Welcome to Navigating Your Course for Success

Would You Like Some Extra Bacon? – A Business Success Statement

Business Succes“Would you like some extra bacon?” is exactly what the waitress asked our table. Everyone said, “Yes M ‘am, please.” The aroma of bacon and sounds of the meat sizzling in the kitchen pervaded our minds and senses. Thirty minutes later, the orders were delivered to our table and each plate had two tiny slices of bacon on it. The slices were so tiny that we joked if this was the ‘extra’ bacon. The regular bacon order must be invisible bacon.

Here is the point: Do what you say you are going to do – in your business and in your life. If you are not planning to do something or you find out you cannot do something even after you said you would deliver it, take ownership and say you cannot do it, simply stated in this way. Do not assess blame or make excuses. Just say “I cannot do – whatever it is you promised.” The best course of action is to not over promise.

The saying to abide by is “under promise and over deliver”. You might have the very best food, product, or service offering, however if your marketing message is offering one thing and you are delivering something else, there is going to be a problem – fast. The concept continues throughout your organization. Take the example of the waitress. She might take a hit on her tip. The restaurant will most likely lose four customers and then the people they know. Your employees throughout the organization must understand this concept. The consequences are too great for this lesson to not be taught and understood.

Consider for a moment the two concepts. Think of three business interactions where they over delivered to you. They under promised and over delivered. This should be the goal for all of us. Now think of three instances which might be business or personal where you were left feeling misled or actually lied to by the lack of delivery. We never want anyone to feel this way about us or our business. We must make our best efforts to train our team and to hold our own bar high to avoid over promising.

A question might arise about a competitor. The question might seem innocent enough, “It appears you and XYZ Company are in the same type of business, but they offer ABC and you don’t offer that. Do you do ABC for your clients?” If you don’t, the answer is always, “No we don’t.” period, end of story. Or you might add, “No we don’t do ABC for our clients, but we specialize in FGH and I don’t believe they do that at all.”

In summary, be proud of what you do, say what you do, and do what you say. The time is now, bring Mitch Tublin to speak to your team or to your organization. Contact Mitch here to arrange your booking or an introductory meeting – info@easysmallbusinesssolutions.com or call 877-907-8223.

Comments

  1. Reminds me of a lovely restaurant I used to frequent for lunch in Washington, D.C. The owner would usually serve me, too. If I asked for “some more Coke,” she’d bring me back my glass 1/3 filled. It always made me giggle! I didn’t ask for “another,” I just asked for “some,” and she sure was not over-delivering. It taught me to be clearer and more specific in my requests. Love, Katherine.

    • Mitch Tublin Business Success Coach says

      Katherine,
      Hopefully this was a long time ago! You are off the Coke now right?

  2. I got a chuckle out of Katherine’s story – if you ask for “ice” in Europe you will get exactly one piece of it in your drink. Kind of like your bacon story “do you want ice” means ONE piece, not a glass full.

    • Mitch Tublin Business Success Coach says

      Sue,
      Many Americans just assume it is a language thing. No it is not.
      This is a business decision. Sly as a fox.

  3. This is one of my favorite business principles Mitch: To under-promise and over-deliver. I always make sure my clients receive at least 10-times more than what they pay or they get their money back. I simply couldn’t live feeling that I’m cheating my clients.

    • Mitch Tublin Business Success Coach says

      Silvia,
      One item of caution, is do not undersell yourself too much. If you are delivering 10X more, you might consider promising a bit more to let
      everyone know how great you are and then delivering 5 times more!