Innovation! Change! Motivated employees frequently have good ideas about how to improve business—new products, better processes, materials reductions, and more. Organizations need ideas too—to stay competitive, be more efficient, and be a rewarding place to work. Yet, there’s a snag. Lots of people have worthwhile ideas. Often many people have the same idea. The problem is how to get an idea heard and even more significantly, how to get it accepted and implemented.
Not every new idea can be accepted, but for any innovative proposal to get a fair hearing an effective “sales” effort must be launched. A would-be innovator needs to understand that old expression: “Nothing happens until someone sells something.” Selling ideas is part persuasion, part negotiation, part presentation strategy. A strategy of research and communication leading up to the moment of proposing an innovative idea can lead to success.
