The Power of Creating Demand Before Selling
Why the Old Rule Says You Sell First
Business culture teaches a simple sequence :
- Build a product.
- Market it.
- Sell it.
- Then maybe give something away later.
These rule seem logical. But it’s also wrong.
Again and again, the most durable businesses didn’t start by selling harder. They started by changing behavior first, often by giving away something valuable with no obvious return. Not charity. This is strategy.
This is a story about that pattern. And why it keeps working.
How André Michelin Sold Tires Without Selling Tires
In the early 1900s, cars were rare. Roads were bad. Long-distance driving wasn’t common. The market for tires was limited because the behavior that consumed tires barely existed.
André Michelin didn’t push advertising harder. He did something stranger.
He gave things away :
- Free maps.
- Free travel guides.
- Free instructions on where to go, where to eat, where to stay.
His ‘Michelin Guide‘ wasn’t about food prestige. That came much later. At the start it was about behavioral engineering. The guide made driving feel possible, enjoyable, even aspirational. People drove more. Tires wore out faster. Michelin sold more tires without shouting about tires at all.
The important detail is this : He didn’t create demand for his product — he created demand for the activity that consumed it.
That’s a very different move. And it’s the one most people miss.
When Information Becomes Infrastructure
Michelin didn’t just help people travel. It quietly became the authority that shaped travel itself. Routes. Stops. Standards. Expectations.
Once people rely on your information to navigate the world, you stop being a seller. You become infrastructure.
That’s why the Michelin Guide outlived its original purpose. What began as a marketing expense turned into a cultural authority that now stands independent of tires altogether.
This wasn’t luck. It was leverage that compounds slowly and invisibly.
The Same Play, In A Different Century
This wasn’t unique to Michelin.
Decades later, Charles Dow did something similar. He gave away financial information. Market summaries. Transparency. Clarity.
He didn’t start by selling investment products. He sold understanding. Trust followed. Standards followed. Entire financial systems formed around the information he made accessible.
The Dow Jones index didn’t begin as a product. It began as a service to help people make sense of chaos.
Again, behavior first. Revenue later.
Selling a World Before Selling a Product
Fast-forward again.
Red Bull didn’t launch by explaining caffeine chemistry. They funded crazy sporting events. They sponsored risk. They built a lifestyle people wanted to belong to.
They sold identity before liquid.
People didn’t buy Red Bull because it tasted better. They bought it because it represented something. The product became a passport into a world that already existed in the customer’s mind. Once again, demand was created upstream of the sale.
Why This Strategy Feels Uncomfortable
This approach scares people because it looks inefficient.
Giving value away feels like losing control. It delays obvious revenue. It doesn’t fit neat funnels or quarterly targets. And it also requires patience.
Most businesses don’t fail because their products are bad. They fail because they try to extract value before they’ve shaped behavior.
Michelin understood something subtle : If you control how people move through the world, you don’t need to push what they buy.
The Hidden Thread Between These Stories
These examples span different industries, eras, and personalities. What connects them isn’t genius branding or luck. It’s a refusal to follow the obvious rules.
They all asked the same question, consciously or not:
What behavior must exist before my product becomes inevitable?
Then they invested their resources there.
Not in ads.
Not in persuasion.
they invested in enablement.
That’s the real rule being broken.
What This Means for You
Most people ask :
“How do I sell more?”
A better question is :
“What do people need to start doing more of before my product matters?”
If your answer is :
Learning
Moving
Sharing
Creating
Participating
Paying attention
Then your leverage isn’t in selling. It’s in making that behavior easier, safer, or more desirable.
That’s the lesson Michelin left behind, even if unintentionally.
The Takeaway : Stop Competing Where Everyone Else Is Loud
The quietest power move in business is not promotion. It’s preparation.
Create the conditions where demand grows naturally.
Give away the thing that reduces friction.
Shape behavior first.
If you do it well, the sale should become a mere formality.
And that’s the part most rule-followers never understand.
