Strategic Under-Promise & Dramatic Over-Delivery (SUDO): A Practical Guide
Let’s start off with a simple explanation of SUDO…
(Note: A SUDO example with templates is provided free here)
Imagine you have a lemonade stand.
Here’s how SUDO works:
From Your Side (The Creator):
- You tell your clients “I’ll give you a cup of lemonade” (that’s the Under-Promise part)
- But when they come to buy, you surprise them by:
- Giving them a bigger cup than they expected
- Adding a free cookie
- Making the lemonade extra special with a fancy straw
(that’s the Over-Delivery part)
From The Client’s Side (The Receiver):
- They expect just normal lemonade
- They get excited when they receive more than they thought
- They tell their friends “Wow! This lemonade stand is amazing!”
- They keep coming back because they know they’ll always get something special
Real Business Example:
- Promise: “I’ll help you get more clients”
- Actually Deliver:
- Help them get more clients (what you promised)
- PLUS teach them cool new ways to sell
- PLUS introduce them to other helpful business friends
- PLUS give them special tools they weren’t expecting
Why It Works:
- People feel happy because they got more than they expected
- Happy clients tell other people about your business
- They trust you more because you always give extra value
- They become loyal clients because they know you’ll always do more than you say
It’s like when someone asks for a high-five, but you give them a high-five AND a candy – they’ll remember that and smile!
Let’s dig in a little deeper now. What are some specific ways you can implement SUDO?
Key Principles and Examples:
- Project Estimation
- Strategic Approach: Account for all three complexity types
- Known knowns (familiar tasks)
- Known unknowns (identified challenges)
- Unknown unknowns (hidden complexities)
- Example: When estimating a 3-month project, add 25-30% buffer time and communicate a 4-month timeline, then deliver in 3.5 months. We recommend doing this in pretty much all cases.
- Internal Expectations Management
- Strategic Approach: Clear scope definition, including what’s excluded. This can help your sales positioning and the presentment of choices through varying programs and fees.
- Example: For a new CRM implementation
- Under-promise: Commit to basic contact management and sales pipeline
- Over-deliver: Include automated reporting and email integration features, plus extended / detailed reporting
- External Communication
- Strategic Approach: Focus on current capabilities, not future promises
- Example: HubSpot’s approach
- Under-promise: Only showcase existing features to potential clients
- Over-deliver: Surprise customers with additional functionality post-purchase. These can be free additions or upsells at a reduced rate for taking action now (read: fast)
- Product Roadmap Communication
- Strategic Approach: Sell current value, not future potential
- Example: B2B Software Release
- Under-promise: Commit to core functionality
- Over-deliver: Launch with additional integrations and customization options
- Customer Experience Enhancement
- Strategic Approach: Focus on unexpected delights
- Examples of dramatic over-delivery:
- Subtle UI animations that enhance user experience
- Personalized onboarding messages
- Unexpected feature improvements
- Superior customer support response times
Success Factors:
- Realistic Assessment
- Calculate conservative timelines
- Include buffer for unexpected challenges
- Consider team capacity realistically
- Clear Communication
- Document scope explicitly
- Highlight exclusions clearly
- Maintain transparent progress updates
- Value Addition
- Identify opportunities for unexpected benefits
- Plan strategic feature additions
- Focus on quality over quantity
By following the SUDO approach, organizations can build trust, exceed expectations, and maintain sustainable growth while avoiding the pitfalls of over-promising and under-delivering.
If you want to learn more, contact us here.