Using The Guarantee To Get The Sale

The guarantee is the number of guests the buyer will pay for, whether that many guests actually come to the event or not. If a client tells you they are having 225 guests at a wedding and only 200 show up, they are still obligated to pay for the full 225.

For the caterer, the guarantee is the basis of how much food, equipment and staff is ordered and prepared. It is the rule of order required for catering to be a professional business.

For the buyer, however, it’s scary. A buyer is told that, even though they are spending $20,000 for a wedding, if Uncle Charlie can’t make it at the last minute due to his health, they are going to be “penalized” and charged the cost of his empty chair. This ticks off the prospect.

My point is not to argue whether this rule is a good one or not, but to show you how the guarantee can be an excellent place to offer a buyer advantages instead of causing them grief and worry.

“Mr. and Mrs. Smith, please let me explain how our company handles the guest guarantee for the wedding. As you both know, most caterers require that the host and hostess provide them with a final number of guests so the caterer will know what to prepare and charge for, whether all of these guests come or not.

At our company, we realize that when inviting several hundred guests to a wedding, even after they confirm by mail that they are coming, a few often still don’t make it for reasons of health, missed airplanes, etc.

So, we handle the guarantee differently than other caterers. We have made it more flexible and realistic for our clients. Let’s say that you give us a final guarantee of 225 guests for the wedding. Even though we will be prepared to serve the full 225, we will permit you to have a leeway of five guests. This means that if only 220 guests come to the wedding, you would only be charged for the 220, not the original guarantee of 225 that you gave to us. We feel that this is a wiser way to treat our clients. Don’t you think that our more customer friendly guarantee policy is an advantage for you?”

It’s the little things that separate one caterer from another in the buyer’s mind. Here’s another unique way to create a win-win situation between the caterer and the buyer:

“Jim and Mary, let’s take a moment and explain to you how our company deals with your guaranteed number of guests for the event. You’ve mentioned to me several times that you are planning for 150 guests for the event. One of the advantages of using our company is that we give you our ‘cushioned guarantee. The cushioned guarantee provides you with the opportunity to be less worried about whether all of your invited guests will be coming. In your case, the cushion will be seven guests. This means you will only be responsible for paying for 143 guests, or the actual number, whichever is higher.

The cushioned guarantee is one of the reasons for our exciting growth as a caterer. It just takes the pressure off our customers. Don’t you agree with me that this is a great idea?”

In both of these examples, the caterer is using a more liberal guarantee policy to achieve a selling advantage over the competition. Hopefully, the shopper realizes the economic and psychological advantages that these different policies offer them.


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