Most business owners worry about a campaign that fails. The source warns about the opposite case, a campaign that brings in more than the business can supply. According to the source, creating want and demand where no delivery is going to occur is fatal.

Why the source picks such a strong word

Marketing, according to the source, is supposed to create want and demand. When it does so with no delivery behind it, the word the source chooses is fatal. A softer phrase was available, and the source did not use it.

The reason is plain. Promotion that succeeds beyond what you can supply multiplies the number of people who end up disappointed. From the outside it looks like success. In practice, every enquiry that goes unanswered is a person who got to know you through a disappointment.

In a small business this tends to happen at the same moment every time: when a campaign works. Twenty enquiries arrive where five used to, and you can take on eight. The other twelve people have just met you for the first time as somebody who does not follow up.

Suppose an owner whose ad outperformed his expectations. He replied to half of the people who responded, and the rest talked about it.

Or a clinic owner who ran a promotion without adding appointment slots. Three weeks of waiting followed, and then cancellations.

And the other way: the same clinic owner the next time, with a limited number of spots stated up front. The same promotion produced zero cancellations.

Check the promise before the sale

The source gives the rule in two versions of one sentence. The first says that we deliver what we promise. The second, which the source words for marketing purposes, is “we promise and promote what we can deliver.”

The difference is the order. The first version tests you once the sale is made, and asks whether you delivered on the promise. The second tests you earlier, and asks whether the promise sits within what you can actually supply.

According to the booklet, the second is far easier, because it happens while there is still something you can change. After the sale the customer is already waiting and the gap already exists.

Suppose an installer whose website says arrival within 24 hours. In practice it takes 48 on most days, and every customer runs into that gap. He rewords the line to arrival within two days, and often sooner. Reality stays the same, and now every other customer is pleasantly surprised.

The gap can also run the other way. A designer promised three rounds of revisions and gave five. Her wording was accurate and her conduct was different, so the promise no longer described what she actually delivers.

Market what exists today

The source gets more precise. You market what is there right now, in existence, and can be delivered. Marketing for a new item has to be timed to its actual release and availability for delivery. The product and its marketing have to be ready together.

That rules out the most common temptation in a small business, which is to advertise something unfinished simply to see whether anyone is interested. The test costs you the very people who showed interest. They arrived to an empty shelf and will not return.

The source ties this straight back to money: “Promotion without adequate delivery of service or commodity will eventually fail to deliver income.”

Suppose an owner advertised a new service to test demand. Seven people enquired, he had nothing to sell them, and none of them returned.

Another owner built the service first, then offered it to seven people on a list she already had. Three bought.

And an owner who wanted to test demand without giving up delivery sold the service as a pre-order with a stated date. That is a test with delivery at the end of it.

What the booklet adds

This chapter of the booklet includes two exercises: a comparison exercise and an adjustment exercise. From there it moves to how you find out what your customers value, and to the real test of promotion.

Good marketing brings people in. When there is nothing to deliver once they arrive, the same marketing teaches them not to return.

The booklet is general knowledge, not financial advice for your business.