You go online and buy a MacBook Pro from Apple.com. You load it up with everything; the biggest hard drive, maxxed out RAM…the works. You place the order and it’s to arrive in a week.
Three days later, the FedEx guy is at your door.
Now that’s not to discredit Apple, their products are amazing in themselves. But it’s the four days you didn’t have to wait to get your newest Mac toy that really sweetens the deal. Apple knows what they’re doing and it’s not a coincidence, they’ve conquered a key ingredient in business…controlling expectations.
To my surprise, when the phrase is Googled, not much really comes up. A few guidelines on a public company intranet and a few articles but nothing that really lays it out. But the question is, why?
When I sit down with my clients, it’s one of most important parts of my selling technique. Say they want a website…great. Chances are if they’re a normal human being, they’re going to want something that’s never been done before, looks great and makes them a ton of money…and they want it done yesterday.
And that’s when the control comes in. You know it’s only going to take a few days to put together some preliminary concepts and designs but tell them you’ll get in touch with them in about 7-10 days. Then, when the site launches, tell them to expect the optimization you’ve done to start getting noticed in a few months, while you know the work you did will begin generating traffic in weeks. Not only will your clients love you for your work, they’ll subconsciously think of you as one of the most “on top of it” kind of guys they know. Work on your schedule, not theirs…
Just the other day I was buying a ticket to the over-priced worth-it Virgin Festival in Baltimore. I figured I just had to stomach the $200 ticket and the ridiculous $30 convenience charge; and I did. But what was surprising is when the e-ticket arrived in my inbox, I got another nice email from iTunes giving me a free song just for using TicketMaster.
So there it is. It truly pays off to under-sell and over-deliver.