How to Sell an Idea: Help them Build the Framework for Agreement
As a young creative, I thought that great work was the most important thing. If I could just have a great idea, everyone would recognize it and the rest would fall into place.
That is flat out wrong.
The most important part of any job is helping the client(s) figure out what a good idea looks like. You listen very carefully, research diligently, and then give them a definition of what a good solution would be if it existed. Only then can you do good work.
If this sounds like more work… it is. But unless this is done, every project is likely to go haywire.
Every project has an inherent political problem. You’ve got to get a group of people to agree. And professionals have a very hard time doing that outside their domain of expertise. A group of lawyers can agree on what a good argument is. A group of structural engineers can agree on where the weakest point in a bridge design is. But if you ask them how they evaluate what makes a great piece of communication, chances are they’ll have no idea.
Your first job, if you want to be successful, is to create a logical framework that will allow intelligent people to agree with each other. And most of the time everybody wants to agree, they just don’t know how.
Create and Resolve the Conflict Within Yourself
We live under a Tyranny of Nice. Nobody wants to hurt anybody’s feelings. And they may be shunned if they do. Polarization is bad and consensus is good. The problem is that nice just papers over the conflict that needs to be resolved to move forward. Between people it makes the issues murky. And between ideas, it stifles genuine innovation and creativity.
But the culture of most modern corporations is not comfortable with real levels of conflict. What do you do?
You create the conflict within yourself.
This seems like it takes more time and effort. But it is the fastest way I know to get great work produced. Here’s how you do it.
Interview everyone individually about the goals and parameters of the project. Figure out what each person thinks should be done. You need to be a good interviewer for this, a skill which will get its own post, but mostly it’s being a good listener.
The reason you do this separately is when you get people together, they will pretend to agree, just to be nice. This way you get them to disagree with each other through you.
Then, before you present your idea, you lay out the framework for the decision. Lay out all the concerns, so everyone feels heard. Do your best to resolve them before you even show the work.
“Some people think we need a pure brand ad. Other people want the spot to just drive traffic to the website. But we’ve found a way to version the spot with the same budget to be able to do both, so you can run multiple versions and see what works best.”
And when you can’t get to a resolution, be very honest about the trade-offs being made. For example, the universal trade-off of communications: The more interesting or provocative you make something the more likely it is to offend someone. But the less interesting you make something, the more likely it is that it will be ignored.