Rule of Unchecked Expectations

A few weeks ago I started sending you some of my Observed Truth of Sales.

I’ve collected these patterns (and quirks) of situational behavior of sellers and buyers over the course of a long successful sales career.

They are not science. There’s been no rigorous quantitative or academic analysis of these observations.

Which means they have as much validity as 95% of what passes for research and data into sales these days.

Today I’m sharing my (two-part) Rule of Unchecked Expectations.

Part One says that the expectations of your buyers expand in direct proportion to the number of vendors that they talk to.

Part Two says that for every degree of expectation on the part of the customer there are 2X degrees of letdown when the reality of the features and functions they purchased don’t precisely align with those expectations.

Part One

Speaks for itself. It’s a crazy busy mixed up world out there and your buyers are drowning in information. While we could throw them a life line, we instinctively toss them a boat anchor instead.

Instead of helping to clarify your offer, we think “There must be some additional content I can send them…”

Unfortunately, for your buyer, they get a little confused. In gathering information about so many vendors and products it’s easy for people to conflate the features and functions of many products into one.

The result is a buyer that has unintentionally cherry-picked the best features of multiple products from multiple vendors and thinks this is the solution they are buying.

It doesn’t matter what the contract or order form says. The only thing that is important is their perception of what they’ve purchased.

Part Two

If you don’t correct these expectations prior to implementation you’re going to have a very disgruntled new customer. It’s not an ideal way to kick off a relationship with a new customer.

How do you avoid Part Two coming home to haunt you?

Follow this advice. I learned it the hard way.

You’re going to make what I call...

The Most Important Sales Call

On the day after you close the deal, schedule a call with your key Point of Contact or sponsor or end user at your new customer.

During that call you (the seller, not Customer Success) will take 15 minutes to review the following 4 items with the customer:

1. What their requirements were
2. What you proposed and why
3. Why they chose you vs. the competition
4. What you are going to deliver and when

By the end of the call you will have recalibrated their expectations, if necessary, and made certain that they are perfectly aligned with your commitments.

This is also a tremendous way to put the kibosh on any simmering buyer’s remorse.

- Andy Paul