Under Promise & Over Deliver…The Big Business Myth

October 16th, 2013 by Diane Conklin under Business - General. No Comments.

In business, you often hear the phrase “under-promise and over-deliver.”  This concept is a myth and can actually cause harm to your business.

Don’t ever under-promise… just over-deliver!

Promise what you’re going to give people, and then give them more… but don’t intentionally under-promise.

One example that was in a book I recently read was setting a meeting for an earlier time in your calendar because you always run late.  For example, if you have a meeting scheduled for 2:00 and you know you’re always 15 minutes late then schedule the meeting for 1:30 in your calendar.  Then you will arrive at 1:45, 15 minutes early, and you think you’ve over-delivered.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is why are you always late?  You’re running a business so it’s important to be on time.

Set meetings for a time you can arrive on time, and then arrive on time.

Be the responsible business person you need to be, and be a person of your word.

Don’t under-promise so you can look good by over-delivering.  In this situation, the fact of the matter is you didn’t over-deliver at all. You simply made good on your real promise.

If you’re truly going to over-deliver then do something over and above, and something no one is expecting.  That’s over-delivering.

Doing the right thing or the thing you should do isn’t over-delivering.

Pick-up the phone and thank somebody for investing in your course, for ordering something, or for coming into your shop that day.  That’s going above and beyond, and providing your clients an unexpected benefit.  Those are the kind of things that are going to wow your customers and prospects.

Wow people! And, do it by giving them things they don’t expect.

People expect you to deliver what you say you’re going to give them. That’s the minimum you should do anyway.  Do what you say and then, go a step above and beyond so you exceed their expectation.

Run your business responsibly by doing more for your clients than they expect, and they’ll stay with you for a long time to come.  You’ll never have to worry about where your clients are or worry about them working with you or buying from someone else.

If you promise something, deliver what you promise, and then you go above and beyond what is expected or necessary.  That’s the way you run a successful business.