In chapter eight of Pink’s book there are three essential rules of improvisational theater that Pink says will help us win more sales. The three principles take what we learned in the previous chapters (attunement, buoyancy, and clarity) and help us apply those traits in sales calls where we are improvising.
Principle #1: Hear Offers-this involves attunement and more specifically genuine listening so that the seller can take in “anything and everything someone says as an offer you can do something with.” This leads to taking statements which often seem like objections and finding possible offers within the “nos”.
Principle #2: Say “Yes and“-this involves buoyancy and just as the name of the principle says, you start your sentence with “yes and” in your sales call. This opens up the way for possibilities and new options. Often when people reply with yes, they follow it with a “but” which leads to a dead end. By saying “yes and”, you open up ways to compromise and possibilities for more options.
Principle #3: Make your partner look good-this also means just what it says, by making your partner look good, it helps you shine as well and you both end up creating a better sale. The idea is not to compete with your partner or argue with them, but to learn from your partner.
Through these three principles, just as they promote successful improvisational scenes, these principles also will help create successful sales calls.
BoweryJE22
I really like the “hear offer” rule. This really helps link customer pain to the solutions you can offer them that will help them. Not linking your solutions to their problems will surely end in a failed sales attempt.
I really like principle number 2 “yes and.”.. It’s so true that a conversation can be killed with the phrase “yes but..” but yes and opens the doors to something so much more and brings opportunities for us as sales people to inform the customer even more.