I had a wild concept.
Wild concepts are our greatest and our worst moments.
It was again once I labored at a big nationwide fundraising company. I’d not too long ago made the transfer from copywriter to artistic director, which suggests I had frontline position in new enterprise pitches.
And we had been pitching a doozy.
It was a big group. Extraordinarily massive and well-known. You’ve heard of them, I promise. It was the biggest group we’d ever pursued, by an extended shot, a part of what we hoped can be a shift from the medium-size nonprofit market to the excessive finish of the market (in dimension). This was a giant deal for us.
And I had an concept.
We’d found that they had been dramatically over-spending their price range in a single space of donor acquisition. And it simply occurred that space was a specialty of their company. (Yeah, massive shock, proper?)
So to make the purpose that you simply shouldn’t make selections based mostly on what you need to do, we determined to start out our pitch assembly with me speaking about how glorious the ebook Walden by Henry David Thoreau is. I might discuss it for a full 5 minutes, after which I’d hand out copies to everybody within the room.
Then one other member of our pitch group would lastly problem me, saying that simply because I beloved this ebook doesn’t imply it’s an important selection for everybody… After which we’d pivot to our precise pitch, which was about how we’d have a data-driven method to resolution making that might maximize their income, and so forth., and so forth.
Right here’s the believe-it-or-not half: We truly did this.
And right here’s the much more believe-it-or-not half: We received the account!
Wanting again, I can’t fathom why my more-experienced colleagues let my concept truly occur. I can also’t fathom the way it didn’t scuttle our pitch, which was stable with out the Walden bit. However we did it, and it labored (or at the least it didn’t shoot us down.)
Which tells us a number of issues about wild concepts:
- It’s good to have wild concepts. I’ve a sense my Walden concept did extra to assist us perceive and concentrate on the shopper’s problem than it did to steer them.
- Typically it’s good to really strive them out. Higher in a testing scenario than a one-try, win-or-go-home one like this one!
- It’s arduous to inform a great wild concept from a foul one. All of them look good, at the least for some time.
- All the time attempt to have a number of wild concepts. They’ll result in your greatest work, even when they aren’t so nice themselves!
And if you happen to get the possibility, learn Walden. It actually is a superb ebook.
(This publish first appeared on April 12, 2019.)
