I had a wild thought.
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 inventive director, which suggests I had frontline position in new enterprise pitches.
And we have been pitching a doozy.
It was a big group. Extraordinarily giant 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 measurement). This was a giant deal for us.
And I had an thought.
We’d found that they have 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, huge shock, proper?)
So to make the purpose that you just 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 crew would lastly problem me, saying that simply because I cherished this ebook doesn’t imply it’s an incredible selection for everybody… After which we’d pivot to our precise pitch, which was about how we’d have a data-driven strategy to determination making that may maximize their income, and so on., and so on.
Right here’s the believe-it-or-not half: We really did this.
And right here’s the much more believe-it-or-not half: We gained the account!
Wanting again, I can’t fathom why my more-experienced colleagues let my thought really occur. I can also’t fathom the way it didn’t scuttle our pitch, which was strong with out the Walden bit. However we did it, and it labored (or no less than it didn’t shoot us down.)
Which tells us a couple of issues about wild concepts:
- It’s good to have wild concepts. I’ve a sense my Walden thought did extra to assist us perceive and deal with the consumer’s problem than it did to steer them.
- Typically it’s good to really attempt them out. Higher in a testing state of affairs than a one-try, win-or-go-home one like this one!
- It’s laborious to inform a great wild thought from a nasty one. All of them look good, no less than for some time.
- All the time attempt to have a couple of wild concepts. They’ll result in your greatest work, even when they aren’t so nice themselves!
And in the event you get the possibility, learn Walden. It actually is an excellent ebook.
(This put up first appeared on April 12, 2019.)
