I’ve been working with three global brands this month, talking about the concept of selling ideas, leading change and delivering a different result.
There are so many skills and strategies which sit behind taking an idea, convincing a business to invest in it, and then driving lasting adoption over time… there’s a lot of ground to cover and a lot of communication skills to master.
The focus of our discussions has been right at the beginning of leading this change, and the first place things tend to fall over is right at the start. Why? Because whilst the good news is that whilst we have an idea to address an issue, the bad news is that it can drive down the scrutiny with which we identify what exactly our idea will help address. We’re so excited and enthusiastic about what we propose, that we quickly, readily, repeatedly revert to talking about how marvellous our idea is; because that’s what will persuade, right?
Wrong. Unfortunately.
In my experience, no matter how brilliant our idea may be, the chances are that someone, somewhere in our business has - or is currently - trying to address the issue. The challenge, or should I say the necessity, is to demonstrate absolute rigour.
What’s the problem we’re trying to solve? The simplicity of this question betrays the power of it. Are we talking symptoms or root cause? What’s changed? What’s the value to our customers? To our business? What’s the return on investment as a result? Why is this a problem? Why now? Who is it a problem for? What’s the scope of this problem? Does it exist everywhere or only in some places? Who’s tried to fix it before? What have we learned as a result?
These are questions which we need to ask repeatedly to stakeholders in the business in order to shape our thinking around the problem which our idea will solve, and we definitely need to adapt, improvise and amend our thinking around the problem which our idea will solve.
Problems are never what they appear… and never what they become in relation to garnering support from others to invest in idea.
Selling ideas starts with defining the problem you want to solve… so in terms of rigour and scrutiny, remember to ask ‘what’s the problem we’re trying to solve?’ Repeatedly.
