This is not the way to run a business, and it is not the way to sell your product or service. As a business coach, I would never ask my clients to behave this way. It lacks something missing in business today called INTEGRITY. Build a relationship with your clients, be honest and forthright, and be held accountable for what you say. Without integrity, nothing works! A promise should mean something, and should not be used as a device to trick your clients. This advice is fraught with deceit and may work once, but not in the long run…especially when you get caught in the act!

Don - perhaps I’m not clear enough (and for that I apologize), over delivering, entails making a reasonable or competitive promise,and then beating it.

Back to my coding example, if the industry average for a job of the size that is requested is 2 months. Say a Month and three weeks, and be done with it sooner. Do you get what I’m saying. Your integrity isn’t compromised, you’re just working harder, to make sure that you over deliver.

Integrity is key in business relationships, I never claimed it wasn’t, and I wouldn’t suggest a method of earning money that would compromise my readers potential integrity with their clients.

I have edited the post to make sure that my message is clearly communicated to my other readers.

Thanks for the great comment, hope to see you around the blog in the future

great post… having worked for many years in web and IT I must agree that this can be an excellent way to create value for both the customer and business - there is nothing worse than over promising and failing to deliver… this hurts both you as a provider of service/product and the business as a customer…

of course - you must also recognize that many businesses and business people will try to get you to commit to over providing (squeezing blood out of a stone) - and many people will try to accommodate the client along the lines of “the client is always right”. This can hurt both parties in the long run - the client through NOT having the system or deployment they expected - and the business through having dissatisfied clients, or doing work that has minimal or negative ROI…

however i think another key element is Managing Expectations - along the journey a business needs to be able to manage the expectations of their clients - and over providing (and under promising) is key in this… another part of under promising is actually going to the root of the NEED of the customer… I have found that 80% of the time the customer doesn’t really have a clear idea of what they WANT… it is up to the professional to educate the business - and a key part of this comes down to managing and educating the client as to what they really need - not what they think they need (this is especially relevant in the modern world of web 2.0 - most businesses do not NEED the 2.0 functionality and concepts - but driven by the media and market they think they need them - creating a want…)

at the end of the day - if you can provide the best service in the shortest time - you will win - and if the business expects less - and you provide more - you will make them very happy… but if you just create MORE for the sake of MORE… you will create bloat - and ultimately client dissatisfaction - as you over compensate and provide the client with a bunch of stuff that they never really needed - but wanted…

in relation to coach don - of course integrity is super important - under promising is not a TRICK - personally i think that over promising is a trick - and far far more fraught with failure and financial pain for everyone… hmmm… credit crunch anyone???

my motto is - give a realistic appraisal of what is NEEDED - if the client wants stuff that is stupid - slap them down (in the nicest possible sense) - and focus on providing the key needs in a timeframe that is shorter than what you budgeted - and this should always be possible unless crazy unforeseen circumstances (which happen 80% of the time) affect the deployment/product etc. and always make sure you factor in at least 20%+ margin of error - cause there will always be something that pops up to derail your process…

best bet is to take the time/cost you think it will take - and multiply by 2 (or Pi) - tell the client that - and then work as hard as you can to deliver in far less time… but never ever cut your timeline or cost to something that does not allow for unforeseen circumstances.

great post and site…

If you want to promise something, it is better to do it for a reasonable time. For example, when someone asked me to make a website or logo, I set the deadline I could reach working without pressure, relaxed. Usually I end the work before the deadline, and this way who hired me think I worked hardly, when really, I didn’t :D.

Nat- That isn’t a comment, its a post of its own! GREAT COMMENT

Now, I agree with what you say about a business not always needing what it asks for. The media creates wants in consumers and peoples businesses are based of wants. In essence we could argue that 90% of things anyone asks for are wants and not needs. (Just playing devils advocate)

In terms of development, I think of web development has to budget in time for different shortfalls. So far I’ve been very lucky with my ventures and haven’t hit any MAJOR snags, but I can say that from a clients point of view I get very frustrated if dates get moved back. It makes me not want to give the programmer or developer repeat business (now this can be changed by an end product that warrants the extra time of course.)

By giving a client things that they don’t need you create an over saturation of useless stuff. All this does is ultimately slows down the clients progress on the important stuff and creates dissatisfaction as they don’t get the important stuff perfect because they are tweaking and playing around with any other stuff you gave them. There is a very careful balance most businesses have to maintain with that concept.

@ Mr. Javo - Of course, that is the point of the post exactly. Setting reasonable deadlines is acceptable, working hard to beat them is what sets you apart from everyone else.

The way, I believe, to keep punters happy is to give them what they need rather than what they think they want.
The reasons punters come to you in the first place is because you know what your doing; Right?
Give them originality. Make sure you know how to write and create great copy that showcases your punter.
That highlights advantages and creates value for them. Your task is to create an environment for them to conclude great value business.
Deadlines have nothing to do with it. It takes the time it takes and it costs what it costs. Don’t be frightened of taking payment. Put value into your own skills and time. Then you win respect.
I dont mean that you can take forever over a job but tell them the work that goes into photos, research, writing relevant copy and coding or hatever.
most punters have no idea how much work goes into creating fabulous media.
What is read in ten minutes often takes 20 days to create.
So give value. Make it valuable and profitable for you also.
Most punters know that if you work for nothing then you can’t do a decent job and the likelyhood is you won’t be around in the future to give them after sales service.
Now. Get as much joy as you can from everyday and put the same joy into your punters work. If your having a good time then everyone wants a piece of it.
The Baldchemist ( you can find our site easy enough if your interested. but this isn’t my gig)

@ Coach Don - I see where you are coming from, but I have to agree that you probably mis-understood what the post is saying. It is nothing to do with deception.

Prime example - I have a paying customer who asked whether something could be tweaked to best suit his own needs. I said I’d put something together within the next 3 or 4 days; not to lie to him, but because I know that it *could* take that long, depending on other factors.

But my aim will always be to beat the date I initially set, to challenge myself to set a marker, and beat it. That’s not deceptive practice, it’s working hard to over-deliver.

Maybe the title of the post is a bit mis-leading. The focus should be on “over-deliver”, not on “under-promise” (positive vs negative re-enforcement).

Nice post Mattaw.

@Simon
I think you hit the nail on the head. Excellent example. Really leaves me nothing to add.

Man, I have the shortest comment

@ Simon - Prime example, as Jon said, nothing to add.

@Jon - Ha ha, don’t worry next post you wont…. MAYBE

@ BaldChemist - True, but giving them all that ahead of a time estimate your gave (most will want a quote), leaves you with more respectability and “credit” in their eyes. Besides that I agree with everything you said.

To all: Within the context of Marketing, which is what I believe the initial premise of this posting was about, there are no “tricks”. And you want to promise exactly what you can deliver - no more, no less.

I tell my clients the following about marketing:

- Marketing is creation of the promise that your company is built on.
- Sales is act of delivering the promise to customer once they decide they like your promise.
- Operations is delivering on the promise.

And make no mistakes about it, Marketing is about what the customer wants - not what you think they want or are currently offering.

When you talk about under promising and then over delivering, you are in fact under-marketing.

This is all a little esoteric, so let me give an example of what I mean.

I have a client that will give a customer’s money back if they are not completely satisfied with the service he provides (no, not an IT service). And he has done this for 37 years. But the only people that know this are the clients that have been dissatisfied - he’s never made it part of his promise. He’s never made it part of his marketing. So no new customers are choosing him because of the fact that he regularly over delivers - because they don’t know. He hasn’t told them.

So this “over-delivery” is costing him money. In his case it’s a refund of cash, every time the customer is dissatisfied. In your case, it’s also money - specifically all the bids have you NOT gotten because you were unwilling to promise what you could actually deliver on?

He has literally been under promising and over delivering.

But now, that guarantee (a 100% money back guarantee) has become part of his promise - part of his marketing and it is drawing in customers, by the dozens. Sure, it costs him occasionally, as there is the rare customer that will take advantage of him - but the number of new customers that are coming to him that are doing so just because he is willing to make a promise that no other business owner is willing to make is phenomenal.

I’m not saying to over promise. That is even worse, but by under promising, you are under marketing. And by under marketing you are costing yourselves a lot of business that you’ve earned because of the systems that you have in place.

The bottom line is when you talk about marketing be sure that you understand what marketing is.

It revolves around the question, “What is it about our business that is going to make our likely customers choose us over every other option they have to fulfill their needs?”

If you don’t offer it - someone else will and you will soon be out of business.

Okay, granted you have proved that under promising is potentially bad for business (remember every opinion is just that an opinion. Each business runs in a unique way and has different ones that work for it).

That still does not mean that over delivering is bad for business. As you yourself said people were coming to your client because he over delivered. By over delivering you give yourself a positive reputation and keep current clients coming back for more.

May I please note that on the under promise, I said a reasonable competitive offer, not one that is completely low-balled.

I’m not here to judge “under promising and over delivering” as good or bad for your business or any one else’s. I never said those words nor will I agree with them. You need to do what ever it “works” for your business model.

I’m simply pointing out that under promising and over delivering leaves money on the table that you could easily bring into your business - due to a loss business opportunity. That doesn’t make it bad or good.

The subtlety between “judging something to be good or bad” and determining whether it is working or not working is very small - but very important.

From the sounds of it, your business model is working for you right now - making you money and meeting your goals.

So, the question is, if you begin to start see that you are consistently able to over deliver, wouldn’t it be worth making an “innovation” to your marketing method (price in your case) to raise the promise - closer to what you are capable of delivering?

Wouldn’t that not only bring more customers back, as well as bring more “new” customers to the table?

Aren’t you already doing just that?

I don’t have the answers to those questions - only you, as a business owner does. And the great part is that there are no right or wrong answers.

Good luck in your business,

JJ

JJ,

An excellent point. Personally I am a webmaster and follow the model of promising what I can and trying to beat that.

I can promise advertisers what I feel is reasonable and I find I beat that consistantly.

Thank you for your kind wishes and hope to see you around the blog