Seven Rules of Improv for Sellers – (Part 1)

“Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.”
– Paul Simon

Ever marveled at how skillfully Improv players respond to the seemingly unrelated suggestions thrown at them? There is no script to follow, no direction and typically only the thinnest of plots. Does this sound familiar to you? It should!

As salespeople, how often do we walk into a situation with a thread-bare plot (i.e., an information-gathering meeting), unsure of what’s going to confront us (objections, personality conflicts, budgets, etc.) and last but not least, an audience waiting to be entertained by our sales presentation. (Yes, your client expects some entertainment for their hard-won time and dollars!)

Sellers can learn some valuable sales tips from Improv players, like how to take a curveball and turn it into a homerun. But there is more to Improv than just spitting out the first thing that comes to mind. Here are the first of 7 Improv Tips for Sellers that can help keep us on our toes when the rules of the game are changing daily and reacting quickly and skillfully to the unexpected can mean the difference between winning and losing the sale.

The first 3 Rules of Improv for Sellers are:

1. Know Your Material.
   Sounds obvious, yes? But this critical step is often overlooked in our rush to get in front of a client. Before you can improvise something, you must know it inside and out, forwards and backwards. You must know WHAT you’re saying, and you must know WHY you’re saying it — and “My manager told me to” is not a good enough reason! Practice your sales script. Read it out loud to the dog. Rap it to your roommate. Know it so well that if you had to, you could pick it up at any point within the script, ad-lib it and run through it with ease.        
2. Fire the Editor
   Nothing kills creativity faster than judgment and critique. And often we are the harshest critics with ourselves. Give that little editor in your head the afternoon off before exploring all possible options. You don’t want to stomp on the seed of a good idea before it has time to blossom.
3. Be in the Moment
   This Zen-like quality applies to sales as well as Improv. Only by being in the moment are you aware of subtle shifts in your partner, both verbal and nonverbal. Silence for instance, which we are so anxious to fill, can mean: “you’ve lost me, I’m not convinced” or “show me why I should buy you.” Stop, pause and take in the moment. You’ll be amazed at what you may have otherwise missed in your rush to get through your sales presentation.

Now you’re ready to add Improv to your sales toolkit.
Think fast! And whose line is it anyway?!

Tune in next week for 3 more Improv Selling Tips!