Build it and they will come

It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is if no one believes you.

I learned that the hard way. Once I worked on a project where we created a product so good that it was three times better than the market leader’s product. It was, in fact, so good that no one believed us.

We attempted to counter this by parading the product around the world so potential customers could experience it first-hand. By the time we were done, the competition caught up and came up with their own product of similar performance.

That is how I learned that old adage of “build it and they will come” is not really true unless you have a good story to explain the value.