At MindCamp, Scott Berkun did an excellent “lightning talk” on improving your ability to sell ideas to others.
From his blog:
Coming up with good ideas is hard enough, but convincing others to do something with them is even harder.
How to pitch an idea – scottberkun.com
This is an area where I need to improve. In Scott’s talk, he rattled off these 5 points:
- No play by play – Don’t waste time on the the back story or context for your idea. Get to the chase.
- No tech – don’t bore your audience or try to sell them on the “how”, hit them with the “why” and “what”.
- What problem are you solving? Who does it help? How is it better?
- Why should your listener care? How are you going to make their life better?
- What do you want from your listener. If you don’t extend a call to action – how can they take you up on it?
Lastly, Scott advised practicing in front of a video camera. Smart. Painful, but smart.
technorati tags:mindcamp, scottberkun, bizphil, pitch, selfhelp