“Many people steeped in the tradition of product promotion naturally feel drawn to prattle on and on about their products and services. But I have news for you. Nobody cares (except you). Yes, you read that right. Get over it. What people do care about is themselves and solving problems. How do you do that?”
David Meerman Scott here.
David Meerman Scott’s quote reflects the same feelings as the first date analogy. He’s right – Nobody cares about your products and services. They only care about what your products and services do for them.
His statement doesn’t just refer to those “sleazy” sales people that us technologists try to take the moral high-ground over (usually without justification, but that’s another story). It applies to us. Are you willing to admit that you’ve been so excited about a technology that you’ve lost complete track of why it’s actually needed? Be brutally honest. I will be. I find that I constantly have to keep the tech-nerd inside me in check.
I’m not sure whether I’m passionate about OSS because of the myriad of cool tech involved or the breadth of benefits they can provide. Probably both… plus a whole bunch of other reasons too.
But I’m hoping there are at least a few people out there who care about my products and services… if for no other reason than because people have found them useful. I’d be delighted to hear from you with ideas on how I can better assist the OSS industry. In fact, I’m currently starting to build towards publishing my next book on OSS / telco and would love to hear your thoughts on what needs to be in it. What are the hot topics that you just can’t find any info on?