Perspectives on Under Promising and Over Delivering

If I’m remembering correctly 😊 we’ve talked about the “frequency illusion” before--the cognitive bias in which we tend to see a particular thing everywhere after noticing it for the first time.

Under performing and over delivering has been grabbing my attention this week.

“Under promise and over deliver” they say. The premise is that “exceeding customers’ expectations, i.e. under promising and over delivering, is beneficial for businesses as it often results in repeat sales and free advertising through word of mouth.”

Recent podcast episodes by Tara McMullin and Leah Neaderthal raised some red flags about this practice and got me thinking about the impact it has on our businesses. More specifically, they got me thinking that under promising and over delivering are symptoms of a business that is not scalable or saleable.

The scalable saleable business is selling outcomes.

It is not selling time (“Expert for sale!”).

It is not selling deliverables.

Regardless of the specific pricing model, the engagements are outcome based.

“I will deliver X outcome in exchange for Y compensation.”

There is no room in this exchange for under promising or for over delivering. The outcome is both the promise and the delivery. Promise and delivery are perfectly aligned.

The only way to under promise or over deliver is if you are selling your time or a list of deliverables. Over delivering happens when we get up in our heads about whether we are providing enough value to the client. It is the spawn of insecurity that comes from not understanding what a win is for the client. It is a symptom that your business is not scalable.

We—female founders of services businesses—are some of over delivering’s best minions. No product-based business would under promise and over deliver. As nurturers, we naturally bring generosity to our professional relationships. No problem there. But when it results in a misalignment of the exchange between outcome and compensation, we do ourselves a disservice.

As for me, guilty. I learned this the hard way when I over delivered by under charging for an outcome. The client then told his mastermind group about what a bargain I was. Guess what kind a referrals I got from that? One person literally said to me: “I hear you are cheap!” Oy. I then ruined the relationship with the client when I had to turn away his referrals.

Understand this: over delivering does not provide greater value to the client. Once the outcome they desired has been delivered, they have received 100% of the value. There is no more value to add. A gift, yes. But value, no.