Episode 213 – EVERY Offering Needs Marketing

Can Something Sell Itself? Nope. Never. Not gonna happen.

If you had a stellar offering, would it sell itself? HECK NO!

Every offering in the world is just an idea. If you look at the word, it is simply what you’re offering.

What most people mean when they ask if an “offering” could sell itself is whether or not a service could be so good, so generous and happiness generating, that the word of mouth would be so strong that they would never have to sell. IT WON’T HAPPEN.

Could a tangible product be so well designed, so sublimely craft that you would only have to give away the freemium version of it to 10 people, and then it would go viral? After all, its more tangible and more easily understood? STILL NO!

The Biggest Danger in Believing that Something Sells Itself

The danger in believing that something does not need marketing, that something sells itself is that you lose a massive opportunity to think about things from the client’s point of view.

And, if you are thinking about things from the client’s point of view less than is possible, aren’t you really setting yourself up to be delivering an inferior product?

The Lie That Something Sells Itself is Pervasive

The idea that something could be created that sells itself is a massive life.

“Grant, be real. What about the iPhone? What about viral video games? What about Bitcoin?”

There are certainly a few examples of things that SEEM like they’ve had no marketing (though that is not the case).

But the problem comes from the lie we tell ourselves. Someone who believes such a thing believes that they are “the next Elon”. (The next Elon doesn’t believe she’s the next Elon. She is out there creating stuff that makes an impact.)

Someone who believes they are “the next Elon” are victims of their own delusion. It takes massive focus and many iterations to bring something to the market. It takes massive insight.

Marketing is more than selling a thing. It is a feedback loop about a thing.

To believe you can craft something in a silo of your mind that is so good and sublime that it sells itself is like believing you’re the next Elon. Possible? Sure, I will grant you that it’s possible. Likely? No way. The odds are stacked against you.

It is believing a lie that you can build something that sells itself.

Everything Needs Sales, Even Elon

EVERYTHING you want to receive money requires some form of marketing (and sales of course.)

Marketing could be focusing on killer Messaging.
Marketing could be CRAFTING the packaging for wow-factor. (See Seth Godin’s ‘Purple Cow’.)
Marketing is DEFINITELY distribution of messaging.

But every offering needs marketing.

And if you happen to be the rare bird that crafts something so sublime that it at least takes off viral, you have to iterate it and hit the market so large and fast that your competitors can’t keep up.

When the me-too products hit the shelves, you should have been marketing (to get that all-valuable feedback loop going!) so that you can iterate the product, or V 02, or the accompanying product.

Take On the Mindset of Marketing Now

Edison was, first and foremost, a marketer. He spoke with the market.
Elon was a marketer. He speaks with and molds the market.
Jobs was a marketer. He spoke with and knew what the market bore.

Why do you believe that these epic people and their products could go on without it?