What Does It Mean to Plant Seeds in Business?

To me, in the world of entrepreneurship and career growth, to "plant seeds" means to pre-position or prime someone into accepting your idea, proposal, sale, or solution. Essentially, you get someone to start thinking about what you want to offer or ask for before you ever ask them directly.

This skill carries massive upside when dealing with people. I was fortunate enough to have my father teach me this early on, and it continues to pay compounding dividends in my work today.

What Does Planting Seeds Look Like in Career and Entrepreneurship?

To show how this plays out in practice, here are two real-world examples one from the executive career and one from the entrepreneurial world.

1. The Executive Career Angle: Influencing High Level Decisions.

In my career, planting seeds comes in handy almost weekly, especially when driving upside, pushing an agenda, or creating an opportunity.

Recently, I used this approach when securing both equity and ongoing profit share in my role as Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO). For context: I joined the company after they acquired IP from me and brought me on as CTO. Later, the board wanted to spin out a product I headed into its own entity, creating a clear opportunity for an equity and profit-share arrangement.

At the time, equity was the only offer on the table during initial discussions with our CEO. (Since he manages the board relationship, he was my target for planting seeds.) How did I plant the seed for ongoing profit share without making an aggressive demand?

Instead of asking directly right out of the gate, I casually introduced the concept into general conversations spread over a couple of months:

• "Did you see Company X is offering their team a profit-share split?"

• "Have you ever worked at a company that paid out profit share?"

• "I was just talking with an exec from Company A who was offered a percentage of profit share."

These were small seeds dropped every other week during casual coffee chats. I wasn't making a direct request; I was simply giving him space to process the idea subconsciously. An idea is always an easier sell if the other person believes they arrived at it on their own.

Fast forward a month to our next executive catch-up. What was the first item on the table?

"I've been thinking about profit sharing recently in light of our equity conversations. Instead of just equity, why don't we include profit share along the way?"

To which we all responded: "What a smashing idea."

Just like that, the deal shifted from equity-only to equity plus ongoing profit share.

Now, does this mean you should never ask directly? It depends. You have to read your environment and the people in it. I knew my CEO tended to hesitate when faced with direct, high-level equity demands right away, making seed-planting the far more effective path before bringing a formal request to the table.

2. The Entrepreneurial Angle: Closing Deals Without Chasing

In entrepreneurship, seed-planting works exceptionally well in sales when dealing with existing clients or new prospects. It is easy to plant a seed during the standard "How's work going?" small talk at the beginning of a call.

Recently, while closing a new client onto our software during a call that had nothing to do with that platform, I answered the small-talk opener like this:

"Work is going great at the moment. We have a lot of clients trying to organize their digital assets and files, so we're rolling out a new Digital Asset Management (DAM) system to help them get streamlined. We're getting hammered with volume right now..."

Dropping that sentence accomplished three distinct things with the client:

1. Removes Ego: It signaled that their business wasn't the only one dealing with messy digital file storage.

2. Establishes the Solution: It subtly communicated that we have a working tool built specifically to fix that problem.

3. Provides Social Proof: Mentioning other clients rolling it out proved the solution was actively trusted in the market.

Without pushing or hard-selling, I led them to think: "We have that exact problem, and they clearly have a working solution."

A couple of weeks later, after that idea had time to sit, the client reached out asking to walk through the DAM software. The seed was planted in casual conversation and cultivated naturally, resulting in an inbound sales request without me ever having to chase them or pitch aggressively.

What Is the Framework for Planting Seeds in Conversation?

Planting seeds is not about manipulation; it is about strategic framing and giving high-value ideas time to mature in the other person's mind.

When you want to prime a colleague, executive, or client for a future outcome, run your approach through this framework:

• Identify the Decision-Maker's Tendencies: Determine whether your target responds better to direct requests or subtle priming. If they tend to resist direct pitches upfront, seed-planting is your best entry point.

• Anchor to Third-Party Context: Introduce your core concept casually using news items, market trends, stories from peers, or examples from other clients ("I noticed Company X is doing Y...").

• Maintain Low Pressure: Drop the concept into low-stakes moments - coffee chats, meeting openers, or informal check-ins - without immediately attaching a direct call to action.

• Allow Time for Subconscious Ownership: Give the idea room to breathe over days or weeks. Let the other person process the concept until they bring it back to you as their own recommendation.

It is important to remember this approach takes time, shift your time horizon to a few months instead of a few weeks - and along side this framework, begin to think about what is to be gained in the future by taking small actions now. This may also drive you to pre conceptualise ideas or get thinking in a 'future state' mindset in order to actually identify what to plant seeds for. The concept of pre conceptualising ideas is something I will go into further and tie back to this article when applicable.

[Note] I mention my career so far from an IP sale to a C-Suit role, if you are interested about understanding my career so far and exploring why this publication exists, you can read more here: My Manifesto