Evangelism comes from the Greek word that means “to proclaim the good news.”
“When people believe in your product, they will help you succeed through credible, continuous, and cost-effective proselytization.”
Evangelism is not mucked up with the desire to kill competitors and make fortunes. Customers don’t care if you want to destroy the competition. They want to know what benefits they derive from using your product. Evangelism is about what you do for your customers—not about what you want to become.
At Apple, and subsequently, as an entrepreneur, you can learn that when people believe in your product, they will help you succeed through credible, continuous, and cost-effective proselytization. This article explains both how to use evangelism and how to recruit evangelists.
TOUCH GOLD
If you want to use evangelism, you need to create or find a product that rolls the DICEE:
DEEP.
A deep product has many features because you’ve anticipated what people need as they come up the power curve.
INTELLIGENT.
An intelligent product reflects your insights on how to ease people’s pain or increase their pleasure.
COMPLETE.
A complete product embodies everything a customer needs, such as support, documentation, and enhancements.
EMPOWERING.
An empowering product makes people better. Great stuff doesn’t fight you—it becomes one with you.
ELEGANT.
An elegant product is not just functional; it’s also well designed so that people can use it easily and quickly.
GET HIGH TO THE RIGHT
Another way to understand and position an evangelistic product is to get it high and to the right:
The vertical axis measures the degree of differentiation, and the horizontal axis measures value, so you want a unique and valuable product. In total, there are four types of products:
VALUABLE BUT NOT UNDIFFERENTIATED.
These products fulfill a need, but they work the same way as existing products. You can sell many of them, but your margin is constantly under pressure because people can buy similar products from other companies.
DIFFERENTIATED BUT NOT VALUABLE.
These products are stupid. They serve a market that doesn’t exist, or they provide functionality that no one wants.
UNDIFFERENTIATED AND NOT VALUABLE.
These are the worst products of all. There is no demand for what they do, and multiple companies are making a similar product.
DIFFERENTIATED AND VALUABLE.
This is the Holy Grail of evangelism. When you provide a valuable product that no one else can, evangelism is easy. This is the corner of the chart where meaning, margin, and money are made.
If you’re an engineer, you should be thinking about making a valuable product that no other company can make. If you’re an evangelist, you should be thinking about how you can convince the world that the effect is beneficial and different from everything else on the market. Here are examples of such
BREITLING EMERGENCY.
This watch can broadcast an emergency signal that airplanes receive. •It’s one of the few watches that can save your life, so if you’re a hardcore adventurer, it’s differentiated and valuable.
SMART
It is easy to park parallel to the curb when there’s abundant space. The Smart Car, however, can park perpendicular to the curb. There aren’t many cars that are this small.
TESLA MODEL S. Another car example: There aren’t many that can go zero to sixty miles per hour in under four seconds on battery power with a 275-mile range, and that can hold five people. If you want a car that doesn’t burn gasoline and can take your family fast and far, Tesla Model S is your only choice.