They are inextricably linked if I am understanding your question. If you plan to say X and then deliver X+Y to delight your customers, you are both underselling and overdelivering. I do not see how you can do one without the other. Perhaps I am missing something?
In my opinion, I think over-delivering is better because under-selling is one of the ways to destroy your brand. Over-delivering is to exceed your customer's expectation of your service.
We may be getting into semantics with this thread. There are three positions for selling for this thread: undersell, sell, and oversell. There are three positions for delivering in this thread: underdeliver, deliver, and overdeliver. My suggestion is that you "sell" what you are confident that you can deliver to the customer on a regular basis. Then try to overdeliver on the deal, if you can.
I try to make a blend of both in my business. What I do is to present my service in a manner that I am underselling and when I am to deliver, I over deliver. It has paid off and caused some of clients to return
I think JRBiz has the right of it in this. Sell what you are positive that you can deliver on, and when you can over deliver. However, if you have regular customers and are constantly over delivering, there is a chance that they might become suspicious that you purposely underselling them to gain favorable report. It is a tricky business.
Yes, if you constantly sell or undersell and regularly overdeliver, some regular customers will come to expect the over-delivery normally. That is where sales and customer service come in by which the customer is reminded regularly what the promise is and how special the overdelivery has been for them.
Over delivery has basically become the "norm", so that's what customers/subscribers expect. How many sales pages do you see nowadays that deliver ONLY the product advertised? Not that many....there are always bonuses, sometimes a massive amount of bonuses are given. The point I'm making is, you always want to give more to your customer/subscriber than they are expecting. That along with a great product ensures repeat buyers and will also help with word of mouth business. On the flip side, you NEVER want to undersell!! This will cause you to lose revenue and I'm pretty sure we're all here to make money, not lose it. You can always find great items that will compliment your product that will allow you to over deliver and still make a profit!
a good blend of the two is ideal for a business. Just like what @talktotop stated. It will keep the clients from coming. It also builds clients' trust and confidence for the business.
Hi Aaron, You can absolutely make it work. It's a great way to differentiate yourself, especially in highly competitive markets where it's all about the lowest price, however it does have its pitfalls if not managed correctly. Essentially, you'll want to make sure you're still making a profit through ensuring the process is as simple for you so you're not putting yourself in the red (profit vs. time). Most people are happy to pay a little extra, knowing that they've purchased the right service or product and they have an awesome team providing them support/over delivering. In our experience, underselling on price will generate new clientèle for you, however its typically those customers who will expect more and will be a pain for your business long term. They'll continue to expect your services at budget rate, expect you to over deliver, when it's financially not worth doing so. We're more than happy to let those customers go and keep the customers that don't mind paying a decent rate, while appreciating the level of effort we go to on our over service and after sales support. These are not the only two features of your business and service you should be considering though. You should be doing research on your competitors and coming up with other factors, or a niche where you think you have an edge. Then at least when a customer compares your services to others, it's simply a matter of "we'll, XYZ doesn't offer the same level of after sales service we do' or 'we hand-hold you through the process and we're here when you need us long term'. Building a business by underselling can be done, but only when the processes are in place to help you streamline your costs. cheers, Andrew
In my very limited view of the two terms, I define them like this... Underselling = Not telling the entire story of my base product, so therefore the client gets a product with more features than they expected from the base product. Over Delivery = Adding something beyond the base product in the form of extra training, additional supplies, or over the top service without charging more. Using my definition, underselling is NOT a good idea. You want to express the total value of your product, or you may miss out on potential sales. Over Delivery is ALWAYS a great idea. Giving someone more than what you promised in your base product makes for extremely happy customers.
overdelivering can turn to being a terrible idea, when it come to information products, by adding too much irrelevant bonuses, you create distraction and don't allow the customer to consume the main product he acquired i found out that customers prefer to have one product, forget about the huge list of bonuses that will end up sitting on a hard drive. it defeat the purpose, if your product really help you customers, it should be able to stand by itself the best information product i acquired, where products that didn't needed any bonuses my 2 cents hal
Over delivery is better than underselling. If you undersell, you are losing potential sales. Over delivery will leave you with unsold goods, but at least you will be able to give customers what they want.