Making the Sale: How to Pitch Your Ideas

[ March 2009 - Leading Effectively - Center for Creative Leadership] In the best of times, it can be a fight to get your ideas implemented at work. In today's organizations -- where resources are under siege and uncertainty abounds -- advocating for your approach, idea or product is tougher than ever. The time is right to take a more disciplined approach to pitching your ideas, says CCL's Harold Scharlatt, author of Selling Your Ideas to Your Organization. "If you don't have a strategy for selling your idea, you put yourself, your group and potentially your organization at risk," says Scharlatt. "If you have a project that you believe will improve the organization, you've got to find the best approach for getting it implemented. You can't afford a false start," says Scharlatt. To be successful in getting other people to consider and adopt your ideas, you need to consider two important things: the environment and your tactics. More