In executive coaching, you hear a lot of singular techniques — one framework, one mindset, one magic fix that’s supposed to solve everything. In reality, even the best techniques only work when they adapt to the terrain. The central lesson is simple: knowing not just what to do, but when and why to do it. It’s the difference between approach and technique, strategy and tactic. When I run in the mountains, I shorten my stride whether I’m going uphill or downhill, but for entirely different reasons.
Products Don’t Sell – People Do: True or False?
Is this age-old sales mantra still true? After all, when it was first said, it certainly wasn’t delivered on the devices you are reading it on right now. So has technology changed the meaning of this mantra? And how about products in today’s world?
Are today’s highly sophisticated products capable of selling themselves? You didn’t buy that Apple Watch or Samsung Phone because a crafty salesperson sold it to you, right? Instead, you probably re-searched it or asked your friends if and how they liked it.
Well, contemporary selling is frequently done with indirect messages like TV commercials and highway billboards. That’s not people, right? The truth is that, unlike decades ago, when our mantra was born, technology has made it possible to sell things to us without having to see or hear an actual salesperson physically.
When you stop to analyze that, you realize that those TV commercials and billboards we see were created by people who had to sell their ideas to other people in a unique way. So then, with these unique ideas and new technology, the message was brought to buyers via mass media such as TV and billboards.
Yet, most of us liked it enough to ask a friend for an endorsement before buying. This shows human communication is still a powerful element of selling and buying. So, the answer to the question products don’t sell – people do: True or False? is Yes.
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