How contextualizing saved James Watt's business.

Back in the 18th century, when James Watt tried to sell steam engines to mining companies, they told him to sod off.

They didn’t see the value in the technology. They didn’t know what the cc-s or watts mean.

Or how it can be useful to them. They mine with shovels, pickaxes, and horses. Not with engines.

So Watt, brilliant both in engineering and marketing, came up with an idea.

He created the term horsepower.

He figured out how much power a horse creates.

And created engines that were more powerful than that.

So he went back to the miners.

And presented his engines now in comparison to horses: this engine has 10 horsepowers. So it does the job of 10 horses.

Now, in the new context, the miners got it.

This many engines could replace this many horses. Simple as a stick in the mud.

Watt even boasted that one of his steam engines could harness the power of 200 horses at once. Imagine the wow factor....

The same rule is as powerful today.

We don’t understand the value of something until we put it into context.

So figure out how to present your solutions in a relevant context.