You’re an honest marketer. That’s why you don’t overpromise. You care for keeping your promises.
I do, too.
But still: could your promises be bolder?
The reason I’m asking is that I’ve met quite a number of brilliant people for whom the noble statement to “underpromise and overdeliver” has become a place to hide. A comfort zone. They play it a bit too safe.
The problem is that they fear not keeping a promise so much that they promise only the things that they can comfortably keep. They only ever promise something that’s easy to keep.
But there’s an alternative to overpromising. And that’s to promise big. Promises that are outside of your comfort zone, yet not so far as to be unrealistic. Promises for which you don’t know all the answers, yet, but know where to look for the answer. Promises that lead you to try harder and push your own boundaries.
This is what differentiates people who care from “overpromisers”. The latter put all their effort in finding excuses why it wasn’t their fault if a promise wasn’t kept. People who care put all their effort in finding ways to keep the promise regardless. That’s why they are able to make bold promises and still be able to keep them. (And, at least in my experience, they usually do.)
