(*Although I know that this post will be met with flames by some, it should
be posted anyway. Still, at times, I fail to uphold these principles
myself. During those times, I do myself and my causes a great disservice
and I must work twice as hard to cover my stupid mistakes and regain the
ground that I may have lost. But, holding my tongue about these principles
would only compound my mistakes. So, here is my post.)
The vast majority of Linux users, programmers and distro manufacturers are
very intelligent people, and will not react negatively to this post. In
fact, it is my utmost desire that they may learn the lessons that I have
learned without the hard knocks that accompanied those lessons for me.
As people that support and advocate Linux, we all have a similar goal - to
see Linux take its rightful place on the desktops in homes and businesses
everywhere. We all have our own reasons for this, but chief among those
reasons, for most of us, is freedom. The freedom to plot our own course and
to control our own destinies.
To get Linux to its rightful place, we must do more than preach to the choir
here. We must spread the good news about Linux at every opportunity, to
every person with whom we have contact. We must stop wasting time and
energy on bashing other companies or OS's and concentrate on uplifting
Linux.
Why? Because lifting Linux to its rightful place is just like any other
mission. If you want to convince people of a thing (whether that be that
you are the right person for the job, or that you really do deserve a
significant raise, or that you would make a good life partner, or even that
you would be the best candidate for a political office), you have to sell
them on it. And, selling people on a thing (any thing) is best accomplished
by adhering to 2 great rules of sales.
#1) Do not talk bad about your competition. No matter how easy it is...no
matter how blatantly wrong they may appear...no matter how much you may
despise the way they treat their customers...never, never, NEVER speak ill
of your competition.
It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. Sure, people seem interested when
you bash your competitor, but they are interested in the same way that they
are interested in looking at a horrific car crash. They can't help looking,
but they really don't want anything to do with either one.
You will never gain one convert by talking about how bad your competition
is...period. In fact, it is best to never mention your competition at all.
It shows that you do not consider them worthy of your time...that they are
not important enough to bother discussing. It shows confidence, and people
are attracted to that.
Besides, if your competitor's product has issues, and they use the
competitor's product, you can be almost 100% sure that they know of at least
some of the issues with the product they are using. While you are talking
up your product, they will be thinking about the shortcomings of the product
they currently use with absolutely no help from you.
Attacking a person's X (product, candidate, significant other, or even
choice in clothing) is mentally no different to that person than if you had
attacked them personally. You have attacked their current choice.
Nobody likes to think of himself (or herself) as being wrong or stupid
enough to make an obvious mistake. So, when you attack another person's
choice of anything, they respond just the way you or I would...they get
defensive. And, once the defenses are up mentally, you have almost 0 chance
of converting them to your way of thinking (or to using your product, voting
for your political favorite or giving you that raise).
In fact, a great way to gain the confidence of a potential convert is to
honestly (and I cannot stress honesty enough in all of this) take up for
your competition when possible. ONLY if your potential convert mentions a
negative about their current product should you ever even speak of a
potential problem that your competitor has. Even then, if you can see why
they made a mistake or made a decision that your potential convert
questions, say something like "I'm sure they are doing the best that they
can" or "I'm sure they will correct that at some point in the future." If
you cannot honestly take up for your competitor in this manner, simply and
politely change the subject to a great feature of your product. Resist all
temptation to speak ill of your competition.
2) People respond well to why you (or your cause or OS) is the right one for
them because of the positive things you say and show them about your cause -
in this case, Linux. People want to know why they should choose Linux.
They have honest questions about the OS...questions you could be answering
instead of bashing some other company.
When you approach a person, with the goal of changing that person's mind and
influencing their behavior, concentrate on extolling the virtues of your
position or product. Never condemn their current choice. In fact, you
should empathize with them on making their current choice. For, if you were
that person (the same genetically, with the exact same parents, upbringing,
education and experiences) you would have made the exact same choice, and
you should tell them so.
When you align with the person, through honest empathy, the person will
naturally start to like you more, trust your opinions more and will start to
question the competition's product himself (or herself). In fact, it is at
this point that most people that may have been dissatisfied with some points
of the competitor's product will begin to resent the competitor's product
and lean more towards yours. They are leaning towards your positive
attitude, empathy and helpful nature.
Instead of bashing a competing OS, for every reason that you don't like the
competitor's product, you should list a reason (or even two) that your
product is great. It would not be a bad idea to include items on your list
that your competitor has no competing item for, but NEVER say that the
competition has no answer for any of your items....your potential convert
will know or figure that out on his/her own when they are alone and quietly
comparing your product and the competing product for themselves.
In short...never speak ill of your competition. People like to watch that
sort of behavior, but they don't want to be a part of it. People like to
watch candidates sling mud at each other, but scientific polls have shown
that it lowers the voters likely to vote for their own candidate when they
see him/her engaging in mud slinging and are more apt to vote for and
support a candidate that refuses to join in this behavior.
Speak all the good of your product that you can possibly imagine. People
love positive people. People love to have the best of whatever they can
(politicians, coffee pots and operating systems included). They want to be
a part of something great, so give them every reason to want to jump into
Linux and not a single reason to simply gawk as they drive by.
As I said before, I do not always live up to these ideals myself. That does
not in any way diminish the effectiveness of these 2 great rules of sales to
convert potential users to Linux.
And, never kid yourself....although Linux is free, you either sell Linux or
alienate a potential convert with every conversation about operating systems
that you have whether it be in person or on the web.
Good tux to you all.
jim
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