Don't sell; help people buy

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A book I'm reading right now (151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers, by
Jerry R. Wilson) notes that people hate it when you sell to them, but
love it when you help them buy. That could be why Microsoft's
evangelists are now called advisors, which makes sense in the
more-about-helping-you kind of way.

I've gotten many positive comments about the unofficial title of
“evangelist” that's in my ~/.signature and my business card. I'm
thinking of changing that, though, to reflect market trends. ;)

I'm not too keen on “advisor” because I'm younger than most people,
but “advocate” might be a fun word to try. There seems to be an
interesting distinction between a technical advocate and a technology
advocate. I feel that a technical advocate is someone who's on your
side, and a technology advocate is on the technology's side. Hmm…

Something to think about and test on other people.

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