Busting the myth! A great product will sell itself

If you came across a fairly new product in the market, for which you have never even heard of, would you dare to purchase that? Or go for the one that you’re familiar with due to various advertisements on different channels? 

I am guessing that majority of people would avoid taking a risk to purchase a product that they haven’t seen advertised or marketed. 

So, where does this myth, “A great product will sell itself,” arise from? 

Well, you hear many statements in the marketing and sales industry, and some leave a strong impact on your decision when more and more people start believing it. 

So, to put an end to such myths, I reached out to experts and asked for their opinion on this most common myth. Let’s find out what they have to say! 

1. Mandi Graziano

Author, Mandi Graziano 

“Good service sells itself. It takes good people to activate good service for a good product for it to sell. People come back again and again to a product that makes them feel good about buying it and experiencing it. A product is nothing without the service and people support behind it.” 

2. Andrea Waltz

Co-author of Go For No!

This is a classic myth. Great products, marketed well, will get attention. But they don’t automatically sell themselves. If they did, no one would hire a salesforce because everyone believes they’ve created a great product! However, it’s not just about sharing features and benefits anymore. It’s about helping customers make the right decision and having the courage to ask people to buy when it is.

3. Drewbie Wilson

VP Sales, Break Free Academy 

The truth is… marketing will make or break a product. You can have the best product in the world but if nobody knows about it, how will it sell? However, when you recognize that marketing can help sell millions of dollars of “pet rocks” because it tugged on people’s emotions, you will understand the way society really works. People purchase on emotion, and if nobody knows about the product and how great it is, they won’t have any reason to purchase. 

4. Maya Rotenberg

VP of marketing, Stoke Talent 

The myth “A great product will sell itself” is untrue. 

It’s the features that people can see working and that they want or need that sell. It is also about how you present these to your market. If a company is simply trying to tell us how great their product is without something to back it up, we will quickly lose interest. 

You need to present the product, or service features fair and square and demonstrate them clearly to potential users. 

5. Jacob Engels

Co-founder & VP of sales, Paperless 

I strongly believed in this before understanding how much a good (consultative, value-driven, customer-obsessed, and listening) revenue a team can change. Some companies have the weakest product and still manage to be the category queen in their space – whereas there are great products in the market that are having massive issues gaining market share. From my experience, it really comes down to how you position the company and how well you understand your client’s needs. Listening to the pain points and then delivering value and showing how to solve them will ultimately sell a product. 

6. Amit Raj

CEO of The Links Guy 

A huge selling myth is that if you have a great product or service, customers are going to buy it. Although such novel ideas do come about occasionally, they are rare and businesses still need to reach buyers.  

Most businesses these days work in tough competitive conditions with many products or services fulfilling similar demands. Therefore, the real distinction is how well customer orientation is understood and executed by the company. There are many examples of failing business ideas simply because the purpose of the product or service wasn’t defined well enough, consumer orientation is critical to sales success. 

7. Calloway Cook

President of Illuminate Labs 

There is so much market saturation today with startup costs being low. This means that retailers and potential clients are bombarded with product pitches. Even the best products will require an expert salesperson to convince a customer or partner to buy. 
Anyone who believes that a great product sells itself is mistaken. A great product can sell itself once its market position has been thoroughly established, but no products sell themselves right out of the gate without marketing and sales effort.

Conclusion

From the above responses, it’s clear that it takes more than a good product when you want to sell it. You need to execute certain marketing strategies and campaigns and reach a potential audience.

You can only sell your product when the audience knows what it does and how it can help them. So, let go of the perspective that your product will sell itself; introduce it to the market and attract potential customers.