You followed all the instructions to find and sell clients on your product. You laid out clear expectations and are ready to move forward. Now what? Now it’s time to deliver the goods! Based on the expectations laid out with your client you should have a good idea of your timeline and what you need to do. Now you just have to do it! Seems easy enough, and it is! But of course nothing is as easy as it seems, so here’s a few pit falls to avoid during the process. If this is something that will take a while, stay in touch with your client. You may have given them a six month timeline but if they don’t hear from you for six months, even if you deliver a perfect project, they’re probably not going to be thrilled. As the project begins, send them an email update letting them know you’re getting started and how often they can expect to hear from you. Then make sure you communicate when you say you will! There is nothing worse from a client perspective than being told you’ll receive an email and only getting crickets.
Keep an eye on the expectations you set and make sure you’re meeting them. If you’re not going to be able to, communicate that as soon as possible. For example, my clients all have two hour time windows. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we can’t get there. One time an oil truck caught on fire and shut the highway down for the entire day. It didn’t matter how well we planned, sometimes it just isn’t going to work. Sometimes one of our dog walkers drops the ball on planning too. It happens. The absolute worst thing you can do, is lie about it or pretend it’s not happening. When we tell our clients we’re so sorry but we’re running a bit behind, we almost always get a response like, “no problem thanks for letting me know!” We occasionally get, “Can you please cancel for today I’m on my way home anyway.” The response is usually understanding and reasonable. But if we show up an hour after the time frame without communicating, it’s almost always a disaster. This makes sense. Our clients trust us to do what we say we’re going to do. Being “caught” showing up late puts all that trust into question. Are we always late? Do we always shorten the walk time a few minutes? What else are we hiding? You don’t always need to be specific, sometimes it doesn’t matter why you’re late and listing a bunch of reasons can sounds like a cop out. Simply saying something along the lines of, “We’re going to be a bit behind on this deadline as we’ve hit a couple snags. You can expect it on X day instead of Y. We wanted to ensure that we’re giving you our best work” can be perfectly sufficient. Then make sure you get it to them by X day!
What product delivery all comes down to is communication and follow through. You promised X to be delivered by Y. If for some reason that is not going to happen, stay in touch and work with your client to find a solution. Do your absolute best to deliver exactly what you promise when you promised it. A happy client is one of the most valuable referral partners you can have.