Home
>
Top Quick Tips
>
Ten Ways To Sell Your Ideas To Anyone

Ten Ways To Sell Your Ideas To Anyone

You have a great idea you know is a winner. All you need is support from some key people. You prepare your material, get some PowerPoint slides together and make your presentation,

Phut! No interest. No questions. No support.

What went wrong?

These are the ten commonest mistakes presenters make and how to correct them.

1. You didn't take time to define your audience clearly and address them personally.

Your audience has one question in their minds all the time: "What's in this for me?" If you don't answer it obviously, they tune out.

Be clear about your audience and aim your pitch solely at them. Anyone else is a bonus.

2. You opened your presentation with the idea itself.

Wrong!

Always lead with the clearest, most powerful benefit to that specific group.

Which would you listen to first?

"I'm going to talk to you about some new ideas in presentation technique."

"Here's a simple way to make your audience eager to buy into your ideas."

You must get people to pay attention. What grabs them? A sure-fire solution a problem they know they have. Not an idea they can't see how to use yet.

3. You took too long to get to the point and gave too much detailed explanation.

People's attention span is short. You either catch them fast or you don't catch them at all.

Don't work up to the key issues. Get to the point. Forget explanations until you have their interest. Once hooked, they'll listen. Until then, they won't.

4. You didn't get all your key points in quickly and people lost interest.

List your key points at the start, right after you've caught their attention with big, specific benefits.

Present your points starting with the most important. Always begin with the essentials. If people get bored, they'll still have heard the most important points.

5. You were wordy, you didn't sound confident and you went off at tangents.

Brevity breathes authority. Don't waste your audience's attention on anything that isn't essential.

Less is nearly always more. Cut it to the minimum. If people have unanswered questions, give time for them at the end. You can end on a high note, not the typical embarrassed wait for someone--anyone--to ask something.

6. You didn't stick to a single message.

Every additional message causes an earlier one to be forgotten.

What do you want the audience to hear? Say it clearly and with confidence...then shut up.

7. You didn't work on building a fan base first.

It's easier to present with fans in the audience to support you. Brief them in advance and encourage them to come along as supporters. Nothing convinces people as much as seeing others already convinced.

8. You didn't practice enough.

If you're not presentation perfect in practice conditions, performance stress will make you into an idiot.

If you're using technology, assume it's going to break down or mess up.

People who aren't properly prepared easily get anxious and nervous people aren't convincing.

9. You got the timing wrong.

Don't schedule your presentation when key people have something else on their minds. Don't hold it on Monday morning (they're dreading what they'll find on their desks) or Friday afternoon (what are you planning for the weekend?).

10. You didn't give them time to grasp your idea.

How fast can they take it in? Who else will they want to consult? Catch their attention, explain only what you have to explain, remind them of the big benefits, then sit down and let them think about it.

Never push for a decision unless you're sure it's the one you want. As long as the decision is open, you can make another attempt.

Follow this advice and next time you'll have an audience that will be right behind you.

Adrian W. Savage writes for people who want help with the daily dilemmas they face at work. He has contributed more than 25 articles to leading British and American publications and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Chicago Tribune.

Visit his blog on the ups and downs of business life.

cleaning help near Mundelein ..

In The News:

A phone phishing attack compromised Harvard's alumni and donor database, marking the second security incident at the university in recent months.

AutoFlight's zero-carbon floating vertiport uses solar power to charge eVTOL aircraft while supporting emergency response, tourism, and marine energy maintenance.

A new phone return scam targets recent buyers with fake carrier calls. Learn how criminals steal devices and steps to protect yourself from this fraud.

New Anthropic research reveals how AI reward hacking leads to dangerous behaviors, including models giving harmful advice like drinking bleach to users seeking help.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Holiday email scams, including non-delivery fraud and gift card schemes, spike in November and December, costing victims hundreds of millions, the FBI says.

Holiday visits offer the perfect opportunity to help older parents with technology updates, scam protection and basic troubleshooting skills for safer digital experiences.

Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.

Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.

Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.

Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.

Researchers discover phishing scam using invisible characters to evade email security, with protection tips including password managers and two-factor authentication.

iPhone and Android users can reduce battery drain and data usage by restricting Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi connections instead of mobile networks.

Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.

FoloToy restored sales of its AI teddy bear Kumma after a weeklong suspension following safety group findings of risky and inappropriate responses to children.

Threat intelligence firm Synthient uncovers one of the largest password exposures ever, prompting immediate security recommendations.

Viral video shared by Elon Musk shows Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots performing tasks from cooking to construction, garnering over 58.5 million views on social media.

Chinese hackers used Anthropic's Claude AI to launch autonomous cyberattacks on 30 organizations worldwide, marking a major shift in cybersecurity threats.

Apple's new Sleep Score feature gives you a rating for your nightly rest quality. Learn how to set it up on your Apple Watch and iPhone today.

Essential phone settings to enable before losing your device, including Find My network, location services and security features for iPhone and Android.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Cybersecurity research shows weak passwords remain a major threat, with simple patterns and number sequences putting millions of accounts at risk.

New Android malware BankBot YNRK silences phones, steals banking data and drains crypto wallets automatically. Learn how this advanced threat works.

FDA approves first human trial for Paradromics' brain-computer interface that could restore speech for paralyzed patients through neural technology.

New phishing platform QRR targets Microsoft 365 users across 1,000 domains in 90 countries. Learn how to spot fake login pages and protect your accounts.

Ten Ways To Sell Your Ideas To Anyone

Top Quick Tips