Three keys to selling your ideas more effectively

You know the frustration of having the right idea but not being able to convince your audience of its worth? Have you ever had a contract slip through your fingers even though yours was the best offer? If you don’t want that to happen again, it’s time to call on behavioural economics to help you present your ideas.

A boss you need to convince to launch a project, a client you have to win over to close a sale, an investor that must be impressed to finance a start-up – professional success often depends on your ability to present your ideas well. One thing’s for sure: just having the right idea isn’t enough! Your ability to “sell” it is also a key factor in winning over your audience.

The problem is that there are a thousand ways of presenting an idea. To find the best way to do this, we need to look at what behavioural economics calls “choice architecture,” i.e. the way in which choices can be presented to decision-makers with a view to winning their support.

If you take a closer look at it, you will realise that, to become more effective in your presentations, it is important to take into account certain cognitive biases that influence those who are listening to you. And the first thing to understand is that all listeners suffer from a “fear of change.”

Fear of change

If you want to sell your ideas more effectively, you need to change your perspective and look at things from the point of view of the person you are trying to convince. This obviously involves understanding their expectations and aspirations, but also, and above all, giving careful consideration to their fears and apprehensions. Every fear not addressed in your presentation is a potentially insurmountable obstacle to your idea being adopted, however good it may be.

In absolute terms, your audience’s fears can be extremely diverse and varied. But when faced with an innovative idea, you always have to address the same barrier in your presentation: fear relating to the prospect of change. If it’s difficult for your client or manager to accept an out-of-the-box idea or a new offer, this is because they are gripped by resistance based on a preference for the status quo, loss aversion and the anticipation of possible regret.

The preference for the status quo leads most of us to prefer a more or less satisfactory solution that is already familiar, rather than risk a leap into the unknown. Even if the anticipated results are much better, we tend to imagine change as a source of potential loss (of money, comfort, security, well-being, etc.). This is called loss aversion. This cognitive bias often takes the form of anticipation of regret. We create a mental scenario that focuses solely on the negative aspects of the change we are considering, totally ignoring the benefits. The unconscious aim is to reinforce the idea that routine is the best solution and that there is no need to change anything. And resistance to change comes full circle.

To break this vicious cycle of inertia and succeed in imposing your new ideas, you’ll need to anticipate the fears or objections you may receive when you present your idea. This requires you to master three aspects of choice architecture: the benefits of change, a presentation framework showing it to best advantage, and a simple message.

It’s time to use loss aversion to your advantage. What do I need to do? Lay the emphasis on what your team or your client could lose by not choosing your solution.

Depict inaction as a source of loss

When putting forward your idea, it seems natural to list the good reasons to embrace it. But have you ever thought of stressing the disadvantages of not adopting it? Probably not. However, if they had to choose between the two, most people would be more inclined to avoid losses than to seek gains. Now’s the time to turn this loss aversion to your advantage. How? By emphasising what your team or your client could lose by not choosing your solution.

Can you quantify precisely the additional cost of doing nothing rather than adopting your idea? What would the productivity shortfall be if your idea were not adopted? By making the loss of inaction tangible, you make your audience much more receptive to the benefits of change. By highlighting the shortcomings of the status quo, you can then present your idea as the antidote to loss aversion.

This first tip alone is worth its weight in gold when combatting the inertia of those you are trying to convince. But for it to be truly effective, you still need to consider one essential factor: time. It’s a fact that most human beings are more receptive to short-term benefits than to potential gains in the distant future. To be convincing, you need to demonstrate what your client or boss will gain in the very short term by choosing your idea. This isn’t always easy, but it is very important.

By the same token, the more you focus your presentation on the technical aspects and the processes to be put in place to achieve the desired result, the more you are fuelling resistance to change. Do you need to present a timetable for getting your project off the ground? As far as possible, don’t linger on this point. You can always come back to it later once the idea has been approved.

Choose the right framework to promote your idea

The worth of every great painting is enhanced by a fine frame: and your idea deserves to be displayed in the best framework for it to stand out and reveal its importance. In presenting it, pay special attention to your choice of colour palette, to what you highlight, your illustrations, your tone of voice, your gestures, etc.

Always ask yourself: can the information be presented and illustrated in a way that casts my project in a more favourable light?

All these aspects of a presentation would justify an article in their own right. Let’s just stress here the importance of choosing your points of reference carefully so that your option can be compared with other potential choices. When preparing your presentation, always ask yourself: can the information be presented and illustrated in a way that casts my project in a more favourable light? But be careful not to introduce too many points of comparison. Too much choice is fatal! Whereas, a limited number of options may make it easier to make a decision. A packed presentation generates cognitive overload, and that may discourage your listener from taking action.

Keep the message simple to promote cognitive availability

You believe in your idea and you’ve prepared thoroughly for your presentation. So much so that you have a perfect command of all the technical aspects of its implementation and are able to answer every conceivable question. That’s all very well, but be careful not to drown your audience in technical information. You run the risk of losing their attention and consequently their possible support. Your project is probably very complex, but your presentation should be kept very simple.

To avoid the inaction that arises from loss aversion, you need to emphasise what your audience could lose by not choosing your solution.

This means you need to simplify your ideas to make them easy to understand. Focus on highlighting added value rather than getting bogged down in a technical description. That has its place, but not in the “captivation” phase. Clear, simple messages are more likely to be accepted because they reduce the cognitive load for your audience.

To maximise cognitive availability, not only is it important to keep your idea simple, but also to use simple language, keep jargon to a minimum and avoid spelling mistakes. Remember that your target audience probably hasn’t mastered all the technical aspects you’ve been studying for weeks. In the words of Nicolas Boileau: “What is well conceived is clearly stated, and the words to say it come easily.” And if that’s not the case for you yet, rework your presentation until your audience at least has the impression that it is.

To ensure that a new idea that breaks the mould is accepted and to make it succeed, there is a guiding rule that one of the fathers of behavioural economics, Richard Thaler, repeats in each of his works: Make it Easy!

Every day, the brain receives and has to process an incalculable amount of information. If you want to hit the bull’s eye and stand out from the crowd, it’s up to you to do everything you can to make your idea attractive, easy to understand and simple to put in place.

Good luck!