Selling innovation – 5 ways to screw it up!

My presentation here.

You don’t win by having the best tech. You win by recognizing which failure pattern you’re in and running the correct play. 

1. Bad bedfellows

Most innovation ventures don’t lose because the product is weak — they lose because control of key resources (data, distribution, credibility, capital) sits with someone whose incentives are orthogonal to your success. You can execute perfectly and still lose.  

Correct play: Understand exactly what you need to get to your next milestone. Minimize distractions & strings attached.  

2. Trying to sell the innovation — instead of the outcome

What you need to sell is not the product. It’s what they really want — who they want to become. Great salespeople are value architects — not product pushers.  

A strong value story connects:

• the customer’s strategic initiatives
• your contact’s priorities
• your value props  

Correct play: Sales is a real skill. Understand value. Sell a vision or future state + be prepared to prove the delta.  

3. No clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Wide targeting = shallow truths. Focus = deep truths that convert. The goal is to get to the point where “Now I can run the same play and get the same result.”  

A “true ICP” has:

• the right problem + urgency
• can buy (economic buyer + short decision process + willingness to commit)
• can adopt (low friction + access + measurable success)
• creates repeatability (you can name 20 more like them)  

You can operationalize ICP choice with a simple segment scorecard (urgency, WTP/budget, ability-to-win, sales speed, delivery complexity, etc.). 

Correct play: Be super specific. Go all-in to test one hypothesis at the time. Pivot fast.  

4. Spending all your time in the friend zone

The friend zone isn’t just “wrong buyer.” It’s confusing enthusiasm with purchase intent.

Where average salespeople spend time after lead: Qualified+demo → technical justification → business justification.

Top performers spend their time differently: more on discovery, less on “demo-first.”  

A “perfect discovery meeting” is structured and tough: agenda/contract, define problem area, 3–4 problem areas + 3×why + consequences, powerful questions, vision, objective conclusion, propose next step, book in calendar.  

Correct play: Run really good discovery meetings. Ask tough questions early. Disqualify early.  

5. Getting stuck in Pilot Purgatory

A pilot without a pre-agreed conversion path is not learning — it’s burn. The path is: success criteria → decision → budget → rollout.  

And your focus should shift from “product & technology questions” to “process & business questions” — because that’s what determines whether pilots convert.  

Correct play: Define conversion up front: success criteria, decision owner, budget source, and rollout plan — before you start the pilot.  

Closing thoughts

Selling innovation is about reducing uncertainty until value, urgency, and buying become predictable — so you can run the same play and get the same result.