Good post, Dave. I occasionally get asked the same thing - since I'm under the Code of Ethics of the NZ Association of Professional Hypnotherapists, I tell people that my professional association actually forbids me from giving a guarantee, because no therapy works for absolutely everyone.

I wonder if doctors ever get asked, "If I take this pill, do you guarantee I will get better?"

Hi Dave,

This is ALWAYS a hot topic with hypnotists. And often there is a fear that if they provide a guarantee, that they will end up losing money.

However this is a false assumption. I have yet to meet anyone who offers a guarantee that lost money. In fact, the opposite occurs most of the time, which is an increase in business.

I know of three hypnotists who offer bold guarantees, and all three of them have six figure practices. One of them, Mark Cunningham, offers THREE different guarantees. But Mark also has complete confidence in his abilities to get his clients their desired results.

What a guarantee is for a prospective client or customer, is you taking on some of the risk of the transaction. It gives them comfort and helps them in the buying process.

Here's a simple guarantee any hypnotist should use:

"If at the end of the first session, you don't believe you were hypnotized, I'll refund 100% of your money. No questions asked, and no hassles."

Now, unless you are an incompetent hypnotist, you should never expect anyone to take you up on this guarantee. But look what it says to the prospective client. It answers two of the top seven objections in any sales process... It Won't Work and It Won't Work For ME!

Plus it gives you a mechanism to weed out anyone who is there to prove your methods don't work. You give up one session max, and hand them their check back and send them on their way.

It's a win-win!

Cheers,

Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com

Hi Craig,

We differ greatly in our approaches. You think of it as a sales process, a buying process whereas I think of it as a therapeutic process.

You are selling hypnotherapy in the same way that people sell timeshare or double glazing. If anything, I attempt to put people off seeing me so that only those people who genuinely want to change, because they want to, will be able to make an appointment with me.

Please feel free to give me the details of an NLPer or hypnotherapist colleague of yours in the UK who absolutley guarantees results for their clients so that when someone phones me expecting me to guarantee that they will stop smoking or lose weight, I can refer them to your colleague.

Be happy,

Dave Sabat.