Strategies for your work

Whether you are selling products of your own, or if you are selling services that you provide for others, you need to figure out the best strategy to accomplish your goals.  I am assuming that your goal is to maximize your income, so what you need to think about is what is the best way to accomplish the selling of your products and/or services.  Actually, this applies whether you are a self-employed entrepreneur, as I am, or if you are working in virtually any other job.  If you want to succeed, you need to use the best methods available to you.

There is one strategy that I believe can apply to any kind of work, and it is a strategy that always ends in success, in my opinion.  That strategy is one that I have lived by ever since I started working.

Under-promise and Over-deliver

Yes, it is that simple.  When you are selling, always promise the customer a little less than what you know is going to be delivered.  That can be in quantity, quality, time or a number of other factors.  For example, promise a dozen of the product.  Promise the quality of the product will deliver certain results.  Promise that the job can be done in 2 weeks.  But, whatever you are promising, always promise less than what you intend to deliver.  If you are fairly certain that you can do the job in 8 days, promise to have it done in two weeks instead.   If it will take you 10 months to get the job done, promise to finish in a year.  I am not saying to lie to your customer, but you are building a little bit of padding into what you promise for two reasons:

1. If something goes wrong, you might need that extra time to get it right.
2. If you finish the job in 10 months when you promised 12 months, you look really good that you got the work done ahead of schedule.

What about this “over-deliver” part, Bob?  Well, yes, that is right… always deliver more than you promised.  It goes hand in hand with my previous example.  If you promised to finish the job in 12 months, you over delivered by finishing ahead of schedule!  If you promised a certain level of quality, and then you delivered a better product than you promised, it will impress the buyer!

So, always strive to deliver more than you promised!  Try to never do the opposite and leave the customer upset that you promised more than you delivered.  When you deliver more than you promise, you will always be pleasing the customer, because they will feel they got a great value in doing business with you!