On Saturday, I was out at a bar for a friend's birthday party. The Canucks were sucking, so I decided to go and make some new friends (of the female persuasion). After each excursion, I would return to my friends and they proceeded to discuss what had just happened.

It was during one of these discussions that I started to think how picking up girls requires a similar skill set to selling ideas. Selling ideas isn't always about the ideas, but it is always about selling yourself. Here's the seven that came to me at the bar:

1. Confidence. Women like confident men. It signals success and stability. The same applies to the people that to whom you are pitching your ideas. They don't want to throw their money behind someone who doesn't believe in himself. And confidence is contagious. It reassures people that they are choosing the right person.

2. Smile. This ladders up to the previous point. Smiles show that you're relaxed, happy and confident. And they make you likeable. Nobody like a brooding individual. To have a strangers invest in you, you have to get them to like you. And it's human nature to like someone who smiles.

3. Practice. On Saturday, it was safe to say that I was out of practice. There were definitely some errors in conversation and judgment. But that's why we practice. To get better. To become more comfortable. To be so familiar with your material that you simply execute and tweak the details while your pitching. To know your ideas so well that they could ask you any question, and you would know the answer.

4. Stand Out. Dating is competitive. Women have so many options and can meet a ton of new people in a night. The key is to be memorable and stand out from the crowd. How do you do that? Be different. Look different. Act differently. Don't ask them what they do for a living. Get in to an argument about obese people should be charged for two airplane tickets. The same applies to pitching your ideas. Don't try to appease the person that you're pitching to. Have an opinion that's different from everyone else's. Make them notice you and give them something to talk about when you leave the room.

5. Demonstrate Value. Why would someone talk to you? Are you interesting? Are you making the people around you laugh? Are you a good storyteller? When approaching a new lady friend, you have 1 minute to demonstrate value. And then the politeness ends. You have to prove that you can add value to their night within that 60 seconds, or you are out. The same applies for pitching your ideas. The people important enough to jump start the execution of a great idea are usually busy. Demonstrate value in the first 5 minutes, or don't bother. Value can be enthusiasm, knowledge of a category or even interpersonal skills ... whatever! Just demonstrate your value quickly.

6. Timing. If you wait until a girl is leaving the bar to approach her, she's not going to give you much of a conversation. Why? Timing. She's already decided what to do with the rest of her night. You're working against momentum. The same thing happens if you are pitching ideas. If your boss is too busy with work to be properly receptive to you ideas, it's not going to sell-in. Take them out to lunch or coffee. Get them away from the distractions of the office. Then pitch your ideas uninterrupted.

7. Avoid The Drunk Girl. She looked pretty cute from across the room. She smiled at you, so you went over to talk. And then you find out that you're talking to the token drunk girl. Unless you are a complete dirt bag, nothing good ever comes of the crazy drunk girl at the party. She's loud and obnoxious. She scares off other prospects. But most of all, she wastes your time. In pitching your ideas, the same thing applies. A prospect can look very optimistic until you get involved with them. And then you find out that they just like talking about making decisions, but don't actually have the power to execute them. If things aren't moving forward, don't waste your time. Cut your losses and move on.

I always find it interesting how lessons from the real world can apply to the business world. Until I realize that they really are one and the same. So, whether you're using this to sell yourself or sell your ideas ... good luck!

- Christian www.ideadrunk.com