ZAMBO.

Direct answer

Promise the work. Never promise their sales.

The request sounds flattering: the client believes in your work so much they want it backed by a promise that sales will rise. Read it again and it is a risk transfer. Sales are the product of your deliverable multiplied by things you do not control: their prices, their traffic, their offer, their follow-up, the season, the market that month. A promise on the outcome makes you the insurer of all of it, payable in refunds and free rework, while the client keeps every lever that actually moves the number. The answer is not a flat no, which sounds like doubt in your own work. The answer separates the two things cleanly: the deliverable, which you can stand behind completely and in writing, and the outcome, which nobody honest can promise. Then it offers the constructive middle that serious clients actually want. Here is the wording and the structure.

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Updated November 2, 2026. First published November 2, 2026. The two delivery records quoted below are real and public, with their client decision states read back from the live service on November 2, 2026.

Step 1. Sort the request into what you control and what you do not

Write the two piles down before you answer, because the answer is built out of them. Your pile: the deliverable matches the agreed brief, it is complete, it works as specified, it arrives on the agreed date, defects in it get fixed. Their pile: whether buyers come, what those buyers are charged, how the work is launched, placed, promoted, and followed up, and everything the market does meanwhile. A sales result lives almost entirely in the second pile. That is not a debating point; it is the arithmetic of the thing, and the client usually knows it the moment it is laid out in their own business terms. Your reply stands on the first pile without flinching and declines the second without apologising. The strength of the position is that both halves are obviously fair, and a client arguing against either half has to say out loud that they want you liable for their pricing or their promotion, which few will do.

Step 2. Say the no in one sentence, then build the yes beside it

The sentence is: I do not promise sales results, because sales depend on pricing, traffic, and follow-up that sit on your side, and a promise I cannot control would not be honest. Then, in the same message and without a pause for negotiation, build what you do promise. The work will match the agreed brief, item by item. If any item falls short of the brief, you will fix it at no charge inside a stated window. The work will be delivered in a form you can measure: the pages, files, or assets live and checkable, not a report about them. And you will sit in a review on an agreed date and read the agreed measures together, and if the work itself is the weak point, the record will show it and you will put it right. Clients who wanted a slogan hear the difference immediately: this is a supplier standing behind everything that is theirs to stand behind, which is the only backing that was ever worth having.

Step 3. Replace the promise with agreed measures and a review date

Most outcome demands dissolve when measurement is offered in their place, because what the client often wants is not insurance; it is a sign you will still care after the invoice. So propose the measures before the work starts, in writing: the handful of numbers both sides will read, where each number comes from, what the baseline is today, and the date you will read them together. Keep the measures tied to the deliverable's actual job: reach, enquiries, conversion on the pages you built, whatever the brief aimed at, stated as measures, never as targets you owe. Write beside them the line that protects both sides: these measures tell us how the work performed in your market; they are the agenda for the review, not a condition of payment. A client planning to use the work properly usually accepts this on the spot, because it gives them more than a slogan: a baseline, a date, and a partner in the room when the numbers land.

Step 4. Read the two states a job can sit in when results are argued later

Outcome arguments get dangerous months later, when memory has rewritten what was promised, so the deliverable and its acceptance need a shape that survives the argument. The record format is AER-1, published as an IETF Internet-Draft (draft-zambo-aer1-26), and each step carries a verifiable receipt: a receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved. The two public records below show the states a delivery can carry:

Accepted: the decision is on the record

Pending: checked, and still waiting on a decision

An accepted record, 4 of 4 steps checked, decided_by client, release_hint ok_to_release, decided 2026-10-16T14:31:51.146Z in that example, fixes the half of the argument you can win: the work that was agreed is the work that was delivered, checked, and accepted on a date. A later claim that the work itself was not what was ordered has to argue with that record, not with your recollection. A pending record, 5 of 5 steps checked and release_hint hold, is the exposed shape: checked work, no decision, and an outcome dispute can pour into the gap and become a dispute about everything. Close the decision before the measures are ever read. Neither state says a word about sales, and that silence is the point: the record settles the deliverable completely, so the results conversation stays where it belongs, on the market side of the line.

Step 5. If they insist, offer risk shapes that do not make you the insurer

Sometimes the demand is a test of commitment, and there are honest ways to share risk without promising the uncontrollable. A smaller paid first stage, scoped so its measures can be read quickly, with the larger stage priced after the review. A fee split: part fixed for the deliverable, part tied to an agreed measure as a bonus rather than as the fee itself at risk, so your downside is a smaller upside, not unpaid work. A defect and fix window generous enough that the client's real fear, paying for work that underdelivers against its own brief, is covered in full. What never appears on this list: the whole fee refundable if sales disappoint, free rework until the numbers move, or payment withheld pending results. Each of those prices their market risk at your labour rate, and each one attracts the next demand of the same kind. A client who refuses every shared-risk shape and wants only the full promise has told you the promise was the product they were buying, and it was never yours to sell.

Step 6. Put the boundary in the agreement, kindly and before the work

One short paragraph in the proposal ends this conversation for every future client: the deliverable is as specified in the brief; defects against the brief are fixed free inside the stated window; results in the client's market, including sales, enquiries, and revenue, depend on factors outside the deliverable and are not promised; both sides will read the agreed measures at the review on the stated date. Read it aloud to yourself before sending any proposal and notice what it does not do: it does not weaken your offer, it strengthens it, because a buyer comparing two proposals can see which supplier knows exactly what their work is and is not responsible for. The ones who promise the outcome are either new, desperate, or planning to argue about the wording later. Be visibly none of those three.

What a record does not settle

A verifiable receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved; it does not prove the work will sell, persuade, or perform in any market, and nothing on this page promises a business result for anyone. The brief, the delivered work on its record, the acceptance, and the agreed measures are what any later conversation stands on. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

My client wants a guarantee that my work will get them more sales. What should I say?

Decline the outcome and accept the deliverable, in the same breath. Say plainly that you do not promise sales results, because sales depend on their pricing, traffic, offer, and follow-up, none of which your work controls, and a promise you cannot control would not be honest. Then state what you do stand behind, in writing: the work will match the agreed brief item by item, defects against the brief are fixed free inside a stated window, and you propose agreed measures with a baseline and a review date so both sides can read how the work performed in their market and fix the work if the work is the weak point. If they still need shared risk, offer a smaller paid first stage or a bonus tied to a measure, never the fee itself hostage to sales. The sentence to hold is: I will promise everything about the work, and nothing about your market.

Is refusing a results promise a sign I do not believe in my work?

It is the opposite sign, and you can say why in the client's own terms. Surgeons do not promise recoveries, they promise the operation will be the operation agreed, performed properly; lawyers do not promise verdicts; the serious end of every trade promises its workmanship and declines the outcome, because the outcome is shared with too many other hands. Doubt sounds different: vague briefs, no fix window, no measures, no record of what was delivered. Offer all four of those concretes and the refusal reads as what it is, the boundary of a supplier who knows which part of the result is theirs. Clients who have been burned before recognise it fastest, because the last supplier's promise is usually the reason they are asking you for one.

The client says another provider offered to promise results. What do I say?

Do not bid against the promise; price what it usually is. A results promise from someone who does not control the results is a marketing sentence, and it settles nothing when the numbers disappoint: the argument simply moves to what counted as the result, which period, and whose traffic change broke it. Invite the comparison onto ground you win: ask both providers for the brief match, the defect fix window, the measures and baseline, and the delivery record, in writing. If the other provider still offers the promise on top of all that, the client can take it with open eyes. What you never do is match the slogan to keep the job, because the day the measure misses, and some measures always miss, you will be renegotiating your fee inside a promise you knew was hollow when you made it.

Can I ever tie any of my pay to results honestly?

Yes, in shapes where the result is close to your hands and the arithmetic is agreed in advance. A bonus on an agreed measure, over a fixed base fee that already pays for the work, is honest: your downside is a smaller extra, not unpaid labour. A small paid pilot stage whose measures decide a larger stage is honest, and it is how most durable results-based work actually runs. The tests are three: the measure is one your deliverable genuinely moves, the baseline and reading date are written down before the work starts, and the fixed part of the fee covers the work even if the measure misses entirely. Fail any test and the shape is not shared risk any more. It is your fee standing surety for their market, wearing a friendlier name.

How do I set up the job so a results argument cannot rewrite it later?

Fix the deliverable and its acceptance on a record before any numbers are read. When the work runs through Zambo, every step carries a verifiable receipt under AER-1, published as IETF Internet-Draft draft-zambo-aer1-26, and the acceptance sits on the same record as the work, so a later results dispute starts from a settled fact: this brief, this delivery, accepted on this date. New users get 20 calls and 1 wrap-up free every day, and picking up work in another AI is always free. For $0.99, run the next measured job that way and let the record hold the deliverable line while the measures say what they say: get the Day Pass. A Day Pass is unlimited for 24 hours, no subscription. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 a month or $290 a year, and $19 a month for $ZAMBO holders, which adds private handover links, your branding, and the approval record as PDF and JSON files.

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