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How to sell your idea, such that people listen!
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If you have ever encountered a salesman, you might have seen firsthand how they try to sell their products. The art of getting ‘selling’ anything is no piece of cake. Selling is not just door-to-door sales or pitching your product to the public. Selling involves putting forth your ideas, innovations, opinions, and proposals in a way that people want to listen to them and adapt them. Students often have trouble even getting their ideas onto the table, much less have them accepted!
Selling your idea has never been as important as it will be in the coming years. With increasing competition and decreasing opportunities, there are more and more ideas floating around. To get yours into the race, not only must your idea be incredibly unique but it should be presented in a way that hooks your audience. So if you are someone bursting with something to pitch to the world, here are some tips to have better chances of selling your idea to the rest of the world!
There is no shame in accepting that what you came up with might not be cut out for the competitive world out there. If that is the case, work on your idea and come back with a better one! But how do you determine if your idea is good? Or if it is unique? Put together a group of people, mentors, or experienced individuals in the field you are venturing into. Turn to them for advice, make sure you trust them. A lot of people might have opinions about what you have to pitch, but you have to decide who has the most to contribute to your idea. If a person is a layman to your industry, their opinion might not hold the value you think. Reach out to the right people for guidance.
If you are a student, looking to bring about a change in your college policy, chances are you will approach the college president or the principal. Same way, if you are, say, interning at a company and come up with an idea that will make the performance of the company better, you will approach the decision-makers. It might seem easy to identify them, but in reality, all senior officials rely on their deputies, or advisors when faced with tough calls. So even if you figure out how to sell your idea, you might not know who to sell it to!
Therefore, in order to pitch your idea successfully to the top dog, you might first need to pitch it to the people they turn to for advice. Build trust with the people who are the real decision-makers, understand the way they think, and adapt your pitch to their liking.
This could be a little tricky because the driving force behind your idea might not be of interest to the person you want to sell it to. The idea you want to pitch must have some value to the decision-makers. For instance, if your idea is to be more aware of mental health in your institution, it might require seminars and lesser work hours. But pitching it with that verbatim might not be of interest to the company head, as it would mean fewer hours spent working. Instead, you can say that if the company works towards the better mental health of the employees, productivity could increase. Show stats to support your theory and idea.
Finally, your ideas might not always perform the way you want them too. But that could be because of a lot of factors, not because your idea wasn’t brilliant in the first place! Do not get disheartened, sometimes the most important thing is to find the correct person to pitch your idea to, and once you do that, you can see your idea develop into something amazing!
Do you want to build more soft skills? Here are some pieces that might help you!
Selling your idea has never been as important as it will be in the coming years. With increasing competition and decreasing opportunities, there are more and more ideas floating around. To get yours into the race, not only must your idea be incredibly unique but it should be presented in a way that hooks your audience. So if you are someone bursting with something to pitch to the world, here are some tips to have better chances of selling your idea to the rest of the world!
Is the idea actually good?
There is no shame in accepting that what you came up with might not be cut out for the competitive world out there. If that is the case, work on your idea and come back with a better one! But how do you determine if your idea is good? Or if it is unique? Put together a group of people, mentors, or experienced individuals in the field you are venturing into. Turn to them for advice, make sure you trust them. A lot of people might have opinions about what you have to pitch, but you have to decide who has the most to contribute to your idea. If a person is a layman to your industry, their opinion might not hold the value you think. Reach out to the right people for guidance.
Who is calling the shots?
If you are a student, looking to bring about a change in your college policy, chances are you will approach the college president or the principal. Same way, if you are, say, interning at a company and come up with an idea that will make the performance of the company better, you will approach the decision-makers. It might seem easy to identify them, but in reality, all senior officials rely on their deputies, or advisors when faced with tough calls. So even if you figure out how to sell your idea, you might not know who to sell it to!
Therefore, in order to pitch your idea successfully to the top dog, you might first need to pitch it to the people they turn to for advice. Build trust with the people who are the real decision-makers, understand the way they think, and adapt your pitch to their liking.
Is your idea profiting the decision-makers?
This could be a little tricky because the driving force behind your idea might not be of interest to the person you want to sell it to. The idea you want to pitch must have some value to the decision-makers. For instance, if your idea is to be more aware of mental health in your institution, it might require seminars and lesser work hours. But pitching it with that verbatim might not be of interest to the company head, as it would mean fewer hours spent working. Instead, you can say that if the company works towards the better mental health of the employees, productivity could increase. Show stats to support your theory and idea.
Finally, your ideas might not always perform the way you want them too. But that could be because of a lot of factors, not because your idea wasn’t brilliant in the first place! Do not get disheartened, sometimes the most important thing is to find the correct person to pitch your idea to, and once you do that, you can see your idea develop into something amazing!
Do you want to build more soft skills? Here are some pieces that might help you!
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