The VP of Marketing of my old company is an absolute master at analogies. One of my favorites was when he described to me the idea of selling a new product that creates a brand-new niche - often a very difficult task.
He likened it to the first person that had to break ground selling thermometers. Not the "How's the weather" thermometers, I mean the "Do you have a fever thermometers". Surely nowadays these are digital little gizmos, but when they came out they were the old-fashioned mercury based ones.
I can imagine the sales-pitch:
Customer: So, whats it good for?
Salesman: It will tell you your temperature.
Customer: Why do I care about that?
Salesman: Well, then you will know when you have a fever.
Customer: Um. I already know when I have a fever.
Salesman: Yeah, but now you'll be sure.
Customer: Erm.. k.. What's it made of?
Salesman: Glass
Customer: Whats that stuff inside it?
Salesman: Mercury - careful, its toxic.
Customer: How do I use it?
Salesman: You just put it in your butt for 2 minutes.
Customer: Um. So basically, you want me to take this toxic-substance filled thermo-thing made of breakable glass, stick it and leave it in my butt for 2 minutes so that I'll know something I pretty much already knew.
Salesman: Yepper.
Customer: Awesome - I'll take 2 !
That had to be a hard job. Solve a problem that was perceived as not needing solving and then do it in a new, dangerous, and highly uncomfortable way. And you thought software was hard.
