Is it possible that what you been told throughout your professional career is wrong?!

Let me ask you a question… Are you a sheep or a free thinker?

What if what you hear every day and take as common knowledge is actually costing you a pretty penny and prevents your business from reaching its true potential? What if…

Let’s examine just one of the most common, free floating catch phrases that like some business owners, you probably follow or at the very least accept as conventional truth without even thinking twice about. And what if that what you know to be true just maybe already caused some significant damaged to your business that you are not even aware of.

“ Under-promise and Over-deliver!”

Every day I hear business gurus preaching to naive and these who are too lazy to think for themselves pieces of “conventional wisdom”. Like a broken record over and over again they chant like shamans praying for the rain, without giving as much as a second to think of whether what they praise so convincingly makes any sense at all.

“ Under-promise and Over-deliver!”

Naturally, not being able to deliver on your promise to the client is bad for the business, but have you ever actually took a second of your day to think for yourself of what this saying actually implies and what impact could this proverbial “truth” have on you and your business?

Those who are too lazy to think for themselves often resort to simply swallowing what has been chewed and regurgitated for them on a platter. At the end of the day it is only natural for the lazy mind to accept without thinking what it hears from so many sources, that to over deliver on a promise creates stronger bonds, increases goodwill, makes clients feel all cared and loved and so on and so forth…

What if… you actually just took a moment to think about an underlining meaning behind that message?

From where I stand, it seems that anyone who follows that suggestion blindly without thinking is not only lazy, but simply disrespects intelligence of clients that they deal with.

In other words, to “under promise and over deliver” presumes that client is at best too stupid to see when they are being duped, and at worst perceived as someone who must be manipulated in order to do business with.

If your clients have any degree of intelligence then it is only a matter of time before they would inevitably figure out that they are being short-changed. It is only a matter of time before these clients would catch on as to what is actually going on and will begin to question an actual value that they can and should receive for your fees.

Alternatively… what if it was you who was “under promised and over delivered”?

Would you eventually start to question the integrity and true capacity of your service provider who promises you one thing and frequently over delivers on an initial agreement? Would you not start to question their ability to fair assess their capacity? Would you not eventually grow accustomed to services exceeding what has been promised and when it doesn’t happen would you not assume that they are just being lazy?

If not… maybe I got it all wrong.

Personally, I prefer to take honest and direct approach with my clients, rather than question value that I offer for investment and having to “surprise” buyers with my results.

And I dare to speculate that these who do “over deliver and under promise”, would inevitably fall victims of self-inflicted poor self esteem by eventually starting to question whether they are good enough to deliver value for money invested in to them.

Are you starting to think yet…?

What if instead of operating within the confines and restrictions created by cautious under-promising, you start to believe in your services by taking a prudent risk of taking on a challenge of communicating honestly?

While there are some very good strategies out there that could be used in building honest and strong relationship with clients without having to resort to “surprise” tactics and alike, it is not my intention to teach you how to do it within the text of this post.

Instead, for today I do…

…invite you to think and challenge conventional wisdom and scrupulously analyse advice that is so frequently dispensed by these who want to make themselves feel important even at the expense of your own success.

What if…