March 16, 2010 in Articles by Joshua Matthews

Warm The Oven for Those Raw Ideas

“Mr. X got fired.” Said the VP of Marketing for a multi-billion dollar company I once worked for.

“What?  You’re kidding?” I said.

“Nope! He blew the meeting.  I don’t know what he was thinking.  Everyone knows if you’re going to sell an idea at a meeting, you sell it to everyone IN the meeting BEFORE the meeting.”

A sales client of mine calls this “Warming the oven.”

On the roof of a 24 story high rise apartment building in downtown Portland, 200 revelers waited for the sun to disappear and the 4th of July fireworks show to start.  With a 300 degree view extending for miles and miles, it’s a truly beautiful vantage point.  Two guys wandered around separately poking their heads into conversations strangers were having, each saying  “Hey, uhh…just a heads up, I guess everyone’s going to sing the National Anthem in a couple minutes.  Some guy said to pass it on.  Cool?”

Ten minutes later, my friend and I led 200 proud Americans in the national anthem at the top of our lungs while explosions of color and fire erupted like miniature battles across the city.

The point of each story is that it’s rare for people to swallow an idea cooked rare. I’ve got a lousy singing voice and without warming the oven that we were all going to sing, the song would have been over by the time people warmed up to the idea.   To get more of what you want, and more out of those around you, start by building support.  Sometimes a quick “heads-up” in the hall, or a short call or email that starts with “Hey, I heard that…” and ends with”….should be pretty cool” is all you need to get people to swallow what you’re cooking.