Wang Tao was a horrible student. He just didn’t show any initiative in school. To fix this, his parents bribed him. They would give him a red flying helicopter toy if he did well in school. And what do you know? Magically, Tao’s grades improved!
But the helicopter lasted all of one day. The toy was so hard to fly that it crashed and broke within a day. And Tao decided that he will learn how to make a toy that’s easier to fly.
Who knew that a broken toy would lead to the creation of DJI – the biggest drone making company in the world?
DJI sells billions of dollars worth of drones every quarter. But the story of Wang’s first sale is impressive.
The first sale is the hardest – or is it?
Wang failed once more while in college. For his senior year research, he worked on researching a radio controlled helicopter hovering in the air. But unfortunately during demonstration, manual human error made him crash the toy helicopter. And he failed.
One of his professors saw promise in young Wang and mentored him to not give up. While in graduate school, Wang worked on building a new prototype based on the same research.
He then published details of his prototype on an online forum.
And that was enough to get his first sale. Someone from America asked Wang if he could build it and ship him a unit from China for $7500. Wang was ecstatic because building a unit manually had cost him $2200!
Wang Tao sold a product without even trying to sell. He didn’t even ask for a sale! Things just lined up for him.
Most businesses struggle with sales, and here a college student sold something without even trying? How come?
Because most people try to keep their cards close to their chests. They are worried what if someone steals my idea? Because of which, they miss out on the easiest way of marketing. Share your work.
Sharing is marketing
That’s what the father of direct response marketing teaches us too. Claude Hopkins was hired by Schlitz Brewing Co to help increase their sales. They were dead last amongst all the competitors and had to really count all of their pennies to hire Hopkins.
The first thing Hopkins did was take a tour at the brewery. And what he saw amazed him.
- Only water from 1400 foot deep artesian wells was used to ensure that the water was the cleanest it could be.
- Beer was made only from original yeast cell that was developed after 1,200 experiments on mother yeast cells.
- Beer was dripping over pipes in plate-glass rooms filled with filtered air so that the beer could be cooled in without any impurities.
- Every pump and pipe were cleaned twice a day. Every bottle was sterilized four times before beer was filled in it.
- The bottles themselves were brown in colour because light decays the beer.
When Hopkins asked why the public weren’t educated about this process, he was told “Because all the other beer producers do it the same way.” And Hopkins replied, “Yes, but nobody has ever told the story.”
Hopkins quickly created ads just sharing the process of how Schlitz beer is made. And Schlitz became the number one beer company in America!
So why does sharing work?
Sharing works because:
- It shows that you know your stuff. Positions you as the authority.
- The process of letting people know how you do things builds trust and engagement.
- Showing – instead of telling people – itself creates drama. It wins attention.
And public engagement helps you validate your ideas and improve your product.
So if sharing is so good, why didn’t Steve Jobs share?
Steve Jobs is known for his secrecy. He gave code names to new products being developed. Teams would be segregated and they themselves wouldn’t know till the last moment what product they were working on – they would only know about their part of the product.
Why didn’t Jobs share how Apple products were built? Didn’t he want the attention and the free marketing sharing brings along with it?
Because sharing has a downside. While sharing makes your clients connect with you, it also makes your competitors catch up with you.
That’s the reason why Coca Cola still guards their recipe as a trade secret. They want to make sure no one else can copy their taste.
When you are already big and successful, sharing can lead to aggressive competition. But when you are an underdog, sharing is a pretty good way of marketing.
So when it comes to sharing, be strategic.
- Don’t reveal your client and contract details.
- Your intellectual property and the cutting edge research.
- And your internal politics and conflicts.
Only reveal what you would be ok with your top competitor knowing.
Should you share your failures?
How transparent should you be? Everyone talks about the good things they do. But what about failures and mistakes?
The biggest action hero of our times – Jackie Chan – shares his bloopers at the end of every movie of his. Showing your vulnerabilities actually makes it easier for the audience to connect with you. To know how hard your job is.
So share the good as well as the bad.
Share:
- Your everyday processes.
- How you build things.
- Your lessons learned.
- Your customer testimonials and reviews.
- Your milestones.
In fact, tech startups and indie hackers do great with sharing their milestones regularly. The whole “build in public” phenomenon is powered by being very open and sharing your revenue numbers every month.
Action Summary:
- Sharing is marketing. Build in public – especially if you are just starting out. Talk about your successes and failures. Reveal your processes. Take people behind the scenes.
