9 Key Insights to Selling Your Ideas Internally

This situation is common in corporate environments or companies which were once called startups, but have grown into mature organizations.

If you work in either of those, it’s likely you have to try hard to change the status quo and get a green light for introducing an experiment. We want to help you change it by equipping you with more techniques and a solid plan to sell your idea to key stakeholders, so you hear “yes” more often than “no”.

How to sell your ideas internally

Here is a complete plan to win the support of the key stakeholders in your company. Use it as a roadmap for yourself to prepare to pitch ideas. It doesn’t guarantee a 100% success rate. However, by following these steps, you will increase your chances to win support significantly.

It will also help you get the right perspective on rejection and show ways to proceed further in case your idea doesn’t come through.

1. Observe motivations closer

It’s extremely difficult to put your ideas across when you have just joined an organization. You haven’t gained trust yet. When it’s not certain whether or not you are going to finish your probation period successfully, it’s worth taking a neutral position for a start and observing your work environment.

Focus on learning the unwritten rules of your organization, your colleagues' attitude to change and what drives them to take action. Over time, you will understand the goals each of your colleagues pursue and it will be easier for you to show them the value of your ideas by referring to those motivations.

Take the motivation of heads of sales as an example. They deal with different challenges – improving sales velocity, hiring the right people, carrying out effective sales coaching, finding other ways to generate leads or generating more sales. Showing them how your idea can help them solve their issues better will help you gain their support.

2. Understand objections of key stakeholders

Learning about objections people have to your ideas will help you understand why your ideas get rejected. When you know an objection, you can start brainstorming ways to break it. Ask open questions to get your colleagues to share their opinion. Be a good listener and let them talk.

If you have a chance, ask why they think that way. However, in some cases, your colleagues won’t share their opinions so openly with you and you will have to deduct this information from their speech.

3. Learn what ideas failed in the past

Understanding what ideas failed in the past and the reasons behind failure help avoid the mistake someone else has already made. By finding out more about it from your colleagues, you can easily deduct why certain projects fail and even find similarities in the reasons for rejection.

Referring to the previous unsuccessful cases will help you understand the unwritten rules in your organization better, the objections of decision-makers and will help you avoid crossing the red line when presenting your ideas.

4. Build your expertise in a subject matter

Experts find it easier to gain support for their ideas and usually get a green light to execute them much faster. To build an expert image, you have to communicate your track record of previous successful cases and show knowledge of your domain.

For example, if you work in accountancy, you can write a white paper about the pitfalls of filling out a W-9 Form, then distribute it among your colleagues, get it posted for the public on your company website and promote it among decision-makers.

It takes time to grow into an expert and gain trust among both regular employees and decision-makers. However, if you are consistent and put in the effort to share your expertise with others, teach them something new and help solve issues, gaining an expert status won’t take long. When others start asking you questions about your focus area or come for advice, it’s a sign something is moving in the right direction.

5. Gain the support of colleagues

Focusing only on winning the support of decision-makers is not always the right approach. Some of your colleagues have the power to influence the decisions of top management. Getting their support can take you to your goal much faster as they will support you in talks with decision-makers.

Think of organizing training for employees to build awareness about the topic. During such ad hoc sessions, your colleagues will learn more about the research you have made and will be ready to support your idea with key decision-makers. If they don’t agree with certain aspects, they can also share their opinion and feedback which you have to accept, then iterate on your idea, so you can get more people on your side.

6. Build relationships with decision-makers

Prepare the ground for an official announcement of your idea by talking with the key decision-makers in an informal environment. Approach the process of explaining the idea the way you would outline and write a marketing proposal, which is a similar effort – that is, explain why you have chosen that particular subject, what problem you want to solve, why you are the best person to do it, how you will introduce it and what milestones you will use.

Ask for their opinion about the aspects related to your idea. You shouldn’t necessarily uncover your idea right away as you might want to explore the attitude of your team first.

Building relationships takes time – so does collecting feedback from everyone involved in the decision-making process. However, getting big ideas to see daylight takes time and you have to be patient. Instead of burning your chances for success with a rapid and unprepared speech, proceed cautiously and make sure you get key decision-makers on your side by building awareness about a problem for which you want to provide a solution.

7. Explain the “why” behind the idea

It’s much easier to convince someone that your idea makes sense when you give a few reasons “why”. By explaining how it solves a particular problem, you can sell your initiative much quicker.

For example, let’s say you are aiming to convince your team to use a digital asset management system. You should first explain why you want it to happen, perhaps pointing out that your creative assets are scattered around different folders and most employees spend at least three hours weekly trying to locate those assets.

For a decision-maker, buying another tool is only an expense without a broader context. However, if they understand how the tool benefits the company and what problem it will help resolve, they change their attitude.

8. Emphasize a business benefit

To communicate the value proposition of your idea better, you have to show the impact it will have on your company – what processes it can improve, issues it can solve and some metrics that could prove your idea a success.

For example, if you are developing your customer success career and responsible for onboarding new clients online, you might come up with an idea to reduce the number of onboarding calls with a human being and instead substitute in-app onboarding flows.

You can then think of how this shift to a fully automated solution will help your company generate savings, satisfy customers or increase sales.

9. Listen to feedback

Don’t stop collecting feedback from everyone who can be helpful. People fall in love with their ideas too fast and often reject any sort of constructive feedback from others. If you want to succeed with bringing your ideas forward, you have to be open to what others have to say about it.

They can have a good suggestion or identify some weak points in your idea. Process feedback and iterate on your concept, so you can account for the suggestions of your colleagues. This way, you will make your solution more effective and it will be easier to convince everyone to introduce it when they have co-created the idea.

Wrapping up

You have a plan that will help you prepare for selling an idea. Fortunately, by following these steps you will finally get a green light to move forward with your concept for change. However, if you don’t succeed, don’t give up. Learn why your pitch has failed – collect feedback and iterate on your idea. In some cases, after collecting more feedback, you will find weak points that will make you pivot your concept. That’s a good new start!