The “Under Promise” Delusion… Influence and Control

Why You Shouldn’t Under Promise & Over Deliver

You know how it is, you believe something for so long, everyone agrees with you, all the books tell you it’s true and then suddenly you have a blinding revelation – we’ve all been duped! You know like those gorillas in The Gorillas Want Bananas were? If you’re not sure what I’m talking about then you really need to read the book…

Anyway – once you realise that what you believed was simply wrong you’ll be thinking…

How did I ever fall for that?

Let me explain…

Do You Want to Lie To Your Customers?

You know the old saying “Under Promise & Over Deliver”? – well, here’s the idea behind it.

Buyers these days are ever more ready to complain when something isn’t to their liking (yes, even in the UK!) Customers are prepared to walk if you don’t deliver what you said, when you said you would. Clients are mobile, promiscuous, vocal and will change supplier (not to mention tell all their online buddies that you suck) if they can get better service.

So in order to meet these demands, for the last 30 years or so, we’ve all been fooled into believing the dogma of “Under Promise & Over Deliver”. Here’s how it goes…

You tell the customer a job that’ll take just 10 days will actually take 12 and then “wow” them when you deliver ahead of schedule.

Now (despite the fact you’ve just told a porkie pie), in theory this sounds great – your clients can’t fail to be impressed at your “over-delivery”!

Or can they?

Just think about it for a little longer…

Your client comes along and you promise to deliver the project by 2pm on Tuesday, even though you know you can get it finished by Friday. That gives you the weekend to reflect, Monday morning to add the polish and you can deliver it on Monday afternoon – a whole day earlier than promised. A great under-promised and over-delivered job!

But doing this is short-sighted because here’s what usually happens…

The client is delighted – you delivered a day early! But then your client starts thinking… did this mean it wasn’t as complicated as you said it was? Or could you have actually got it finished by Friday? Perhaps you’ve over charged? Hmm… However, because your client is happy you did what you said and within the time scale, he pushes these doubts to the back of his mind. Your strategy paid off.

But what happens next time?

The client now learns to “expect” (that’s his job) the same level of service you delivered last time. The under-promise lie will simply have no effect. He gives you another project but now has higher expectations. You give him a timescale and price, again under-promising so you can confidently over-deliver with a big, smug smile on your face but the client remembers the last project and asks you to “try a bit harder” on the timescale. And you do, because hey, you like the guy and you want his businesses. And besides, he was really grateful last time.

But this time your client “expects” it to be done as fast and efficiently as before. This time he won’t be impressed by your “over-delivery” – this is just his expectation of what’s normal.

Sadly, when you deliver on time and in budget a second time, your client will wonder just how far you will go to delight him. He wonders if he pushes a little harder if he could get your price down or your timescale shortened. And he pushes, and he pushes… It becomes a vicious circle of ever increasing demands.

By using the “Under Promise” lie, you’ve taught your client that you can always do it faster than you’ve told him. Your lie will come back to bite you.

And what happens if something goes wrong – if you can’t deliver in the real timescale – or the price escalates? Or someone lets you down, or the goalposts change? You could be heading for trouble…

So, What’s The Answer?

Well, taking everything into account, you still need to make big promises to your customers, and it’s still noble to try and exceed their expectations honestly – ie without misleading them. But the answer lies in understanding what’s important to the client and working with the client to make sure that you can deliver on that. Then you can then still honestly over-deliver on something you have complete control over without setting yourself up for trouble later.

I talk about the difference between control and influence in our Lean Marketing Toolbook entitled Maximum Impact – Minimum Effort.

So before I let you into our secret, I’d just like to clarify the difference between Control and Influence. To me, misunderstanding the difference between that which you can control and that which you can merely influence is the biggest reason for client disappointment and feelings of failure.

Control VS Influence (Outcomes and Intentions)

That which is beyond your immediate and complete manipulation is not, whether you like it or not, within your control. So what is within your control?

• Your Emotions and Motivation (although not all of us accept this)
• Your Response To Outside Influences (although not all of us accept this either)
• The Direction You Take In Life
• Every Action You Take
• The Way You Communicate
• What You Say and Do and Promise
• What You Choose To Believe or Ignore
• Inanimate Objects & Tools You Use (except PCs which definitely call most of the shots these days!)

Everything else that is outside of us (especially other animals/humans) we can only influence. Here are some examples of things you can only influence…

• Whether Someone Likes You
• Whether People Will Buy
• What Other People Find Important
• Whether People Believe You
• Convincing Someone of Something
• Getting Someone to Do Something (even if you’re a hypnotist)

Sure, you can exert enough influence that it seems like control. If someone held a gun to your head, they could probably influence you to do a lot of things. But despite that, they couldn’t get you to think different things or feel differently about something because they still only have influence.

Finally, there are some things we have no direct control or influence over… such as the weather, space and time (unless you believe all those “snakeoil salesmen” encouraging you to simply ask the Universe for whatever you want without getting off your backside and doing anything) and where we start out in life. But seriously there’s no benefit dwelling on the things we cannot do – because it’s more empowering to focus on what we can do.

The Solution

You cannot control how your clients feel, but you can influence them. You need to concentrate on explaining the value, rather than the cost. Understanding their real requirements, rather than assuming that time and budget are their main motivators. You need to work out what you are in control of and what you can merely influence. And then you need to Make A Big, Realistic Promise & Strive To Over-Deliver on the Promise.

Being honest, gaining trust, finding out what clients really want and meeting those needs better than anyone else will ensure loyalty and enable you to charge a premium. There’s no need to lie to impress clients when you can make life easier by simply focusing on the right things.

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