Delight seems to pour in when my reality exceeds my expectation. (And I’ve generally found I’m more able to master my expectation than my reality.)

Josh Weltman* points out the same is true for a business’ ability to keep its customers happy, and therefore to keep its customers at all. Advertising creates an expectation and the product had better be able to meet it (or exceed it), otherwise the business’ reputation takes a hit.

Promise + successful delivery = good reputation

Josh Weltman*

I’ve worked with a few businesses over the years which oversold themselves, usually on how professional (‘slick’) they were to work with, or the quality of their systems. Unfortunately these aspects don’t survive much contact with the outside world and it quickly becomes frustrating (and more than a little embarrassing) for all concerned.

I wonder how their reputations would have fared if they had admitted their flaws (at least to themselves) and focussed on their actual strengths. These weren’t fly-by-night shysters but they believed they could sell who they wished they were, even though they were incapable of actually becoming it. ‘Fake it til you make it’ is not a scalable strategy, nor is self-delusion a foundation for success.

• Take a step back (or get someone else to). 
• Be honest with yourselves (or get someone else to). 
• Find your real value (or get… you can see where this is going). 
• Then sell the hell out of that!

“There’s no reason to keep trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. It’s a lot easier to change the shape of the hole.”

Josh Weltman*

*Josh Weltman, Seducing Strangers, 2015: Amazon.co.uk link
(This won’t be my only post inspired by that book!)