Expectation Management: Crucial To Your Survival!

Expectation Management: Crucial To Your Survival

*If You Fail To Successfully Manage Expectations, You’ll Lose Your Business, Your Career And Your Friends

*Expectation Management Requires Clear And Frequent Communication

*It’s Very Difficult To Restore Trust, Once It Has Been Violated

Most people don’t really enjoy most types of surprises. We live, and plan our lives, upon certain expectations; they provide a modicum of stability in a changing, too often chaotic world. When these expectations turn out to fall short of the ultimate reality we experience, we get angry. That is, for better or for worse, Human Nature.

We are conflicted and caught between two cliches: One of them is “Always under-promise and over-deliver”. The other is (and I’m laughing while I write this) “It’s far better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission”. The first one is applicable in all but a few unusual and desperate circumstances.

In expectation management, the idea is to set realistic, achievable goals and to communicate through the entire step-by-step process with your customer or client. If a process step is going more slowly than expected, get in front of it and advise your customer or client of the anticipated delay -- and explain the reasons for it. Be candid - people will appreciate and respect you for it; you might not make them happy, but they won’t come running after you with a blowgun and a quiver of poison darts, either.

When you are going to have a prospect sign a contract, never, ever, just send it to him ‘cold’. He’s liable to misunderstand it, or suffer ‘sticker shock’ and reject your offer (no matter how generous it might be) because it was sprung upon him to suddenly. The general rule here is to discuss beforehand with the customer or client what he can expect to see in the contract -- this gives you an opportunity to break it all down into small pieces and explain it thoroughly. It’s easier to digest small pieces than to eat the whole moose in one go. And if your customer or client raises objections to certain parts, you can deal with each one of them conversationally, instead of in the heat of your customer’s or client’s consternation and anger.

In particular, people are intimidated by what they see in writing, but not as much by what they hear conversationally… especially if there is casual, spontaneous give and take. Disarm the written bomb (people view written agreements as if they were grand jury subpoenas, or draft notices) with conversation to satisfy expectation. The recipients of these mighty missives expect trickery and shenanigans. Their fears must be allayed in advance.

Nothing is better than speaking with a customer or client to whom you’ve just handed a written agreement and saying, “Here it is, exactly as we had discussed. Would you like to go over it again briefly, paragraph by paragraph?”

If you’ve done a masterful preparatory job, the customer or client might just say, “No. Let’s just sign this thing. I’m tired of talking about it. Let’s do it.”

As always, thank you for reading me. - Douglas