“Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” - Matthew 5:15
There's an old jingle that says:
“The man who has a thing to sell,
And goes and whispers it down a well,
Is not so likely to collar the dollars
As he who climbs a tree and hollers!”
As the ditty suggests, it is a disservice to your business not to promote what you do. Most of us probably understand this at some level.
However, I hear a lot of critics today devoting themselves to the idea of "execution over PR" or “avoiding the hype.”
While I totally understand the sentiment, I believe it to be reactionary foolishness.
Have companies in agtech overpromised and underdelivered? Sure.
Is the answer for the rest of us to stop making promises? No.
Businesses who fail to evangelize their vision of the future and clearly articulate the problem they are working to solve will die like a whisper down a well.
What if, instead, we started making promises we intend to keep?
What if we paint pictures worth selling?
What if we don't concede the ground of marketing and publicity to the scam artists?
The problem is NOT publicity and press, it's substance and true belief.
True believers keep their promises.
The reality of life is that publicity sells. It is human nature to give attention to shiny objects.
If we fail to sell and market our solutions effectively, then we will be depriving our customers of a chance to have their problems actually solved.
Don't make the mistake of leaving marketing to the hucksters, don't deprive your audience of hearing what you have to say. Start keeping your promises and deliver on your vision.
Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.
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