Did you ever play dress up or cops and robbers as a kid? Ever have any lines? Ever need any verbal cues because you were missing your entry? Probably not. Why? Because you were playing pretend and what you were doing came right out of your head, reacting to whatever the other kid was doing. That right there is improv.
Life is not written by a script. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone two weeks. We have a relative outline that we’ve written that may or may not match up with what God’s written. Life is improv. Now, as someone who likes to know what’s happening and when, improv is not my strong suit, especially in formal situations, but it’s essential. So what’s so different between playing pretend as a kid (which my sister and I did ALL THE TIME) and interacting with a prospect. Beyond the fact that it’s a more formal setting and the prospect is most likely not my sister, there’s not much of a difference!
Not everything can be scripted in sales, so you gotta think off your feet. React to the person. Listen to what their saying, grasp what they need, and then go from there. If anything, you’ll know much more about that person coming out of the meeting than you did going in. So get used to having conversations that you don’t know the path they’re going to take. Maybe start up a conversation with a random stranger on the bus next to you! It’s an important part of life, so we might as well at least get comfortable with it! Embrace the inner child and play pretend again.
For some wonderful entertainment, here is Robin Williams, an improvisational genius.
BoweryJE22
Love it! I definitely feel I’ve lost much of my improvisational quickness as I’ve gotten older. And getting in a child-like mind to make a sale would sure shake things up!
I definitely agree, we get so caught up into making sure we are saying exactly the right thing at the right time, but this never really occurs in sales, and we need to learn to just roll with it! Great post!
I think this was a great reminder of how important it is to be able to think quick on your feet. The people who are on Whose Line are extremely talented and would probably be great at sales in their own way. I think some companies even require improv classes for salesman.