Do the work.

Flashes of inspiration don’t exist!

Some people claim to have been in the shower when they thought up this genius business idea that made them millions. This is a myth. It quite simply is not true.

Sure, they may have gained some additional clarity in the shower, but they were working on and thinking about what underpins that idea for months and even years before the genius struck.

There is now a huge swathe of research supporting the notion that no one is born brilliant. In an exceptionally well presented study entitled Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin explores the research of academics such as K. Anders Ericsson and Benjamin Bloom. The key premise to their findings is that to be truly world-class, you need to systematically execute ‘deliberate practice’. Deliberate practice involves constantly engaging in activity that stretches your current capability beyond your comfort zone but not so far that you regress.

I contend that the same applies for the development of an offer that you intend to sell to a market; Thinking exactly the same thing over and over again is not the same as thinking about an idea in a structured way, deliberately pushing the edges of that idea for greater application, finer detail.

You should be sitting down to answer questions such as:

• What value will your offer bring?


• Who else is making similar promises?


• How can you guarantee the result? Can you?


• What are the biggest problems your buyer is currently facing?


• What are their objections likely to be?


• What will your responses to these objections be?


• How will your offer integrate into the business or life of the buyer


• Who can help give you access to your buyers? What is in it for them if they make an introduction?

This kind of questioning forces you to plan for the inevitable pitfalls that arise in the proposal process as you bring your offer to market. Having precise and conditioned responses pre-written (or at least loosely decided upon) allows for compelling and decisive problem solving. 

The proposal stage of the pipeline is the time when offers are most likely to fail so being as prepared as possible is crucial to your success. The only way to be equip yourself for this stage is to be thorough.

So stop waiting, get out of the shower and do the work!