Get people behind the wheel of whatever you’re selling

Ford’s first automobile was the earliest effort to manufacture a car that most people could actually buy.

But at the turn of the century, consumers had never even heard of such a thing. You can almost hear their reactions.

You built a horseless carriage made of tin with an enclosed engine that starts on its own? What the hell is this thing? And you want me to pay eight hundred dollars for it?

Not exactly an easy sell.

Thankfully, the auto tycoon had a vision. He wholeheartedly believed in his invention, and knew that if he could just get consumers behind the wheel to see and feel the car in action, they would buy it.

Ford basically told consumers, oh, you’re not sure yet? Here, drive it around for a while.

Can you even imagine the looks on people’s faces after their first five minutes in their first car ride? That initial experience would erase the memory of every horse they ever rode.

That’s the mark of innovation. Something that replaces people’s point of view on the world with a new one. Something that makes whatever came before seem dated, awkward, ineffective, expensive and laborious.

Ford was a model, no pun intended, of how more that more than anything, innovators need users. Period.

Real people. Ideally that they don’t know. Who are using their product. In a variety of situations. That’s how they win. Getting as many users as possible in the door as quickly as possible, so they become brand ambassadors who sing your praises and bring in the rest.

Modern technology brands do the same thing. Most software platforms either give their product away for free, or start with a very low offering price, just to get users in the door. Because what they need at that point in their brand journey is the feedback. They can’t get better and more valuable until people are actually using their thing, and using it frequently enough so that they can understand what they’re actually doing as a business.

Sure, it’s awesome to get revenue coming into their bank account from day one, but users are more important. They are the ones who leave reviews and generate word of mouth to enable the brand to grow.

Lesson learned, offer a test drive. Get people behind the wheel of whatever you’re selling. Let them feel the wind in their hair and the pavement beneath their feet.

Replace their point of view on the world with your new one. Make them miss you in their past.

And they will help drive your brand into the future.

Would you rather have your first hundred dollars or your first hundred users?