Big ideas are like sea turtles. About 1 in 100 make it out of the nest alive but only 1 in 40,000 survive to adulthood. That’s because truly original ideas sound strange at first. They are usually squashed as soon as they hatch. So, the success of a big idea depends on selling it from day one.

Every marketer wants their agency to bring them the “big idea”, but by definition that’s something truly outside the box. Imagine how these sounded at first:

• We’ll put donut holes into pink boxes and call them “Munchkins”.
• Let’s take the broken bits of carrots that would normally be thrown out and machine them into “baby-cut carrots.”
• Put a rock into a cardboard box with breathing holes and call it a “Pet Rock”. (That idea made one man a millionaire).

The bigger they are the harder they fall.

Contrary to popular belief big ideas don’t sell themselves. In fact they can make people uncomfortable at first. It’s very easy to kill a brilliant campaign even in the raw concept stage. The question is: At what stage of the creative process should you start thinking about selling that big idea?

Yogi Berra once said, “I can’t think and hit at the same time.” Hitting a 90 mph fastball takes 100% concentration. It’s all about keeping your eye on the ball, not thinking about doing it. The same can be said about creativity and selling.

The mental process needed to come up with a killer marketing campaign takes a totally different mindset than selling it. Agency creatives need to create a killer presentation that sells the benefits – not just the concepts. One that the marketing manager can use later to champion it further. From the very start, we need to be able to explain and defend the ideas to everyone in the organization, all the way up the ladder. Because the higher it goes the farther it can fall.

Here are 5 things to keep in mind when selling a big idea:

Reference specific numbers from your marketing insight. Don’t just say that most people are willing to pay for better quality. Say, “6 out of 10 said they would be willing to pay up to 15% more for better quality.” Even small stats add value. For example, “2% of the people we talked to said they wanted faster service.” That’s not actionable information but it reinforces what the problem isn’t.

Big ideas solve big problems. Talk about the real issues, the scary ones. Then when you show your edgy concepts they will have context. Demonstrate that you care more about the marketing challenge than selling your idea. That way it becomes a marketing solution, not a shiny new ad campaign.

Don’t try to avoid discussion about potential problems or objections. Compare the downside to the upside. If it's a really good idea you’ll be able to find ways for the upside to be expressed in dollars. If it’s a growing market find out how much. Will it be a 2 billion dollar industry in 5 years?

Sure it does. If it doesn’t it’s not a big idea – but a laundry list of tactics won’t engage the same way visuals do. So when possible, show, don’t tell. I‘d rather show one image of a flock of geese than a bulleted list. I’d label each flying in V-formation behind the big idea; e-news, rich media, landing page, iphone app, outdoor and so on.

And finally, don't think of it as “your idea." If you are successful it’s ultimately going to be their idea. You want others to own it. It belongs to the next person you are presenting to all the way up to the CEO.