How To Sell A Crazy Idea (Without Sounding Like A Lunatic)
The Lion King almost never got made. Disney executives were struggling to get it. In his bestselling book Originals, Adam Grant tells the story of how the creators of the movie finally got the greenlight to make it.
The movie was originally framed as “Bambi in Africa with Lions”.
But the first versions of the movie were not working. When the writers pitched a revised version of the script, the Disney executives in the room were struggling to find a hook. This came from a producer named Maureen Donley who made the connection to a Shakespearean play:
This is Hamlet with Lions.
That connection between an original idea and something familiar was the pivotal moment that got the film approved.
This is the best way to sell a crazy idea. Find a familiar hook.
The Mere Exposure Effect
The mere exposure effect describes people’s tendency to prefer things simply because they are familiar to them. This effect, first described by psychologist Robert Zajonc, is also known as the familiarity principle. Innovators can leverage the mere exposure effect, by launching new products with familiar features.
A new application can be designed with a standard interface. The familiarity of the interface makes it easy for people to adopt a breakthrough product because they don’t feel uncertain about how it works.
More importantly, familiarity makes it easy for people to interpret and understand new ideas. This is why Hamlet with Lions worked as a frame for The Lion King. The executives were already familiar with Hamlet, so that made it easy for them to feel good about The Lion King.
The Primal Mark
Let’s restate the goal. We are trying to sell crazy ideas.
We are not trying to make normal ideas sound cool.
To make this work, the starting point for creativity has to be the novel idea. If the starting point is something familiar, this shapes a path that limits creativity.
Psychologist Justin Berg, asked people to design a new product that can help college students during job interviews. He found that the most promising ideas started with novelty and then added familiarity, not vice versa.
How To Make Any Idea Feel Familiar
If you want people to buy into a crazy idea, you need to build a bridge between what they already understand and what you’re introducing. The key isn’t just making your idea sound exciting, it’s making it feel obvious.
Here are three research-backed ways to do that:
- Compare It To Something People Know: This is what The Lion King producers did at Disney. The easiest way to do this is to use the “It’s like X, but for Y’ formula. For example, Airbnb could be described as being; “Like Expedia, but for renting homes”. This works because people make sense of new concepts by connecting them to familiar ones. These cognitive schemas reduce effort and make the novel idea easier to grasp.
- Borrow Credibility From Something Proven: Crazy new ideas can feel risky. But if you attach your idea to something people already trust, this can make it easier for them to accept it. Starbucks was often described as the Italian coffeehouse experience, brought to America. This borrowed credibility gave Starbucks an acceptable way to stand out from other fast food restaurants and coffee shops.
- Flip A Familiar Concept On Its Head: In this case, you take a well-known idea in your space and describe the opposite way of doing it. You make an idea feel familiar, not by comparing it to something already existing, but by reversing expectations. For example, Amazon created a bookstore without physical books (i.e. Kindle). By flipping a common assumption, you don’t just make a crazy idea easier to grasp, you make it more exciting.
Try Not To Sound Like A Lunatic
Innovators often make the mistake of overselling how different their ideas are. They think novelty alone will win people over. But the more unfamiliar something feels, the harder it is to sell. This is why we need to reframe our bold ideas.
People’s brains are wired to prefer ideas that feel safe, understandable, and grounded in reality. So if you want to sell a crazy idea, try not to sound like a lunatic. Don’t push the novelty. Make the idea feel like an evolution of what already exists.
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