there’s no risk. It’s to demonstrate clearly and concisely that you know your shit and that you bring value to the table!
I’m totally and utterly confident that I can teach you, or any other coach how to succeed if you are prepared to work hard and stay focussed.
And for that reason I’ll never be offering money back for my time, and quite honestly, I don’t think you should be doing so either.