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On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew a powered aircraft for the first time in human history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The flight lasted 12 seconds.
They sent a telegram to their father with the news. He was thrilled.
The newspapers were not.
The Associated Press rejected the story. Editors across the country declined to cover it. One journalist who did show up to a later demonstration in 1904 watched the flight happen, went home, and wrote nothing. He later said he didn't think the public would believe it.
For nearly five years after the first flight, the Wright Brothers were largely ignored by the American press.
✈️ THE PROBLEM WASN'T THE PRODUCT
What the Wright Brothers faced is exactly what every seller of genuinely new technology faces.
The product worked. The proof was there. The demonstration was repeatable.
But the buyers, whether newspaper editors or potential government contracts, were operating from a belief system that made the evidence feel impossible. They had spent decades watching balloon flights fail and contraptions crash. Their mental model said flight was theoretical. Proof that contradicted the model was easier to dismiss than to integrate.
This is the real challenge of selling emerging technology.
It is not that people don't believe your claims. It is that your claims require them to update a deeply held belief about what is possible. And human beings resist that update at a physiological level.
I've sold AI solutions to enterprise accounts for several years now. The resistance I encounter most often isn't "this doesn't work." It's "this doesn't work for us" or "this works in theory but our environment is different."
That is the Wright Brothers problem. The buyer's mental model is telling them that flight is not possible, even while you are standing there having flown.
🔑 HOW TO SELL WHAT PEOPLE DON'T YET BELIEVE IS POSSIBLE
The Wright Brothers eventually broke through. Not by showing more data. By changing who they sold to.
In 1908, Wilbur went to France. European aviation enthusiasts, unburdened by the American press narrative, watched a 90-minute demonstration flight and immediately understood what they were seeing. Within days, he was the most famous man in Europe.
The lesson for sellers of new technology:
Find the buyers who are already half-convinced.
These are not the skeptics you need to convert. They are the early adopters who have already identified the problem your solution solves, have already tried the inadequate alternatives, and are primed to believe because they are desperate for something that works.
Sell to them first. Get the results. Then bring those results back to the skeptics.
Results convert skeptics faster than any demonstration you can run.
The Wright Brothers didn't change the world by convincing the press. They changed it by flying in front of the people who were already watching the sky.
⚡ YOUR HOMEWORK
Look at your current pipeline.
Which of your open opportunities has a champion who is already half-convinced? Someone who raised their hand, is actively engaged, and already believes the problem is real?
That account gets your full focus this week.
Close it. Get the case study. Then go back to the skeptics with proof.
🌙 QUESTION OF THE DAY
What's the most effective way you've broken through a prospect who was skeptical about new technology?
Hit reply. Always building this playbook.
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Edward Founder, Morning Sales
P.S. The 500 AI-Powered Sales Prompts PDF includes a full chapter on selling AI and emerging technology to skeptical enterprise buyers, including prompts for building the business case, surfacing the cost of inaction, and finding your early adopters faster. Get the full collection at edwardgorbis.com.