Preparing to Sell a Great Idea

“The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea,” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. four decades ago. The legendary US human rights activist paid with his life for his new idea of an egalitarian society in the US. Fortunately, most business people will not be assassinated when proposing a new idea. However, they might be confronted by soft-minded businessmen who feel security in the status quo, many of whom you find in the senior management ranks of established companies. That’s why every great creator and innovator needs to systematically plan for selling a meaningful idea. Here are some tips for you to successfully articulate a great idea in order to win necessary support for its activation.

1. Assume responsibility for the sales process

“Dogs bark at what they don’t understand”, observed the mysterious Greek philosopher Heraclitus two thousand five hundred years ago. Similarly, many people initially might not understand your idea. Who is to blame? You, of course, and not another person (nor the dog). It is your responsibility to explain the benefits of your ideas in such a way that “even a dog understands it” right away. So rise to the occasion.

2. Identify critical supporters for your idea

If you have created a truly great idea, you invariably need support from other people to bring it to life. Identify critical supporters whom you need to convince of the value of your idea. If you are employed in a firm, you definitely need to win the support of some superiors or even top executives at some point in time, and you will likely need active help from your co-workers and teammates (e.g., for building a prototype or for taking over some of your normal work obligations). If you are a start-up entrepreneur, you might sooner or later need to sell your idea to potential financiers like an angel investor and venture capitalist. Even before that, you need to sell your ideas to your family and friends, who might give you time and money to get started (most start-ups are initially funded by the “Three Fs” — family, friends and fools). In any case, always pitch your idea first with the easy targets (teammates, friends and family members) before you present it to sophisticated supporters. Insofar, you can test and improve your idea pitch and prepare for the moment of truth when you’ll face the most critical supporter.

3. Describe the unique, novel value of your idea

Heraclitus left us another relevant lesson for this topic: “Donkeys prefer garbage to gold.” Ensure that even a donkey recognizes that the idea that you have to offer is gold. What is the pain that your idea kills? What is the meaningful value it offers? Draw up the key selling points of your idea.

4. Devise a creative idea pitch

Be creative in your sales approach. Here are four things you could do: (1) Contrast your idea with others to bring out its superior value. (2) Think of the “product of the product” like Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon Cosmetics, who said: “We don’t sell cosmetics — we sell hope.” (3) Create a metaphor to work out its benefits (“Using our new service is like finding an oasis in the desert”), and use the related associations to articulate the benefits and value of your idea. All great religious prophets and teachers used metaphors to sell their ideas, so learn from the masters. (4) Prototype or visualize your ideas whenever possible. An old saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”; the industrial design company IDEO even goes one step further: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a prototype is worth a million words”.

5. Address the market potential and feasibility of your idea

In a targeted innovation project, a meaningful business idea must pass two tests to make it to the activation stage. First, a market filter checks on the market potential of an idea. Second, the implementation and feasibility filter tests if you can activate the idea by considering technical, legal and financial viability. When selling your idea, highlight the fit with these important evaluation criteria.

6. Prepare an elevator pitch

Create an elevator pitch for selling the value of your great idea in less than one minute. An Elevator Pitch is a convincing pitch of your idea in less than one minute. Originally coming out of the Venture Capital scene, this technique prepares a start-up entrepreneur to readily pitch his business idea to a Venture Capitalist during a chance encounter in an elevator (where a ride usually takes no longer than one minute).

You may follow the pain-promise-proof scheme: first, describe the underlying pain (e.g., “Many Asian companies now understand that they need to produce their own innovation results. But they don’t know how to do it”); then, give your promise (“THINKERGY is the Idea Company in Asia. We help companies to get creative and to get ideas in order to produce meaningful innovation results”); finally, prove that you can do it (“We have done over 50 projects over the past 3 years with multinationals and supranational organizations”).

7. Prepare for attacks

As we know from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Expect your idea to be ferociously attacked by proponents of the status quo, and have your counterarguments and responses ready. E.g., a great sentence to respond to the question “Has your idea already been tested in the market?” is: “No. But then it wouldn’t be new.”

Preparing to sell a great idea