Life requires so many instances for a person to think on your feet. There is an enormous amount of value in being creative in the moment. These moments can be large or small with varying degrees of impact, but a timely comment or question can save the day. How many times has a conversation gone downhill and nobody has anything to say? These awkward silences are golden moments to rise to the occasion with something interesting. Fortunately, these awkward silences have little significance as painful as they may be in the moment. However, in a sales context, awkward silence or not, thinking on your feet is crucial. It allows you to go deeper on a key pain, turn a conversation towards a sale, or make the client feel comfortable buying from you. When digging deeper for a key pain, you have the opportunity to get to the root of what is really bothering the client if you listen intently, recognize the problem, and use your creativity to address it. Sometimes this creativity requires and artful balance of connecting the pain to the sale or telling an emotionally powered story that resonates with the client. Sometimes a sales conversation may be going the wrong way for a variety of reasons. Listen for key words that may be concerning the client in doing business with you and turn them around. For instance, if a client mentions trust, a great way to build this is by briefly inserting your reputation or a testimonial and asking more about their concern. Another opportunity to turn the sales conversation around is peaking the client’s interest. A jolt of the unfamiliar can be inserted intelligently at an opportune time to grab interest if the client seems to be fading. This jolt of unfamiliarity must be handled deftly otherwise you run the risk of being random and confusing. In any case, thinking on your feet is a valuable asset to securing any sale.
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