Page 183 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

174 SELLING CREATIVE IDEAS REQUIRES ITS OWN CREATIVITY

Blowing Your Own Sale
Another tip on getting people to embrace your ideas is to avoid certain
terms that can only lead to disaster:

“This is my favorite idea.”
“I think this idea is great.”
“This idea is just like...”

These and other such terms usually mean trouble. People you’re
selling ideas to really don’t care what your favorite idea is; they want
the best idea. They really don’t care whether you think it’s great. Oh,
they may ask you, but in the end they want the best idea, the most
effective idea, the idea that will produce the greatest results.
Similarly, “just like” doesn’t do much in a unique marketing situa-
tion that needs a fresh solution. In fact, by definition, it can’t be very
creative if it’s “just like” something. Even saying it’s “somewhat like,”
which you can use for a support point perhaps later, is a bad idea to
lead off with.
Yes, some people you’re selling to may need the comfort of know-
ing that someone’s been there before, but in many cases “just like” are
code words for disaster.
Basically, the best way to sell an idea is not to talk about what’s your
favorite or what you like, but to talk about the objective and how your
idea will help reach the objective. In this regard, advertising creative peo-
ple are often their own worst enemies. A few years ago I wrote a piece in
CommunicationArts entitled, “You too can speak like a Harvard MBA.” In
this tongue-in-cheek article, I gave advertising creative people sound
bites to use in front of clients to help them appear to have a clue about
business: “This will move the needle” and other such arcane expressions.
Creativity in business is not a beauty contest. This is commerce. What
you like means nothing if it doesn’t make the cash register ring.

Don’t Have All the Answers
Here’s a tip on selling that I learned early in my career. When I was
about to start my ad agency over 20 years ago, I read an article about
what the best clients look for in ad agencies. In this very helpful article,
one individual said something to this effect:

“I don’t want someone who has all the answers; I want someone who
will get all the answers.”