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Subject:RE: Try selling the sizzle of what you do. From:John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 14 Feb 2003 14:04:45 -0500
I have an observation. With almost every deliverable I produce at every
company I'm at, there is a nagging little voice in my head that says "Why
are you making this deliverable...everyone but you in the company already
knows about it." and every time, I'm surprised.
Sometimes, it is simply getting it on paper and when shown to a group, find
out that not everyone in the group knew the same thing in the same way.
Sometimes, what starts out well understood in someone's mind, once he sees
it on paper, realizes that what he thought he knew...he doesn't.
I'm constantly pleasantly surprised how seeing something on paper changes
the way people understand what they thought they did already.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656
icq: 178047452
aim: jposada1
"When you only have two minutes to do
something that takes three, wait until you have three"
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 2:07 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Try selling the sizzle of what you do.
Tom Murrell wrote:
>John, that ain't the sizzle. That IS the steak. You delivered documentation
that was
>sorely needed. You demonstrated that a good Technical Writer CAN deliver
something
>useful, useable, and attractive.
>
John could have delivered documentation that was useful, usable,and
attractive, but without making a fuss about it. However, if he had, he
probably wouldn't have won the programmer over.
To me, John's tale is an example of good marketing. You can have the steak,
but if there's no sizzle, nobody will buy. You can have sizzle, but if
there's no steak, the emptiness of your marketing will soon be exposed. In
the long run, marketing only works if there's steak and sizzle both.
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