Teaching as Selling Ideas

Recently at one of my online seminars a participant asked me the question, “As a High School teacher, how do I sell an idea to my class?” And I thought I would repeat my answer here for the benefit of the teachers.

As a Coach I also am a teacher and I face the same difficulty and I understood her problem. Selling an idea to a class can be difficult, especially if its youths who  are very cynical, but the process is no different to selling a knowledge product or service to a customer.

As I say in my seminars “In todays knowledge age we are all sellers of ideas!” As knowledge workers we work with information to produce and distribute knowledge products and services.

Thomas Friedman says in his book “The World is Flat” that in this knowledge age the competition is global competition between individuals.

Yes, a teacher today is a seller of ideas in competition for the mind of her students against all the other idea sellers out there- the Internet, Facebook, movies, television, peers and the local drug pusher.

So as teachers how do we sell our ideas? We follow the selling process (i) Making the customer feel at ease (ii) Understanding the customer’s needs and problems (iii) Presenting our ideas as solutions to these specific needs and problems (iv) Proving that they are effective solutions (v) Closing the sale

The selling process is a sequence of activities. We do not move on to the next stage before we have adequately covered a step. And if we do prematurely move on we return to the incomplete stage and complete it.

So in stage (i) The teacher is required to make the student feel at ease by gaining his/her confidence. In this first stage we recognize that the student is suspicious of our motives as teachers, anxious and probably intimidated or in some cases distrustful. Before we can proceed to sell any idea we must first gain the students trust. This is done by showing genuine concern for his/her well being and welfare. You must show that you have their best interest at heart.

This calls for dedication and integrity because students are particularly turned off by what they see as double standards or selfish motives. It is often repeated by delinquent students that they joined a gang because the members understood them and cared about them more than their teachers.

Once you have gained their trust you move on to the second stage (ii) Understanding their problems.

I’ll continue with this topic in another episode. Until then - Happy Selling!!