💃 Underpromise, Overdeliver 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! Trust takes years to build, and seconds to break.

It’s not fair that you can be 99% perfect and then one slip up has you wallowing in the dog house 🙁.

But it is what it is, especially in consulting, where your client boss is paying $250/hr for your expertise.

Mastering underpromise, overdeliver techniques is key to a consultant’s, or any Salesforce professional’s, survival 💯.

Here are some mastery-level techniques 👇

SCENARIO

What is Underpromise, Overdeliver?

You’ve advised the client that you can create an automation that builds out their specified tasks for that status.

When the client asks “cool, how long will it take?” you don’t take the bait 🎣.

You know this automation is easy and fast to build.

You also know it needs to go through Dev, QA, and UAT.

And that you have a million other things on your to-do list ✔️.

You respond “I’ll follow up with you by end of day tomorrow.”

Then you follow up sooner.

Boom. Overdelivered.

“Following up on the ETA for the task creation automation, this will be completed by the end of month. Here are the other open items if you’d like to re-prioritize this?”

The client declines, and says end of month is fine. And you know where this is going - you finish the request before end of month. Overdelivered.

Happy client 🙂.

MASTERY

3 Underpromise, Overdeliver Mastery Techniques

That example was just to whet your palate 😋.

Here are 3 mastery-level techniques for Underpromise, Overdeliver-

100% of the Time

Exactly what it says - underpromise, overdeliver for your stakeholders 100% of the time.

That doesn’t sound reasonable 🤔? Ask yourself- why wouldn’t you do it 100% of the time? What do you have to lose? And what do you have to gain by NOT underpromising, overdelivering 🤔🤔?!

And of course, we can’t willy nilly throw out 4x effort estimates. Stakeholders will catch on real quick that they’re being sandbagged, and the trust is gone.

You need to feel warm & fuzzy about your ability to deliver the thing when you say you will, while also considering your already-full plate.

The Long Game

Underpromising, overdelivering is not going to make you stand out on day 1. Nor day 30, 90, or 180.

But, over a long enough timeline, you will become the company MVP. Your delivery and reliability will be the stuff of legend 🙌.

Toyota did not gain their reputation for reliability overnight. They gained it after their cars were still humming after 20yrs and 1 million miles.

At first, you will be just another body in front of your stakeholder. But after time and reps, your stakeholder will understand that you’re built different. That you do what you say you will do. Every. Single. Time.

Daisy-Chain Overdelivery

The palate-whetting example from above? That was actually an advanced technique. Here’s what we mean-

There will be scenarios where you can’t make a commitment or a promise to your stakeholder, when that’s exactly what they need from you.

So make a commitment. One you know you can keep.

“I’ll follow up with you by end of day tomorrow.”

You committed to following up. You did NOT commit to providing an ETA. Certainly there’s some nuance here, let’s cut to the chase -

✅ You must add value in your follow up. What you’ve done, what you will do, etc. Something your stakeholder can have as a line-item in their executive summary so they don’t get chewed out for you not providing an ETA.

✅ You must work to get to an ETA. Sit down with your manager and formulate a plan. Even this process will generate additional value-add you can provide to your anxious stakeholder.

✅ And here’s a secret - most stakeholders will have a high threshold for not getting a thing when they want it if you provide effective, value-add communications. They want to know they’re being attended to.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Takeaway

🙌 Underpromise, overdeliver to your stakeholders 100% of the time.

🙌 Play the long game. You won’t be the first to get promoted, but you will get the most promotions.

🙌 Daisy-chain your overdelivery when you don’t want to make a promise that you can’t keep. Utilize effective communications and add value without putting the trust you’ve built at risk!

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

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