How can Sales people benefit from improvisation? 3 principles to apply.

Published in

iconoClass

7 min readJun 2, 2020

Hi, I’m Mathieu, CMO and improv teacher at iconoClass. This article aims to take a closer look at improv’s basic rules that can be applied to the professional environment (without any improv experience). These improvisational theatre’s principles will help you to make a difference in your everyday work’s performance. The improv classes are part of our program at iconoClass and teach our Sales to build their relational reflexes. The FR version of the article is here.

Have you ever been taken aback at work? In the impossibility of any reaction? Have you felt blocked in a situation?

The presentation in front of an important client while your boss is watching, an unanticipated question that changed the whole situation for which you were prepared, a salary negotiation that turned bad?

Have you ever been trapped or embarrassed by another person?

By the colleague who puts you down in front of your boss, the critical remark received during a meeting, or by the client who starts yelling at you?

Of course, there are just examples, but you’ll be surprised to discover how often are this type of situation happening in real life — for sure, more often than you think! And can do a lot of damage to a person’s work performance, but also it can affect the business.

Imagine having the ability to manage these situations without any stress and respond positively to each one of the above examples? You are no longer destabilized by your boss’s questions in the important meeting — even if you do not have all the answers. Also, imagine how you keep calm in front of the client who’s shouting at you…

Improvisation is a practice that builds the capacity to welcome the unexpected and respond to it with confidence calmly. Many improv techniques can help to manage the unforeseen surprises at work, but also in your daily personal life. Here’s what I discovered through improv and how these lessons can help you to have better (and qualitative) relations.

You improvise every day.

When you go shopping, you plan your trajectory, but you aren’t aware of what could happen on the road. Very confident, one step after another and unconsciously you are avoiding obstacles to reach our destination — it almost looks like an automatic reflex that you correctly manage. When you speak to your friends, you don’t know in advance the words that will come out during the conversation, which can itself leave on several subjects, you didn’t plan a list of the topics, did you? And yet you are not stressed by the unknown part of this conversation — again; it looks like something that you manage without problems.

One important thing is to realize that you’re improvising daily since you wake up. It’s essential to be conscious about this, so you can learn how to develop the skill so you can apply it whenever stress occurs.

What do all these moments of improv have in common? Most of the time, you are confident — you have confidence in yourself, and this makes things easy. It’s the self-confidence that helps you to improvise in all situations, even the most unforeseen.

Boost your confidence to increase the quality of your professional relationships (and your sales)

Relationships are crucial to success in Sales. Two people can say the same idea, but with different results.

The quality of your relationships determines the quality of your work and your results. Today, communication is the heart of each relationship because everything can be negotiated. To negotiate well, you have to communicate well — this is an important and fundamental principle.

Improv is like a muscle that increases the quality of its interactions with others — the quality of its relationships.

But beware, communication is not just words. Keep in mind that we’re communicating throughout our body, look, tone, the volume of voice, face’s expression.

Besides that, in a speech, and therefore a negotiation, the impact of words only represents … 8%. It’s statistical. Others will say 12%, 15% … Whatever, it is not much. So non-verbal communication has a huge impact!

Here’s a quote from the poet Maya Angelou that can easily apply to a professional environment, but also in every day’s life :

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

No need to actually practice improvisational theatre’s to apply its principles:

Here are the three underlying principles of improv, which will play a fundamental role in all your negotiations (and your daily relationships). These basics serve anyone who wants to become a successful Business Developer or Sales, or anyone who wants to improve its professional relationships.

As you might see, all principles are simple to understand but challenging to apply.

# 1 Be in the present

Listening is the first quality of an improviser because it takes two people to improvise. Listening to your interlocutor here and now, by simply welcoming what he says without trying to make him an offer is a rare quality.

Ask yourself the following question: why am I with these people, here and now? The simple fact of putting yourself this question makes you more aware of the situation and of the present moment in which you’re at that moment. At the same time, it makes you pay the necessary attention to have a qualitative interaction. This may make you realize that your interlocutor doesn’t have the same communication goals, or doesn’t involve in the present moment — so you will adjust your speech according to him.

How to improv as a Business Developer?

For a Business Developer, to be in the present moment means taking the time before start promoting your product/service. Many Business Developers are often a single goal during a sales presentation: to sell, so they start rapid pitching for their product.
Don’t rush, ask questions before selling anything. This is called the discovery phase at IconoClass, and it’s a crucial phase of the selling process because it creates the relationship between the buyer and the seller.
Have a real interest in your interlocutor’s problems. This allows you to develop an effective sales pitch in which you will be able to highlight product features/benefits relevant to the person opposite. Listening to your client’s concerns will underline his needs, so you’ll know what you have to fulfil to have him as a client.

# 2 Say “yes AND” and not “yes BUT”.

Let’s make a challenge and try noticing whenever (and how often) you feel like saying “yes, BUT” instead of “yes, AND”. This urge arises every time you fight for something; when you want to underline that you have the last word in a conversation. It’s challenging to remove that damn “BUT” from our thoughts, but it’s important to understand that the “yes BUT” usually means no, it’s a false yes.

The “yes AND” sums up the improv’s positive mood, and it’s the acceptance of what happens and is beyond our control. It’s also an invitation to be constructive whatever happens and could happen.

By answering “yes, AND”, you’ll make your interlocutor feel appreciated, you show him that you respect his proposal or idea, even if you don’t agree 100% with his sayings. “Yes, AND” it’s always the long-term winning strategy as it creates trust in the relationship — and for Business Developers, TRUST is a key success, right?

But let’s say that you do disagree with your interlocutor’s proposal — how you’ll express your disagreement? Unconsciously, you are using “yes, BUT” — but this can change if you’ll start thinking of “yes, AND”.

Next time when you’ll want to show you disagreement, think to use “yes, AND at the same time…”, instead of “yes, BUT” — you’ll notice the difference in your interlocutor’s attitude!

Here’s a practical application in which you can use the “yes, AND” as a Business Developer:

If your prospect feels appreciated and valued by you during the conversation, there is a high chance for you to close the deal.
Let’s take another example, let’s say that you’re in a meeting with a colleague who tells a client wrong information about your product/service. Even if your first instinct is to react, don’t do it — keep calm. After all, the damage is done, and opposing him will be worse. Instead, you can try to “save” the situation by correcting the things with a “yes, AND”.

# 3- Train your brain to function instinctively

To do so, you have to have enough confidence to take your time.

Silence is your friend.

Rationally, it is better to take the time to think and say the right thing than to give a quick wrong answer, and yet in a stressful situation.

Practical advice for a Business Developer during a negotiation:

Breathe. The easiest thing to practice is to take your time and breath before speaking. This allows you to think before speaking, and this silence will never be taken badly by your interlocutors. It’s good to start practising breathing in real stress-free situations first.
Rephrase the interlocutor’s words and make him validate that you understood correctly (but that you cannot do it endlessly, it’s weird!)