Never Call It a Product

I cringe every time I hear the word “product.” It actually makes my skin crawl. It’s right up there with “gig” and sales “pitch.” A gig sounds like a performance in a comedy club, a onetime appearance to collect a check and run. A sales “pitch” sounds like something you expect to hear from a high pressure salesperson or carnival barker.

The word “product” is even worse. Not because it cheapens our profession like I think “gig” and sales “pitch” do. It’s a bad word because you can’t make any money selling products.

A cardinal rule is people don’t like to buy anything. Worse, they don’t want to be sold anything. And they sure as heck don’t want your “products.”

Products? Are we a factory churning out an assembly line of cookie-cutter widgets? The word “product” is a billboard screaming “Don’t buy me! Don’t even think of buying me!”

Listen to the way the word “product” is used by speakers and you tell me how badly you want them.

To the meeting planner, “Is it Ok if I sell my PRODUCTS after my speech?” (Are you bringing baked goods from home?)

To the marketplace, “Go to my website where you will find a link to my PRODUCTS.” If you don’t want success selling PRODUCTS, keep that link on your website called “PRODUCTS.”

To your audience, “After my speech, I will be at my PRODUCT table selling my products.” OK, maybe you’re not that blunt, but you might as well be. Calling your educational materials PRODUCTS is a sure fire way not to sell any. Certainly not to 25%-35% of your audience like you should be able to do.

If you want to be a “vendor” instead of a professional speaker, industry expert or even author, keep calling your educational materials PRODUCTS. If you want to be lumped in with the thousands of other speakers, keep calling your educational materials PRODUCTS. If you want to stay poor, keeping calling your educational materials PRODUCTS.

If you’d rather be seen as an educator, start calling your products “educational” materials. If you want to stand out among thousands of professional speakers, start calling your products “educational” materials. If you’d actually like to get a fair exchange for your ideas, start calling your products “educational” materials.

Or educational resources, or topic tips, anything but PRODUCTS.

I used to say I’d only use the word “product” among other speakers but even that perpetuates that marketing death wish. If you want a fair exchange for the value you give, quit demeaning that value and quit calling them products!