TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

How to Sell an Idea

  •  
    JO1UK@...02/07/07 Report as spam
    1

    How to sell an ideas

    I really liked this article. It is full of common sense practical and workable ideas and has got me re-thinking the approach I need to take and how to explain and describe my idea in the right way for those I would be talking to so that it will have a greater chance of being taken up. Thank you. It hsd given me a lot of valuable insight from experienced, successsful and sesasoned business professionals.

    Jo

  •  
    GiselaGiardino02/08/07 Report as spam
    2

    Very Good Article!

    Thanks so much for producing this article (the whole "BNET Features" for this topic actually). I read a lot of texts on ideas, marketing, success, planning and leadership, etc... and this one is really a good piece. Easy to follow, clear, down to earth, filled with common sense and truths about everyday working life and the usual contingences we all face (whether you are employed or work independently). Very insightful.

    Btw, congratulations on the website overhaul. I like it -word from a designer-. happy

  •  
    phivetacos@...02/08/07 Report as spam
    3

    Excellent!

    Now I know why my ideas are stuck in the mud...this brought excellent tips to the table that I'll definitely use.

    Maybe now my next idea will gain greater acceptance...

  •  
    savo@...02/08/07 Report as spam
    4

    Very good

    'How to Sell an Idea' is very well written and gives clear guidance.
    Real eye opener.
    Thank you.
    Savo
    London (UK)

  •  
    Vbarlow9@...02/08/07 Report as spam
    5

    How To Sell an Idea

    Excellent article. Concise and easy to read and comprehend with little to question. Great map to success

  •  
    michelle_zhu@...02/08/07 Report as spam
    6

    Great!

    very easy to read! thanks

  •  
    ajaidayal@...02/08/07 Report as spam
    7

    profound article

    a must reading nd outting into practice for all in the idea selling business

  •  
    job@...02/08/07 Report as spam
    8

    brilliant

    bnet rules, with articles like these, there really isn't any reason why anyone cannot imrove their lot in life.

  •  
    jimantonopoulos02/10/07 Report as spam
    9

    A breath of fresh air.

    This is simple yet practical advice that cuts through all the BS on idea presentations on the web. Well done!.

  •  
    Satha Arumanayagam02/12/07 Report as spam
    10

    Great summary

    This is a whole lot of common sense - put together very well in one article...

    Spin Selling by Neil Rackham - great book... learnt a lot from it during my early days of selling...

  •  
    engage@...02/15/07 Report as spam
    11

    Visionary Resources...

    This is a wonderful article! Truly!

  •  
    kaupar02/27/07 Report as spam
    12

    Great Article

    This is a really wonderful article that helps us climb up the ladder keeping in mind all the corporate requirements as well as giving importance to our work

  •  
    philren03/01/07 Report as spam
    13

    very nice summary

    though I am not a native English speaker, this summary still caught me.

  •  
    nurturingbygail03/02/07 Report as spam
    14

    Dreaming of success!!!

    This artical came at an ideal time, as an idea I have is still in it's development stages. (Infant nurturing care) For-Profit and Not-for-Profit information needed. Any and all strategy for success is welcome. Thank you.
    Gail

  •  
    krishandutt03/05/07 Report as spam
    15

    Good Idea for an Enterpreneur Employee !

    Its really good to hear about the concept and basic idea provided for making a plan / Idea selection but the perspective given to it seems to be mediocre one. If this idea is explained in a holistic perspective , That would have been of great help. But still its fantastic.

    Cheers,
    Krishan Dutt
    business Development Manager
    smartData Enterprises (I) Ltd.
    www.smartdatainc.net

  •  
    sumeshkmenon@...03/08/07 Report as spam
    16

    Very Crisp points ... very nice

    really usefull for all who work on thier dreams and passion

  •  
    odita_pk2000@...03/12/07 Report as spam
    17

    How to sell an Idea

    This is a fantastic document, i give kudos to the writer, I have flushed alot of ideas, reason being that i could or rather did not have a strong defence for them.

  •  
    harshvora03/15/07 Report as spam
    18

    response

    the article was really informative ..

  •  
    rchib200003/15/07 Report as spam
    19

    How to Sell an Idea

    Great article - Right on the money.

  •  
    rchib200003/15/07 Report as spam
    20

    Great article - Right on the money.

    Great article - Right on the money.

  •  
    maria6703/15/07 Report as spam
    21

    Restart fresh

    Good article to frees up the mind to restart an idea.

  •  
    pratoshkumar@...03/16/07 Report as spam
    22

    Well written

    Very well understandable

  •  
    apgsub@...03/16/07 Report as spam
    23

    Selling ideas

    Simply superb !!
    Keep up with such wonderful IDEAS/Tips

  •  
    engage@...03/22/07 Report as spam
    24

    engage@businessethos.com

    Priceless information!

  •  
    AgustGudbjornsson03/25/07 Report as spam
    25

    Great Article!

    Very nice and handy. Thanks!

  •  
    Qazi Jawad04/03/07 Report as spam
    26

    Good Work

    The Article presents the valid points in a brief listing. It is very practical and logical.

  •  
    peacekeydelco@...04/05/07 Report as spam
    27

    Idea Selling

    Consecutively presents one's ideas into plausible plans.

  •  
    hacknsackman04/18/07 Report as spam
    28

    how to sell an idea

    This article is great for people who want to sell and idea to people within their company. However, I am looking for tools and guidelines to sell an idea to a company and I don't work for that company. I need some kind of non disclosure and sales agreement and also advise on who to sell to and whom to contact. And, anything else that will help me stop the company from executing the idea without compensating me.

  •  
    Geoffrey James, Sales Machine05/16/07 Report as spam
    29

    Unfortunately...

    ...the same thing is true for selling from outside. And you probably don't have the credibility to command a non-disclosure. The sad truth is that fabulous ideas are a dime-a-thousand. Most companies don't look outside for inventions -- except from a very small cadre of well-known independent inventors.

    For all practical purposes, your best bet would be get a patent, if what you've got in mind is truly original. If not, then you're basically out of luck.

  •  
    Dave4800009/25/07 Report as spam
    30

    Competing

    Tom Peters says that you must leave your methodology behind. Which means taht each gig is an opportunity to learn more and improve your methodology, which leave you in the position of being ahead of your client base.

    Have a vector of differentiation. Know where you are headed with your ideas.

    I could talk to you about my idea. It's simple enough. But, I know where all the gotchas are, and I know the idea that follows that idea.

    Never talk about all your ideas. Talk about the one, single idea you need to sell today that will enable you to develop it and package it into a profitable product. Only after you get that first product out there do you move on to the next idea.

    In general, a customer doesn't have the will to implement your idea. They are not usually in your business. They do not have the capabilities or the managerial focus to steal your idea. Sure if you are in the computer business and you talk to a computer vendor, they could steal your idea. But, if you talk to an IT department, they can't steal your idea, because their resources are already allocated.

    I once mentioned to a client that a GIS system fit their problem. That statement cut my throat, because they were just then investing heavily into a relational system. Ouch! They won't move to a GIS system for years and years, nevermind fitness.

  •  
    Robertgatkins12/20/07 Report as spam
    31

    Selling to another company

    The real questions are: do you really have an innovative idea? If so, patent it. If not: are you personally critical to the success of the idea? If you or your team are not, you probably will not get paid much.

    NDAs and such won't help, because you probably don't have the money and time to spend 10 years and $500K in legal fees--for a chance at winning. It is probably worth writing don your idea and filing it with your attorney--this is some protection against outright theft (check with a Intellectual Property lawyer).

    On a more positive note, most reputable companies don't just steal ideas. So, you may be safer than you think.

    Personally, I would put together a great pitch (see article) and go for it. I might even apply for a patent and service mark--you may never get it, but it looks good in the pitch and may be a deterrent.

  •  
    omdurman07/03/07 Report as spam
    32

    EXCELLENT !!!

    it's excellent topic !

  •  
    niladriroy07/24/07 Report as spam
    33

    Excellent

    It's very informative for all business professionals

  •  
    wisdomine@...07/27/07 Report as spam
    34

    wonderful

    the article HOW TO SELL UR IDEAS was superb
    Thanks BNET for timely expert tips

  •  
    balaakumar@...07/30/07 Report as spam
    35

    sell an idea

    it is great to refresh our mind with past ideas and guided through out our learning, but there need to have audio visual, the new generation reading this like to view and register thro actual experience, so suggestions to make it ready for next generation. otherwise great one to go back

  •  
    yinkaadewale07/30/07 Report as spam
    36

    Excellent Ideas

    I have gone through the ideas and they sound quite cogent. All one needs to do is to modify the ideas where necessary to suit the scenario in which they are to be adopted, but on the whole, they are really excellent ideas

  •  
    abedrawia07/30/07 Report as spam
    37

    you sold me this article

    you sold me this article

  •  
    Theotoks08/01/07 Report as spam
    38

    One giant missing component . . .

    . . . is front-end collaboration and input-gathering from stakeholders who could possibly block or sabotage your idea. Gathering input early on from these folks will reduce the need to "sell." In fact, if you get input from stakeholders your idea may need no "selling" at all!

    In my opinion, having one colleague volunteer possible objections is inadequate. You may be blindsided from a lack of cross-functional input-gathering.

  •  
    Uloaku08/07/07 Report as spam
    39

    never stop learning

    nice article, I have learnt a goog thing today at the next time that I will go for a pitch I will come back and drop my the result of this day learning.

  •  
    Uloaku08/07/07 Report as spam
    40

    never stop learning

    nice article, I have learnt a good thing today, After my next pitch I will come back and drop the result of this day's learning.

  •  
    Prabhakaran K08/28/07 Report as spam
    41

    Timely one

    It was a timely one for me. I have a big idea with me to be sold to my top management. Though the idea is a valid and very relevant to the current situation, earlier bitter experiences were pulling me down. Let me follow the steps and give feedback

  •  
    silumesi08/31/07 Report as spam
    42

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    Brilliant!

  •  
    allinthemix0109/19/07 Report as spam
    43

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    really good but what if the idea is not in your organisation and you are doing it for the development of a particular area i am in this exact dilemma and i need answers
    allinthemix01@yahoo.com

  •  
    pipo_pogi@...09/25/07 Report as spam
    44

    Magnificent

    it's very straightforward and crystal clear! Applicable to everyone in the organization.

  •  
    seanshieh09/25/07 Report as spam
    45

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    fantastic

  •  
    biyiboye109/26/07 Report as spam
    46

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    THIS IS VERY MEANINGFUL......

  •  
    indiamike09/26/07 Report as spam
    47

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    I am in the midst of doing this right now and there is a lot of good advice in this article.

    Perhaps one of the bits missing is to 'keep the faith'. It can be very challenging to remain on the upside when you are neck deep in trying to come up with strategies for dealing with the challenges and barriers to your idea. There are times when you begin to lose confidence in your own abilities especially when the stakes are as they can be.

    The closest the article came to touching on this was item 4, strategies for dealing with 'failure'. Looking at what 'extras' you can get out of the process may be insulation from the downside. For example developing a wiz bang web app that fails will still leave you with an integrated and (hopefully smooth) operating development team, hardware, software, infrastructure and a host of new contacts in the business area that you are targeting. A lot of secondary work comes out of first contacts so ther eis always that! Just because the main app didn't 'go platinum' it is not necessarily a failure.

  •  
    RSAHAI@...09/26/07 Report as spam
    48

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    A very good article elucidating the seller and the buyer concepts in a sale (of an idea) propostion.

  •  
    hestonstgeorge@...09/26/07 Report as spam
    49

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    very relevant article....

  •  
    BizMeds09/27/07 Report as spam
    50

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    I wish I had read this before some of my tougher negotiations. Thanks for the excellent tips.

  •  
    uapista09/29/07 Report as spam
    51

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    thanks man

  •  
    NAD-ZEG11/01/07 Report as spam
    52

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    WAW

  •  
    rrvallefgv@...12/20/07 Report as spam
    53

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    Amazing! Here you can find an useful checklist to your new projects

  •  
    cybotrix12/20/07 Report as spam
    54

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    wonderful.. great piece of information here.. i would really love to hear something like this often...

    Jitesh Keswani
    CEO
    Search Rank Pros.
    www.searchrankpros.org

  •  
    ranjeetoak02/10/08 Report as spam
    55

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    I think one more aspect of successfully selling an idea is conviction. If you have an idea - you need to spend your time getting convinced that it is a good idea. This usually works for me as a filter, and the 'not-so-hot' ideas fizzle out. But selling the ones that pass this test is the easiest - Because Selling is just a transfer of conviction.

  •  
    sashankgarikapati02/12/08 Report as spam
    56

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    Perfect ideology for strategic selling!!!

  •  
    aali1605/14/08 Report as spam
    57

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    I really admiered the hot tips
    Hot Button Questions for C-Level Execs
    really great article

  •  
    davidnzekwu09/03/08 Report as spam
    58

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    This is very practical. I find it a useful guide for an idea I am currently working on. Brilliant!

  •  
    tlk109/14/09 Report as spam
    59

    RE: How to Sell an Idea

    Have great ideas and be very positive.

The following tags are supported in BNET comments:
<b></b> <i></i> <u></u> <pre></pre>

Leave a Reply

  1. You are currently a guest | Login?
advertisement
advertisement