When selling your new idea is your constraint

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

In a recent Fast Company article and video on Open Forum, Dan & Chip Heath, co-authors of Made to Stick, look at how to explain new ideas – what your innovation is and what it does. If ideas aren’t readily accepted, they can die quickly, and there’s often a lot riding on getting it right – particularly for you as a manager or business owner. From a TOC or critical chain perspective, once your new product is launched, your constraint often becomes market acceptance. In some cases that means getting people to understand what your innovation is and how it can help them.

There are lots of things that can constrain how readily the market accepts your new product or innovation, but the Heaths cover a very important one: helping potential buyers quickly understand what the product is and what it does. Anchor and Twist are the two suggestions they offer—Anchor your product to something they already know. Twist to show how it’s different than everything else. Here’s an example with Palm’s new Pre phone:

First the anchor: The new Palm Pre phone is like Apple’s iPhone. Just another touchscreen smartphone…

Then the twist: But it has a slide out keyboard if you don’t want to use the touch screen and it can run multiple applications at the same time – something the iPhone can’t do (yet)

You might recognize anchor and twist as part of the unique selling proposition. The only thing I would add is the benefit. Why do they care? What’s in it for them (WIFT)?

Back to the Palm example—

WIFT: It can run multiple applications at the same time, which makes it easier to use. I can be writing an email, switch to my contacts to copy a phone number or address or jump over to Amazon to copy a link, and then hop back to the open email without having to restart the email application. A big deal when you use your smartphone for 50% of your emails.

So, to speed innovation acceptance and increase your new product sales, Anchor, Twist… and be clear on WIFT.3U8GDE5V797

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Article by Michael Dalton

Mike Dalton's Guided Innovation Group, works with companies that want more impact form new product innovation in less time. Clients credit Mike with helping them double new product profits and cut time to market by more than half. He's also the author of the book Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits - with your existing resources. You can download free sample chapters at Simplifying Innovation. Prior to starting the Guided Innovation Group, he had 24 years of experience growing new and existing businesses as a general management and business development executive for the industrial polymer division of the multi-billion dollar S.C. Johnson & Son family of companies. He holds an MBA in marketing & finance from the University of Chicago and a chemical engineering, gas, and energy technology degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. You can learn more about getting more impact from your innovation by visiting Guided Innovation where they offer an array of reports and other free innovation resources.

Michael has written 30 awesome articles for us at Elephants at Work