Sell You Ideas

Do You Suck at Selling Your Ideas?

 
Posted on July 25, 2011 by Sam Harrison

Back
 in
 2002,
 vacuum-­‐cleaner
 firms
 were
 battling
 to
  sell
 machines
 for under
 $100
 at
 big-­‐box
 retailers.
  Englishman
 James
 Dyson
 entered
 the
 US
 market
  with
 the
 Dyson
 DC07,
 selling
 for
 $399.  Within
 a
 few
 years,
 Dyson
 was
 the
 market
 leader
 in
  sales
 volume,
 according
 to
 a
 recent
 article
 in
 The
  New
 Yorker. And
 today
 the
 company
 owns
 almost
  25
 percent
 of
 the
 vacuum-­‐cleaner
 market.
  How
 did
 Dyson
 do
 it?
 In
 addition
 to
 being a
 creative
  engineer,
 James
 Dyson
 knows
 something
 about
 selling
 ideas.
 Here
 are
 three
 takeaways
 from
  his
 sales
 success that
 you
 can
 apply
 when
 selling
 your
 next
 idea:
  1.
 Tell
 a
 Personal
 Story.
  Over
 and
 over
 again,
 Dyson
 told
 the
 story of
 cleaning
 his
 house
 and
 noticing
 how
 the
 vacuum
  cleaner
 quickly
 lost
 suction.
 Tearing
 the
 vacuum’s
 bag
 open,
 he
 found the
 filter
 clogged
 with
  dust
 and
 grime.
  Realizing
 this
 clogged
 filter
 constricted
 airflow
 and
 reduced
 suction,
 Dyson
 soon began
  building
 prototypes
 of
 a
 vacuum
 that
 used
 centrifugal
 force
 instead
 of
 a
 bag
 to
 separate
 dirt
  from
 air.
 Because his
 machine
 was
 bagless,
 Dyson
 explained,
 it
 never
 loses
 suction.
  What
 personal
 story
 can
 you
 use
 to
 introduce
 your...