There’s no way to sugar coat it: I’m a poor marketer.

If you’re like most coders, you probably are too. See, I want to believe in the philosophy, “Build it, and they will come.”
I want to believe the best ideas always win.  That if you built a great product or service, it would “sell itself.”

Yeah… and I want to believe in unicorns and Santa Claus, but that doesn’t make them real.

But because I like to eat, and my builder wants to get paid, Papa needs to keep working on his marketing skills.
(Yeah, I’ll be a grandpa in less than two weeks!    \o/ )

And so do you.  Though you might not be pitching your list to buy your services, you are most certainly still pitching someone to buy something.

Such as…

• You’re pitching your boss to let you rewrite buggy code
• You’re pitching your VP to re-platform your core app
• You’re pitching your team to believe in the project goals
• You’re pitching your clients to trust your judgment about which tools to use

Learn to throw a slider

A bit of internet research tells me that it takes years of practice for a pitcher to learn to throw a slider pitch moderately well.  During that time, the pitcher cannot throw a slider successfully, but knows with continued practice they will.  It’s a frustrating time with a lot of practice and failure.

I need to become a better marketer to succeed.  You need to learn to sell ideas and goals to your team, boss, and clients to succeed.

I’ll keep practicing, and so should you.  In a few years, we’ll both be better than we are today.  As long as we’re moving forward, we’re winning.

And just like me, you can learn to sell your ideas through honesty and transparency.  When you do that, you’ll also improve your relationships.  Win-win.