Underpromise and Overdeliver:
What do your customers really find
behind your promotions?
On the one hand: you know you need to deliver value to your customers and you know you’re going to try hard to do so.
One the other hand: You’re caught in a never-ending cycle of working to keep up and stay one step ahead of your competitors who are always upping their antes with new and improved products and better pricing options.
And on the middle (er, hand): you’re trying to perform a circus high-wire act stretching from a promise so understated that it puts the roaring crowd to sleep to over-the-top, the-greatest-show-on-earth hype that revvs up customers into excitement overdrive but leaves them disappointed and unlikely to return — or even mad enough so they tell others about your shortcomings.
How do you get out of this uncomfortable situation of unsatisfying alternatives?
The answer: Stop trying hard. Offer what you can easily and consistently deliver. Then promise a little more and deliver that consistently.
(If you are into personal improvement, you’ll quickly recognize that I’m talking about a character issue applied to your business: your integrity.)
So here’s what you do:
- Stage 1: Make no promises you have challenges easily keeping. If you’re still working on keeping your word on simple matters - such as saying your policy is to respond to inquiries in a timely manner but you’re consistently weeks or months late in responding - work on that before anything else.
- Stage 2: Extend your promise a bit further outside of your comfort zone:
- Upgrade or improve your product or service in areas that are most important to your customers. If you mastered the “pizza delivered in 30 minutes,” how about making it taste better than the box it came in?
- Transfer more of the buying risk to your business: If you’ve always offered a 30-day money-back guarantee and truly fear the unknown consequences of offering a 90-day guarantee, feel the fear and do it anyway. If you offer services but don’t offer guarantees or payment options that go well beyond the date you performed your services, feel the fear and do it anyway. (How long would you honor a money-back guarantee on a seminar you hold? Is that a scary thought?)
- Stage 3: Build in extra value for what you offer — pile on some bonuses and upgrades — rather than shrinking the price. Here are some examples to give you ideas and challenge your comfort zone:
- Upscale Lounge: free menu selections or a quality buffet during the 5-7pm happy hour, reserved seating for your regular patrons
- Consulting: free $150 one-hour consult when you register for the $25 seminar
- Digital products: $400 of extra bonuses with your $59 order
- E*TRADE (actual offer): 100 free online stock market trades (”equivalent to $999 in free trade commissions at a value of $9.99 per trade”) during the first 30 days after you fund your account
Can you see that by the time you’ve reached Stage 3, you’ve trained your organization to consistently act with integrity, stretched its comfort zone to include more of your customers’ needs, and now these customers can see plainly for themselves that your offer is flowing over the top in value — instead of a promotion that goes over the top with promises?
Ultimately, your strategy of underpromise and overdeliver will get you to the point where your customers tell others about how you truly delivered the goods behind the sign.
That’s the naked truth.
What questions or concerns do you have about going over the top with value instead of hype? If you’ve done this before, what did you do and did it work or not? Comment below now:
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Once your organization grows beyond just you, quality control gets harder because you want your people to act like you even when you’re not around. This requires hiring trustworthy people in the first place.
I like your idea about a MBG on seminars. That would really
demonstrate one’s faith in what they’re teaching. So many
seminars will offer a “first day” or “first morning” guarantee.
But of course you have to decide before any of the real
substance is revealed. Extending a guarantee on an
intangible (no physical product to return) would be a
strong motivator for me to participate.
And the good part about an extended money-back guarantee, Phil, is that: (1) it helps increase attendance while (2) not putting your company at greater risk. Why no greater risk? Most people don’t ask for their money back, and the longer you make the guarantee, the fewer come back for a refund.
As a one man show, my tendency is to promise more than I can deliver on a consistent basis. This leads me to work mostly 6 & 7 day weeks to make good on my promises and at that, it is still not enough time to satisfy all. How I’ve dealt with this perpensity is to work around a schedule of no more than 2 good appointments/day which allows me more time in the office to tend to follow up and to make things happen. Between trying to reach new clients, networking for introductions and E-Mail, it doesn’t leave much time for delivering the goods without working well into the wee hours. Parity in all tasks is something to strive for, but until you have significant staff to perform the routine follow up, the one man show can become a one man circus in a hurry!