Use Your Head

Ideas are scarce. They don't exist until someone creates them. They can be copied, but only after the original hits the market. Because there's nothing to compare them to, the price of an original idea is determined solely by perceived value. There is no competitive bidding or price shaving for market share-just the seller's ability to create perceived value by presenting the idea as a solution to the buyer's needs.

And by offering ideas clients haven't seen before, creative sellers create another tactical advantage. Traditional sellers make presentations full of information about their own products or services. So what do prospects talk about? The seller's products, of course.

But when you talk about ideas unique to your prospects, they'll talk about how your idea applies to their businesses. This is all you want-to hear prospects talk about their needs. The more they talk about those needs, the better you'll be able to shape your ideas to meet them. And when you become identified as "the idea seller," prospects open their doors.

This article was originally published in the September 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Use Your Head.