One of the determinant skills that separates good from great sales people is how great sales practitioners can get across their ideas and then get their ideas permanently embedded in the heads of the people they are talking to. The word “sticky” has become part of today’s business vocabulary and very clearly describes the desired outcome of ‘making a lasting impression’ or ‘creating residual impact’ or ‘moving someone’s position – permanently’. There are 6 simple steps to being able to create “sticky ideas” which is the subject of recent book that I found fascinating.
“Made to Stick. Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Random House Inc., 2007.
The 6 principles are easy to remember because they make up the word SUCCESs: 1) Simple, 2) Unexpected, 3) Concrete, 4) Credible, 5) Emotional, and 6) Stories. The 6 principles or steps work like this:
SIMPLE: Find the core of your idea and then share the core. Get laser focus on one simple, profound, powerful and concentrated idea.
UNEXPECTED: use surprise to get attention, and then use interest to hold attention.
CONCRETE: help people understand and remember, and then help people coordinate.
CREDIBLE: help people to believe and then agree by using external credibility using authority & anti-authority, and internal credibility using convincing detailed information – statistics, data, reports, etc.
EMOTIONAL: make people care, use the power of association, appeal to self-interest & appeal to identity
STORIES: get people to act. Stories as simulation (tell people how to act). Stories as inspiration (give people energy to act)

Selling is all about getting our ideas to stick. You cannot influence, convince or persuade someone of something without affecting some lasting, permanent change in the thinking or position of the other person. Whether you are in sales or not, we are all “selling” our ideas all day every day to everyone we meet. At work with our colleagues or our Manager, socially with our friends, and at home with our Partner or our children. Sticky ideas are the key to moving people in our direction. Selling is simply a specific transactional application of getting our ideas (sales messages) to stick. Success in selling is and always will be determined by our ability to get our ideas to stick.