Early in your career, growth is pretty simple.

You get ahead because you can execute. You deliver. You close tasks. You’re reliable. You get things done.

That alone can take you a long way.

But at some point, something changes. A ‘doing good work’ ceiling appears.

You’re still capable. Still smart. Still doing good work. Yet the people who keep progressing aren’t necessarily the best executors anymore.

They’re the ones who talk a lot, smooze the room, and whose ideas get picked.

That’s when you realise: career growth eventually shifts from doing the work → to selling the work that should be done.

And no, this isn’t about being pushy or salesy.

“Selling” (often internally) at work isn’t about hype. It’s usually about reducing risk.

When people hear “selling”, they often think of external client sales, or classic methods focusing on excitement, persuasion and confidence.

In my experience, inside an organisation, it’s frequently the opposite.

Ideas land when they feel safe.

Executives and leaders aren’t (typically) asking:

“Is this exciting?”

They’re asking:

“What could go wrong if we do this?”

The most effective internal pitches:

• minimise downside
• show thoughtfulness to multiple potential benefits (financial or otherwise)
• demonstrate that risks have already been considered and addressed

If your idea feels low-risk and well thought through, it has a much better chance of moving forward.

People don’t buy ideas. They buy their role in the idea.

This is where a lot of smart people get stuck.

They pitch ideas from their perspective:

• why it’s interesting
• why it’s technically sound
• why it’s the right solution

But influence comes from flipping the lens.

Before you pitch anything, ask:

• How does this help them?
• Does it make their job easier?
• Does it reduce pressure or uncertainty?
• Does it make them look good to their stakeholders?

The fastest way to lose support is to make your idea feel like extra work for someone else.

The fastest way to gain it is to make them feel essential to the success.

Pre-empt any concerns with solutions and make it an easy “yes” response.

Want instant credibility? Bring the customer into the room.

Few things sharpen attention faster than this sentence:

“This came up on multiple customer calls last week.”

Customer insight cuts through opinion, politics, and hierarchy.

You don’t need a full research report. Even:

• feedback patterns
• repeated questions
• friction you’ve personally observed

…adds weight to your idea.

And if customer input isn’t available:

• industry trends
• data points
• expert opinions
• lessons from similar work you’ve done before

All of these shift your idea from personal opinion to informed recommendation.

The quiet cost of never learning this skill

If you don’t learn how to sell ideas at work, something subtle happens over time.

You become reactive.

You:

• execute other people’s decisions
• work on other people’s priorities
• quietly wonder why your ideas never seem to win

Not because they weren’t good, but because they weren’t framed in a way that made them easy to say yes to.

Execution gets you noticed early. Influence keeps you growing later.

And influence isn’t about volume or confidence. It’s about empathy, risk awareness, and understanding how decisions really get made.

If you’ve ever felt like your ideas should be landing more than they are, this might be the missing piece.