#103: How to Sell your Big Ideas

So far in our selling series, we have covered how to overcome your fear of selling and how to sell with confidence.

This episode is geared to those of you who are employees. You may be in a leadership position and may sometimes fear your ideas are overlooked and not taken seriously. So, in this episode, I am sharing some ways to help you better formulate and share your big ideas.

The Problem, The Plan and The Plant

To begin with, your idea needs to be solving a problem. It needs to be clear that your problem is frustrating or time wasting, cumbersome, inefficient, or a costly issue that effects your patients, customers, team or key stakeholders.

The Fish Bone Diagram is a great tool to use to help you start. It helps you identify all the things you will need to consider when developing a new project. I have created our very own THC Primary Care template for you to download here. It’s our most popular tool.

 

Present your Idea Informally

The next phase is to present your idea informally and casually because again you are gathering data on how people think and feel about your proposition.  You must look for holes in your idea, potential pitfalls and seek feedback from others. This will help you gauge whether you think it will get the green light.

If your idea gets shot down in flames and but you still think it’s got legs. You may have to play a longer game.

The Long Game

When I was a Business Development Manager at a university, it took us 3 years to get the approval to build a stem cell laboratory. Hopefully, your idea won’t take 3 years, but it may take some effort on your part to position, persuade, influence, compromise, scale back or scale up to bring people on board.

The goal is to get the green light knowing that some people may still need convincing.

To get through this you will need resilience. You will need to develop a thick skin, be approachable and you will need to know your stuff and become an expert.

Keep it simple

If you work in an organisation that makes decisions by committee there will inevitably come the time to present your big idea. This is your moment to shine. Your weeks of hard work will be worth it and again you need to position your idea like it’s a no brainer. Make it simple to communicate and understand. Remember, if you confuse people, you lose people! And remember to speak to people’s motivations and values.

I would love to hear how you get on!

 

Don’t forget to grab our Fish Bone Diagram Download to help you shape your next big idea or project.

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