Managing Expectations

What does it mean to manage ones’ expectations? Is it expect the worst, but hope for the best? Is it a set up to fail? Or is it simply about how a situation is perceived by your audience? Here’s a great example of how perception is used in managing a person’s expectations:

There was a small town in which there were two candy stores: Smith Candy and Jones Candy. A mother asked her son which he would like to visit for a treat. Her son replied immediately that he wanted to go to Mr. Jones’ Candy Store. Why? He believed he got more candy for his money from Mr. Jones. The truth was that Mr. Smith’s and Mr. Jones’ prices were exactly the same, but Mr. Smith’s practice was to put a large pile of candy on the scale and then remove it piece by piece until he reached the correct weight, while Mr. Jones put a few pieces on the scale and kept adding and adding until the correct weight was reached. The little boy’s perception was that he was getting more, even though the end result was the same.

When dealing with your audience, expectations should be set up front. They should be realistic. Let them know what they can expect, but don’t over-deliver. If you can’t provide what you say and on time, it’s nobody’s fault but your own.

Managing expectations has always been a vital part of my job when working with clients over the years. I worked for a large financial institution, and we always welcomed a feature piece on our funds from a major publication. The problem was when the piece came out in all its glory, the subject matter expect was never satisfied with some part of it. Maybe it was one tiny quote he or she felt was taken out of context regardless of the fact the piece was glowing, there were quotes from a third party endorsing the product and the one tiny quote was so buried in minutiae the majority of readers wouldn’t know if it was taken out of context or not.

Didn’t matter. The one person that needed to be satisfied was not, and going in was made aware of the ramifications of doing the interview. A story could be 99.9% positive, and you will still find that one person who will focus on that 0.1% that’s negative.

It’s what we deal with on a daily basis of managing expectations.

There's no PR like any PR

Bag Balm.

Ever heard of it?

Me neither.

At least not unitl last week.

"What is it?" you ask.

Well, it's a salve used to rub on cow's udders.  It's been around for more than 100 years.  But herein lies the rub (no pun intended), it's used for almost anything, including that.  In an Associated Press story dated January 27, 2010 about this gooey substance, people have used Bag Balm on squeaky bed springs, psoriasis, dry facial skin, cracked fingers, burns, zits, diaper rash, saddle sores, sunburn, pruned trees, rifles, shell casings, bed sores and radiation burns.

According to Bag Balm lore, the stuff went from barns to bedrooms when dairy farmers' wives noticed how smooth their spouses' fingers were after using it on cows' udders.  The wives were jealous.  The rest is history.

The genious here is that you can't pay for that kind of publicity.  Here's a product intended for the underside of a cow, and people are using it for their own home remedies and have been doing so for 100 years now.  The story is out.

According to the article, Bag Balm went to the North Pole with Admiral Byrd, to Allied troops in World War II, who used it to keep weapons from corroding, to Ground Zero for the paws of cadaver-sniffing dogs searching the World Trade Center rubble, and to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The article goes on to note that this small Lyndonville, Vt. operation is family-owned with a grand total of six employees.  Distributed by wholesalers and sold retail in farm stores, national drugstore chains and general stores, its popularity has grown largely with word-of-mouth advertising as converts becomes users and then devotees.

And now with this AP story spreading like wildfire so should the curiosity of this "udderly" amazing do-it-all product.