setting expectations, delivering on them
I walked into the hall and found my seat in the rows of event chairs laid out to face a small center stage. The event I came in for was billed as a business seminar.
The speaker opened his talk by stating that, yes, he is a business owner. He has businesses in two countries. But no, this is not going to be a business talk.
Wait, what?
I turned in my seat, scanning the room to find someone to make a confused face at. Are we in the right place?
Nobody else seemed to too surprised, so I twisted back towards the front and settled into my seat.
It was not a business talk. It wasn’t a bad talk. In fact, it was funny and enjoyable. But it wasn’t what I had come for. Despite laughing and enjoying it, I left feeling a bit robbed and put off.
When we put our products and businesses in front of people, we make a promise. We communicate that promise with positioning and messaging — very important to get right. Part of getting it right is to set the proper expectation in the people we want to sell to.
Despite having an enjoyable morning at this event (after getting over myself and settling in) I won’t be quick to sign up for another event by this speaker or the event producer.
It’s the same when logging into a new piece of software. Do I see what I expect to see? If not, the odds are that I’ll Command+W (close) the tab in a heartbeat and not look back.
With luck, we get a lot of chances to set expectations. We don’t, however, get many chances to meet those expectations. Often, we get one chance. And if we blow it, we burn a potential customer.
Three places I’m looking to see if we at Accoil set the right expectations:
Our home page. It’s where most people will first learn about our product.
Our documentation and help content. When people look for help using our product, are they getting accurate and honest advice?
Our sales calls. Either in recordings or notes in the CRM, what do we actually say to people we want to sell to? Is there anything we’ll regret or that will mislead?
It’s easy to set the wrong expectations. We’re often so close to our own products that we don’t see them and experience them the same way someone will with fresh eyes — and that’s often enough to set the wrong (or even slightly off) expectations.
Peter
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