Sales with Integrity: Creating Irresistible Offers without Empty Promises

Lately, I’ve noticed a problem in how products and services are being sold. These days, there seems to be a flood of “gurus” who promise amazing results without really having the experience or caring if their clients actually achieve those results. At the same time, there are agencies that sell basic services—like community management packages with weekly posts—but with no real strategy or guarantee of impact beyond making the content look nice.

The “irresistible” value offer

This is where the concept of an “irresistible” value offer comes in, something that sounds so appealing it’s hard not to consider it. This matters because people buy what they perceive as a bargain. However, we must be careful not to promise things we can’t deliver.

Your product or service rests on three key pillars when you sell:

1. Cost: What it costs you to produce or acquire the product (objective fact).
2. Price: What you charge the client, based on the cost plus a reasonable profit (objective fact).
3. Perceived value: What the customer believes your product is worth, influenced by many subjective factors.

The trick is that the perceived value must be much higher than the sale price. If you achieve this, you almost certainly make the sale. But how do you do that without falling into the trap of promising things you can’t fulfill?

My personal conflict with promises

Here’s where my personal conflict begins. I can’t promise results that don’t depend 100% on me, like an increase in sales. There are many variables at play, and not all of them are under my control. So what’s the point of selling marketing services if I can’t guarantee those outcomes? Yet it seems that nowadays, the important thing is just to convince someone to buy from you—even if that means selling illusions.

As I mentioned, I have a problem with this approach because I see myself as an honest person. I don’t want to offer something that won’t work or that I can’t deliver. But that doesn’t mean I can’t offer a valuable service. So what do I do? Should I give in to this style of selling and sacrifice my principles, or just not sell anything?

Finding middle ground

My psychologist helped me see that life isn’t as black and white as it seems when I’m feeling negative. There’s a middle ground where I can feel comfortable: focusing on promises I can actually keep. After thinking it through (and with a little help from ChatGPT), here are some promises I can make:

• Complete transparency: You’ll always know how the campaigns are progressing and what the real results are.
• Continuous optimization: I’ll review and adjust the campaigns regularly so they keep improving.
• Clear reporting: I’ll provide detailed reports on key metrics like ROI, clicks, and conversions.
• A/B testing: I’ll use A/B testing so decisions are backed by data.
• Personalized attention: I’ll tailor the work to your specific needs and goals.
• Meeting agreed deadlines: I commit to sticking to the timelines for deliverables and optimizations.

In short, I promise to be totally transparent throughout the process, to stay committed to improving the campaigns, and to put my best effort into making them work. But what I won’t do is sell you empty promises of doubling your sales or the impossible dreams many fake gurus peddle.

Conclusion: How to sell without sacrificing your principles

Having an “irresistible” value offer is crucial to making sales easier, but it’s just as important that your promise aligns with your values and ethics. In my case, those principles are fundamental, and I wouldn’t compromise them for anything. I believe the best way to sell with integrity is to offer what you can truly deliver.

Guide to creating a promise aligned with your values:

1. Define your limits: Be clear about what you’re not willing to promise or compromise.
2. Focus on what you can control: Offer guarantees on aspects that depend solely on your effort and expertise.
3. Be transparent from the start: Honesty builds long-term trust.
4. Build on your experience: Support your promises with facts and real data, not illusions.

By doing this, you’ll not only create an appealing offer but also one that respects your principles and inspires trust in your clients.