4 Tips for Pitching Your Brilliant Idea

Do you ever find you’ve had a really great suggestion, idea, or improvement that you know will make a difference? You’ve been trying for months to get this across to your supervisor, and nothing.

Then your smooth-talking colleague goes to your boss and pitches the same thing. The next thing you know, your colleague is collecting “your” credit as your supervisor rolls out your change across the organization.

What happened here? And what can you do about it?

Here are four tips and tricks that you can use to improve your communication going forward. This isn’t new information, but by being intentional and doing a little self-experimentation, you can better promote your ideas—and get the credit you deserve.

1. Consider your audience.

Psychology seems to support that most people default to resist change from an outside source. You are that outside source.

To get over this resistance, it is your job to present a solid case of why the present situation isn’t as good as the new situation your idea intends to achieve.

Consider your coworkers’ and supervisor’s values and how you can respond to perceived needs. When you have a good idea for change, you should be able to sell it from a variety of viewpoints.

• Is there a financial benefit to this change?
• Will this address a pressure point your supervisor has mentioned?
• Can you find ways to measure the change?

2. Practice your pitch.

When stepping into an unfamiliar experience, like promoting an idea, you are open to judgment. Your body is going to naturally respond in a fight-or-flight mode, rather than in a more logical, rational, intelligent way.

Here are some ways to slow down that stress response instinct and come off sounding professional should you start to hear a no.

• Take the time to prepare by outlining your pitch.
• Mentally rehearse your responses to a few key questions.
• Frame your idea in the bigger picture.

3. Remove yourself from your idea.

Your idea is not you. Whether your idea is determined to be the next best thing for your organization or not, it is not a determination of your personal creativity, intellect, or leadership skills.

Your supervisor may imply that it is a comment about you. But that speaks much more about your supervisor than it does about you.

When your idea is the right thing and you’ve taken the time to present it to the best of your ability, it should be judged by your supervisor according to how it fits the needs of the organization. It is not a judgment on if they should hire you—they already did.

What is important here is how you respond. If you respond in anger by reducing your productivity or back-biting, you are putting yourself at risk of judgment, instead of your idea.

4. Ask questions.

If you hear a no, take the approach of showing your creative, intellectual, and leadership skills. Ask questions to understand why your idea was rejected. You may hear that there was a factor you didn’t consider but could answer.

You are likely going to hear that the no had little to do with you personally. Keep this in mind because it can help you avoid internalizing the rejection personally and help you maintain your best impression moving forward.

Keep these four tips and tricks in mind the next time you have a brilliant idea. They aren’t new and they aren’t complicated. But they include skills you can easily learn and develop to better sell your ideas and improve your workplace.

Here’s to you getting the credit you deserve!