There used to be a time when we made things, and they’d sell. Artists would draw their paintings or sculpt their masterpieces, display them, and people would walk up to buy them. Artisans would produce their wares (e.g. potteries, garments, trinkets), place them in front of their houses, and customers would purchase them outright.
We “built it, and they will come.” We painstakingly crafted our items; our customers would see them, and they’d buy them.
In our present-day 21st century world, the “build it, and they will come” is a fantasy. It’s not enough we just make something. We need to sell our products & services so we can prosper. We live and work in a marketing economy; we succeed by selling. If we don’t sell, we don’t earn.
And we don’t sell products or services anymore. We sell ideas, what our products & services feature, what they’re for, and what they’re worth. If our items promote an attractive idea, chances are we’ll be able to sell them.
We therefore need to persuade people that our products & services represent good ideas, at least ideas which we as customers are willing to enrol ourselves to.
In the very competitive and complicated world of our 21st century, persuasion comes with prerequisites. Before we convince our customers to buy into our ideas, we’d have to conform to the rules of the prevailing culture.
If we want to offer legal services, for example, we’d have to show we have law degrees from schools our clients would recognise as certified or endorsed by institutions such as the local bar association.
If we want to sell a new software application, we’d have to meet requirements of the firms who run the platforms where we’d be advertising our app. We’d have to not only pay fees but also meet contractual obligations the platforms would insist we comply with.
If we want to set up a shop on a town’s main street, we’d have to apply for the necessary permits from the local government, pay taxes, and comply with regulations.
It’s no longer about how good our idea is per se. It’s not only about how well we develop our ideas into reality, i.e., designing, developing, inventing, and producing working items. It is also about conformity and compliance with the cultural norms of where we pitch our ideas.
I had an idea once. I bought consumer products from a wholesaler and I’d offer small retailers in rural villages that I’d deliver the items they’d need in two (2) days, beating the average one to two weeks traditional area distributors were doing. Since my prices were competitive, I was able to quickly find customers. The area distributors, however, weren’t happy. They reported to their multinational suppliers that I was a threat. The multinational suppliers pressured me with legal action, saying I had infringed on their business (even though I was selling more of their products better than their distributors). After so much harassment, I decided to end the short-lived business.
The consumer goods businesses in the rural areas I was selling to have a culture in which multinational suppliers provided exclusive territorial ‘rights’ to distributors. No one can compete with the distributors without ‘approval’ from the multinationals’ management. If I wanted to break into the business, I had to first apply for a distributor’s license and convince the executives of the multinationals. That was the way and no other.
The “build it and they will come” business is long gone. We live and work in an economy where we need to persuade people to buy into our ideas if we are to sell our products & services. And often, we’d have to conform to the culture of our markets before we can persuade.
We must create demand to sell. To do that, we need to convince customers. And we’d have to comply with the norms of the market we’re selling in.
It’s a complicated world. It’s no longer simple to sell anything.
Ellery's Essays 