The good, the bad and the ugly about underpromising and overdelivering.

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Tom

Companies, like most people, are proud of their accomplishements.  As a result they create expectations they can hardly fulfill.  While this is a good way to sell each person on this planet 1 product, it isn’t the way to create a loyal customer base. 

Companies still think the way to attract people to their shops is to exagerate.  But this is a word-of-mouth world (actually, it has always been a word-of-mouth world, most marketers just like you to think something else) and in that world it’s more important to deliver what you promise.  If you promote a watch that can go 100 meters under water, you know you’re going to get bad press when it breaks at 80 meters, so why do it?  The solution: underpromise and overdeliver.

But it’s a thin line and you have to find your right way of handling it.  For example, a designer may need one full day to create a logo.  It’s okay if he tells his client he needs four days to make it, but is it okay to say you need one week?  Or even longer?  Chances are you’ll probably overdeliver, but the risk is that you create more stress and that’s just what you’re trying to avoid. 

Why?  Because people are basically lazy.  You’ve got two kinds of persons.  The ones who postpone everything to the very last minute (like I am) and the ones who want to do the job as soon as possible because they like the prospective of having some free time.  But in both cases it can turn out the wrong way.  Person A will postpone the job and will find it hard to overdeliver.  Person B will get more stress because he works fast to get more free time, but he’ll always have something new to do.

Calculate how long it will take if you do the job.  You could take the actual time without interference and multiply it by a certain factor (times 3?).
And based on the 80/20 rule, just plan 80% of your day.  You can use the other 20% for those unexpected jobs and more importantly, use it for those precious clients who need something ‘urgently’.

But hey, whatever works for you. 

Connect

You may want to read:

• Your personal brand, your talent
• Is it worth the effort?
• Can you make a difference?