Masterpieces and Morons

“You’re better off with a great salesman and a mediocre product than with a masterpiece and a moron to sell it.”
–Herb Cohen

Isn’t this true? Don’t we experience this all the time? Mediocre products own the shelves at big stores because their marketing and sales teams are among the best. Meanwhile, quality products made by artisans and people who care are marketed and sold too poorly for us to even know about them. 

Many creators and brands believe in the misquote from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” (The real quote is “if you build it, he will come,” in reference to the ghost of the main character’s father.) People believe that just because they have a quality product or service, that the market owes them attention for it. This isn’t true. Good products must be marketed extremely well, too. 

In the digital age, launch day isn’t such a big deal. Launch quarter, however, is hugely important. If you’ve got a brick and mortar store, you better bring in enough revenue to pay rent that month. Hence the launch day. But with digital sales, there’s no rent to pay. So if your launch day isn’t a smash, that’s okay. Keep marketing every day to make the year a smash. 

I came across this quote through Ryan Holiday’s book Perennial Seller. Holiday adds that it’s better to avoid the quote’s false dichotomy all together. 

Make great work. Sell it really well.