Avoid the
Perils of Overpromising
Given the power of technology to radically change the
way businesses operate, companies have a tendency to overwhelm customers with
solutions they're not yet sure they need. So, consider backing off a bit on
what you offer. Don't confuse them while you're trying to convince them.
Executive director, Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation
and Tech Entrepreneurship, Illinois Institute of Technology
Promises
always come with the peril of non-performance. It's a bad plan in life as well
as business to promise more than you can deliver. If you expect people to
believe your promises tomorrow, it helps a great deal if you kept them
yesterday. This probably sounds like old news to most of you since we've all
been lectured from birth by our parents, teachers and preachers about the
necessity and difficulty of always trying to live up to your commitments.
But
this is how life works. I certainly support the basic concept and
agree that it makes all the sense in the world, but the difference today is
that technological advances have radically changed the nature of the
conversation. The problem now isn't so much about arrogance or baseless
bragging as it is about how and when to deal realistically and effectively with
the truth. Because the truth today is a lot stranger in some ways than the
fiction of yesterday.
Given
the powerful technologies we now have at our disposal and the actual and
concrete results that new businesses can deliver, there's a somewhat novel
sales problem that I'm seeing. Too many startups are so excited about the
powerful possibilities and the real wonders their solutions can work that, in
their eagerness and enthusiasm, they're losing sight of who they're selling to,
and what kinds of solutions those buyers are looking for.
In
the old days, we used to say that the main difference between a car salesman
and a computer salesman was that the car guy knew he was lying to you whereas
the computer guy was just deluded. Today, telling your prospects and customers
too much about what your products and services can do is more likely to confuse
them than to convince them.
Instead
of offering simple initial implementations and step-by-step measured solutions
--basically addressing and resolving the lowest and most obvious hanging fruit
first-- what I'm seeing and hearing too often in these kinds of conversations
are broad claims and bold statements. "Our software can do anything
- just tell us what you need." Even if that were true, which in some cases
is almost certainly the case, it absolutely doesn't matter to the buyers.
And, worse yet, it's totally off-putting because it shifts the onus of
specifying the problems that need to be solved on to the buyers. Here's
the issue: they may know what end results they need (cost economies,
productivity enhancements, etc.), but they likely have no real idea of what
your products can do or how your solutions would be introduced and incorporated
into their specific operations. So, their natural reaction is to take two steps
backwards rather than buying your pitch.
That's
why it makes so much sense to start by sandbagging a little bit instead of
bragging. Under promise and then over deliver. Let me give you a real life and
slightly sneaky example that you'll be seeing practically every night on TV -
if you ever watch TV. I say "sneaky" because this is a situation
dictated mainly by marketing considerations, but it might also be to get around
certain regulatory requirements about diet claims. If you watch the latest ads
for several of the wonder drugs (no names please) -- after they make all the
over-the-top basic benefit claims and after they list the 4 million side
effects - you'll hear a little announcer aside that goes like this: "and
you might just lose a little weight too." No promises. No guarantees. But,
as good Samaritans, we thought you just might want to know. Right. That's under
promising to a "T."
And,
in your own business and sales approach, you need to be thinking the same way
when you present your new products and services. Tone it down - don't go for
the gold from the get-go. Prove your product a little bit at a time. "New" is a nasty word to
millions of procurement officers, buyers and other decision makers.
"Novel" and "innovative" are right up there as well. Change
is always hard to implement, but when it represents new costs, retraining and
upskilling commitments, the risks of errors and mistakes, etc., it's an even
harder sale. And it's no easier when the impact and the benefits aren't
immediately demonstrable.
In
the real world, no one is looking for a miracle. They want risk-free,
middle-of-the-road, mundane improvements that might save their companies some
money, but will certainly save their jobs. They want immediate solutions, not
ultimate salvation. This is in part because they're not sure that they'll even
be around for the big, long-awaited payoff. So, you need to plan, sell, and act
accordingly.
Even
if you can eventually move the moon, start with something that you can get done
by next Monday.