remember who has to support the customer

You. And me. The ones selling the products. We have to support the customer.

That means we have to support the claims we make while we sell.

This is the simplest mechanism I’ve found for keeping us honest:

If you make a promise to a customer that your product or team can’t support, it’s on you to deal with the consequences.

That could be angry-but-private support tickets. It could be public-and-angry LinkedIn posts.

Wherever it happens and whoever arrives from, if you are responsible for the inflated expectations and subsequent disappointment, I’ll ask you to manage it.

Of course, the same is true of me and any founder, leader, exec. We should all expect that from ourselves and our teammates.

This principle is the easiest way to check our marketing copy, our sales scripts, documentation, support snippets, FAQs… the list goes on. Are we being honest and can our product support the claims we make?

If the answer is ever no, or even maybe, that’s a good time to step back and correct.

Peter

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