One of the key things that almost everyone does not get quite right is market positioning. Whether you are an employee, a freelancer or an entrepreneur.

It is super hard to sell something that people will buy instantly. Why? Because typically you think that the world needs and wants X. But really what they want is Y.

I will stick to my horses

Back when cars were not an everyday thing, but only a few prototypes existed, many people had a horse or would be transported by one.

The Prussian King Wilhelm II allegedly even once said: “The automobile is a temporary hype. I will stick to my horses.”

Today this sounds silly, but it means a lot: If you wanted to sell a car in those days, you would need to sell it as sort of horse. The word horse power might ring a bell, but there is more to it. Cars looked surprisingly close to horse carriages.

That was not just a historic coincidence. Engineers built cars not in a similar fashion to horse carriages due to a pure lack of imagination. It might be an aspect, but more importantly it was a business necessity.

People were asking for horses, just faster and better, because that is what they were used to.

In today’s world: Selling yourself wrong as an employee

So what does my example mean, translated to today’s world, one with not so many horses?

You might be a specialist for X. Let’s say you are a really good programmer in the Apple Swift language (or a SEO specialist and so on).

At first you might think that you have to highlight your super good skills in order to find a new job in the next country or to acquire new clients as a freelancer. But often that is not the case.

Think of all the low paid jobs on the big freelancer platforms like Fiverr or the similarly not so well paid jobs at the online agency next door. Why do people not get paid well there, but in other roles similar people with similar skills get paid much more?

Because you are not selling yourself the right way. You might be highlighting just your tech skills, while in reality the high salaries are based on applying your skills to a very specific industry that you have not thought of yet. Alternatively, consulting old economy managers in super critical projects while coming up with many creative metaphors, might be valued higher than simply using your expertise in a well-defined job with not so much responsibility.

In other words: Being able to explain to a manager at a bank or pharma company how Swift programming works may be valued much higher by the market than implementing feature X in the same programming language. The “fast horse” might bring in more bucks than the “race car” when cars are not (yet) a thing around wherever you are.

The (r)evolution people understand

So whenever you want to offer something, e.g. as a freelancer and you are just starting out with your own remote business, first find out what people want to buy.

Find out what the “horse” is in your context, the one thing people are searching for. Even if you might think that you know something even better, you need to start where people are and get them from there.

In other words: Start an evolution, not a revolution, allowing people to understand what you are offering in their own terms.