{"id":7224,"date":"2020-04-28T00:13:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T00:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/?p=7224"},"modified":"2020-04-28T00:13:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T00:13:51","slug":"improve-your-improv-youre-gonna-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/improve-your-improv-youre-gonna-need-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve Your Improv \u2013 You\u2019re Gonna Need It"},"content":{"rendered":"

In chapter 8 of Daniel Pink\u2019s book \u201cTo Sell is Human,\u201d the reader learns the importance of improv to sales. When I first read that, I didn\u2019t understand how those two things could be related, but the more I read, the more I understood that the reason sales and improv go hand in hand is because sales and listening<\/em> go hand in hand, and listening is key to mastering the art of imrov. I grew up particing in the theatre and watching many theatre performances, so though I never specifically participated in improv, this chapter really resonated with me. The 3 rules Pink provides to guide improvisation include \u201chear offers,\u201d \u201csay \u2018yes and,\u2019\u201d and \u201cmake your partner look good.\u201d Below I will summarize those rules and how they can be applied to sales.<\/p>\n

Hear Offers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The improvisation rule that Pink introduces first is to \u201chear offers.\u201d This relies on attunement. Pink encourages us to really listen when we are talking in a sales conversation. He notes that most us do more waiting rather than truly listening. We simply wait for the prospect to finish speaking so that we can ask our next question, but instead we should be intently listening to ensure that our next question will be the right question and will align with what the customer has told us.<\/p>\n

Say, \u201cYes and . . .\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next rule that Pink introduces us to is the rule of \u201cyes and.\u201d The use of this phrase encourages the conversation to move in a positive direction and allows the conversation to continue. Many people tend to use \u201cyes, but,\u201d however this phrase tends to lead to frustration and can come off more as the pushy kind of salesman that we try to avoid, so next time you have a sales conversation, try using the phrase \u201cyes, and.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make your Partner Look Good<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The last improvisational rule that Pink covers is \u201cmake your partner look good.\u201d This rule encourages the salesperson to go into a sale looking for a \u201cwin-win.\u201d The purpose of this is to ensure that both the salesperson and the customer will leave the sale happy rather then one or the other. This is a great mindset to have in sales, as ultimately in order to receive repeat sales, it is important to gain a \u201cwin-win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope this post served as a quick brush up on Pink\u2019s improv chapter and encouraged you to practice your improv skills before your next sales conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In chapter 8 of Daniel Pink\u2019s book \u201cTo Sell is Human,\u201d the reader learns the importance of improv to sales. When I first read that, I didn\u2019t understand how those two things could be related, but the more I read, the more I understood that the reason sales and improv go hand in hand is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,279,2],"tags":[10,258,71],"class_list":["post-7224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attunement","category-improvisation","category-sales-tips","tag-daniel-pink","tag-improv","tag-sales-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7225,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7224\/revisions\/7225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}