Product Genius, the Podcast for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Startups

Your Product Is Not Your Spokesperson

Inventors love the phrase “the product will speak for itself.”

It sounds wonderfully efficient.

Build something great, put it out into the world, and customers will somehow recognize its brilliance without anyone having to explain, pitch, demonstrate, market, sell, network, or—worst of all for some of us—walk into a room full of strangers and start shaking hands.

Unfortunately, products are notoriously bad at talking.

In this Flash of Genius mini-episode, Noah McNeely and Steven Julian tackle an important lesson for inventor entrepreneurs, especially those who are naturally introverted: even a fantastic invention needs someone to tell its story.

The Product Does Not Speak for Itself

A great product can fail if nobody understands why it matters.

Customers need to know:

What problem does it solve?

Why is it better?

Why should they care?

Why should they trust it?

Why should they buy it now?

A product sitting silently on a shelf, website, trade-show table, or crowdfunding page cannot answer those questions by itself.

Noah makes the point plainly: if you are not effectively pitching the product—or somebody else is not doing it for you—the product is going to struggle.

And the reverse can be painfully true.

Mediocre products sometimes succeed because talented marketers and salespeople know how to create attention, explain the value, and persuade customers to act.

Engineering quality matters.

So does communication.

Being an Introvert Does Not Disqualify You

This episode gets personal because Noah readily admits that his natural tendency is introversion.

Put him in a room with 30 or 40 strangers and he is not the guy happily working the room, shaking every hand, and collecting business cards.

He is more likely to be standing near the coffee maker analyzing why somebody designed it that way.

Preferably while holding a cup of coffee so he looks occupied.

That personality trait does not prevent someone from becoming a successful inventor entrepreneur.

It simply means the marketing strategy may need to fit the person.

Entrepreneurship does not require transforming yourself into the loudest person in every room.

It requires finding effective ways to communicate.

Strategy #1: Control the Size of the Room

If you communicate well one-on-one or in small groups, use that.

Instead of automatically putting yourself in front of a boardroom full of twelve people, look for opportunities to meet directly with the decision maker.

Have coffee with the buyer.

Schedule a focused conversation with the investor.

Demonstrate the invention to two or three key people instead of presenting to a giant group whenever that option exists.

You do not get bonus points for choosing the most uncomfortable possible selling environment.

The objective is not to prove that you can survive a networking event.

The objective is to communicate the value of the product effectively.

Design the interaction around your strengths when you can.

Strategy #2: Use Media to Scale Yourself

One of the strange advantages of modern marketing is that you can communicate with thousands of people without physically standing in front of thousands of people.

A podcast is a perfect example.

Noah may be speaking to a large audience through Product Genius, but while recording he is really sitting across a table from only a couple of people.

Video can work the same way.

YouTube.

Facebook.

Short-form video.

Product demonstrations.

Webinars.

Recorded presentations.

Email.

A well-made video can pitch the invention repeatedly while you are somewhere else entirely.

For introverted founders, media can create leverage.

You can prepare your thoughts, control the environment, communicate in a format that feels natural, and still reach a large audience.

Social media, for all its flaws, can genuinely be useful here.

You get to create the media your way and distribute it to the people you want to reach.

Just perhaps avoid reading every comment at 2:00 in the morning.

Strategy #3: Find Someone Who Loves the Part You Hate

There is another perfectly legitimate solution:

Do not be the spokesperson.

At least not all by yourself.

If selling drains you and someone else comes alive while doing it, that may be a clue about how to structure the business.

Your spokesperson might be:

• A salesperson
• A marketing professional
• A business partner
• A co-founder
• A family member
• A licensing representative
• Someone hired specifically to pitch and promote the product

The inventor does not have to perform every role.

In fact, expecting one person to be the engineer, designer, marketer, salesperson, accountant, spokesperson, operations manager, and customer-service department is usually unrealistic.

Entrepreneurship is partly about recognizing what you do well—and finding people who complement you where you do not.

Product Genius Is an Example

Steven points out that Product Genius itself demonstrates the principle.

When Noah took over the show and wanted to make it his own, he asked Steven to join him.

Why?

Because Steven talks.

A lot.

Very naturally.

Noah brings decades of product-development experience. Steven brings energy, conversation, questions, humor, and what one of his teachers apparently diagnosed as “logorrhea”—a wonderfully clinical term for diarrhea of the mouth.

That combination works.

If Noah hosted alone, he jokes that the show might eventually become a detailed reading of different screw types.

Fascinating to a select audience, perhaps.

But probably not the best podcast strategy.

The lesson is bigger than podcasting.

The right partner does not need to duplicate your strengths.

Often, the best partner fills the gaps.

Do Not Confuse Selling With Being Fake

Some inventors resist marketing because they associate selling with being loud, slick, pushy, or inauthentic.

It does not have to be any of those things.

If you understand the problem deeply and genuinely believe your product helps solve it, explaining that value is not manipulation.

It is communication.

You do not need to become a stereotypical salesperson.

You need to help the right people understand why the product exists and why it might matter to them.

For an introverted technical founder, that may actually be an advantage.

You know the product.

You know why decisions were made.

You understand the problem.

You can often explain it with credibility that a generic salesperson cannot manufacture.

The trick is finding the format where that expertise comes through.

Great Products Still Need Stories

Customers rarely buy engineering drawings.

They buy outcomes.

Convenience.

Relief.

Safety.

Fun.

Status.

Time savings.

Money savings.

A better experience.

Your invention may contain brilliant engineering, but customers need the bridge between the technical solution and the benefit they actually care about.

That bridge is the story.

Why did you create it?

Who is it for?

What problem were you trying to solve?

What makes your approach different?

What happens in the customer’s life after they use it?

Someone has to tell that story.

If that someone is you, find a way of telling it that fits your personality.

If it is not you, find the right person to help.

The Product Genius Take

Your invention cannot be responsible for introducing itself.

No matter how clever, useful, innovative, or beautifully engineered the product may be, somebody has to communicate its value.

If you are an extrovert who loves working a room, great.

Go work the room.

If you are an introvert who would rather study the coffee maker than talk to 40 strangers, that is workable too.

Set up smaller meetings.

Use podcasts, video, and social media to communicate at scale without physically facing a crowd.

Build a team with people whose strengths complement yours.

The goal is not to become someone you are not.

The goal is to make sure your product has a voice.

Because your product is not your spokesperson.

Somebody has to speak for it.