Page 189 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

180 SELLING CREATIVE IDEAS REQUIRES ITS OWN CREATIVITY

because sometimes the ones further along in development have an
unfair advantage.

Conviction Leads to Execution
If you want to take an idea from the conceptual stage to execution,
nothing works like conviction. I’m not talking about force alone. I’m
talking about a genuine belief that the idea you have is going to succeed
in a very big way. When you use 100 MPH Thinking (often in concert
with other of the Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy tools), you inevitably have
many ideas from which to cull your shortlist. It makes presenting many
ideas much easier, but more important than that, it gives you conviction.
There is a difference between feigned conviction, which I see all the
time in business, and the real deal, or deal maker, as it were. When you
present one idea, or even two or three ideas, to those who must buy in
to bring them to fruition, they may react to your final recommendation
by asking, “Is this the best idea?” It’s a pretty fair bet that you’ll have
to say, “Yes this is the best idea,” even though you can’t look them
straight in the eye when you say it, because you’ve looked at only a
handful of ideas—you really don’t know whether it’s the best idea.
There is absolutely no way you can answer with authentic conviction.
However, if you look at 100 potential solutions to their problem,
present several, and make a final recommendation, then, when asked
the same question, you can look them straight in the eye and answer,
“Absolutely!” with firm conviction.
The fact of the matter is that you really don’t know if the new idea is
best. (I mentioned earlier that you never come up with your best idea.)
And, with a new idea, there’s never proof that it will work. (Of course,
there’s no guarantee an old idea will work, either.) But in the heat of an
important sales pitch, it’s important that you think it’s your best idea,
that you have unfailing and absolute conviction in your idea. And gen-
uine conviction makes the sale almost every time.

Bring People in Early
A couple more things about selling: When you show people ideas that
are undergoing development, they can take ownership. They can say,
“Hey, I kind of like where that’s going.” Then, after you fully develop
“their” idea, they are already onboard. I must tell you that people don’t
generally derail projects they have a vested interest in. Show them
ideas early so they can be partners in the solution.
Again, in the advertising business I’ve seen many creatives who are
petrified of showing others their ideas as they materialize, even inter-
nally. They often hold back from sharing ideas with the suits until