How to Sell your New Idea to other People
About the Authors:
NEIL FLANAGAN and JARVIS FINGER
World-renowned business strategists and authors of several international best-selling books on management. Neil is a sought-after keynote, conference and motivational speaker and Jarvis is the award-winning founder and editor of Australia's best known magazine for school administrators.
As a business owner or manager, you'll often have to persuade people to believe in your views and to accept your ideas.
If you're good at selling your ideas to employees and colleagues, then you'll go further, faster, in your career. Unfortunately, good ideas must first be sold to staff and, if you can't get your proposals across the way you envisaged, then they may well go the way of many other good ideas—into oblivion. So, here are some simple rules that will help you sell your ideas more effectively in the future…
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT— EXACTLY
Don't settle for a vague fuzzy shadow of an idea, only to grow angry when you fail to get it across to others. Pretest your idea for clarity: put it on paper. If it can't be written down—goal, numbers, key players, deadlines, budgets— then it isn't a completely developed idea. The very act of finding the appropriate words with which to express an idea compels you to think it through.
DOUBLE CHECK EVERYTHING
Make sure that all the necessary research and validation has been done to support your idea and that you have all the facts and figures readily available. You'll need these down the track.
CONSIDER CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES
Ensure that the idea sits well in the current climate of your organisation. For example, you wouldn't want to suggest a costly idea if little money were available in your organisation's coffers.
HIGHLIGHT THE BENEFITS
The key to persuasion is to see your proposition from other people's points of view. Their questions (to themselves usually) will be: 'How does this affect me?' and 'What do I stand to gain or lose?' So, make sure you can clearly demonstrate the specific benefits to be gained by others if adopting your idea—and keep these foremost in your mind, and theirs, during your presentations and subsequent discussions.
BE PREPARED FOR THE OBJECTIONS
People are always suspicious of new ideas; most prefer the status quo. Anticipate their objections before-hand by consciously and diligently examining your idea for flaws. List potential objections and prepare yourself to tackle them with data, not emotion. Of course, the surest way to squash an objection is to incorporate both the objection and its solution into your presentation. Another useful strategy is to overcome people's objections, not by showing them the error of their logic, but by reiterating what's in it for them.
MAKE YOUR IDEA THEIR IDEA.
A great way of gaining support is to give away the credit for an idea. By skilfully making suggestions, you can often get people to adopt and commit themselves to your ideas as their own. It's amazing how much you can achieve if you don't mind who gets the credit! As well, it's important for you to sow the seeds of ownership by getting them if possible to contribute in some way to the idea themselves.
GET SOME KIND OF 'YES' EARLY ON IN THE PROCESS.
Good salespeople know that it always pays to start their sales pitch on a point— however minor, even irrelevant— with which your audience can agree. In other words, find some common ground quickly in order to start off with agreement of any kind early on.
SOLICIT THE SUPPORT OF COLLEAGUES.
Discuss the idea in advance with your close colleagues and opinion leaders in your organisation. Their support and agreement can then be called upon at the meeting at which you present your idea for consideration.
PREPARE FOR A SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION.
Your presentation should take two forms: written and oral. Writing adds weight to an idea by indicating that the ideas are less likely to be half- baked or lacking in commitment. Keep your written proposal to a graphic, simply expressed, concise page or two.
Your oral presentation should simply get across the main points of your proposal, its benefits and costs.
Avoid being drawn into too much detail. You cannot be accused of hiding or concealing something if you also bring out the disadvantages —before shooting them down yourself. Be convincing and enthusiastic in your summing up.
The effectiveness of your presentation will also depend largely on how well you prepared for it, having your facts and figures straight, deciding what you are going to say in what order, and how you are going to say it. It's wise to rehearse your presentation.
CHECK TIMING AND SEQUENCE.
Determine precisely when you should present your idea. Make sure your timing is appropriate, thereby giving your idea a greater chance of being accepted.
CHECK YOUR FALLBACK POSITION.
If your proposal is not acceptable to your audience in its entirety, make sure you have a fallback position with which you're comfortable, ensuring that if your first idea is defeated, you are not left with nothing. Don't let your planning inhibit flexibility.
Just about Everything a Manager Needs to Know
By Neil Flanagan and Jarvis Finger
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