Great sellers are great performers. You might not notice it but theater correlates with sales in more ways than one and my guest today, Glenn Hebert, is going to teach you several lessons he learned from theater which you can apply into your own sales process.
Glenn is the Founder of Horse Radio Network, a 9-year old company with over 6,300 podcast episodes released and over 7,000 guests interviewed, Glenn has grown his network tremendously with 13 shows now and 30 hosts.
Prior to hosting his podcasts, Glenn has a notable 15-year sales experience. Glenn also got into the theater world where he met his then girlfriend, now wife. They started their own acting company and had an amazing 10-year run with over 450 shows.
Lessons from Improv Training that Correlates to Sales:
- Listen.
Listen to be able to correlate with what their situation is and if you could help them in their situation. Always start with a question, like what their target market is, so if it’s not what you have then you know the conversation is over and so you should drop the company
- Never say no.
Never say no or negate somebody otherwise the conversation will already end.
- “Yes, and…”
This means you’re taking whatever the other person is saying and then you’re expanding that.
- Accept that you can’t please everybody.
As an artist, you’re there to entertain people but you won’t be able to please everybody. Not everyone is going to like you and that’s okay. You’re not for everybody. What you’re selling is not for everybody. Your opportunity for growth is 80% so focus on that and not on the 20% who are never going to buy from you.
Change that mindset of pleasing people to helping them. And again, not everyone is for you. If your product doesn’t work for them then you just have to drop it.
- Realize you have roles to put on.
It’s important to put on roles as you go out and perform. If you may fail in a certain role it doesn’t mean you fail as a person so you can’t get offended if people reject you right there and then. That’s the kind of mentality you want to put in when you go into sales mode.
How do you get “in the zone” ?
- Walk around before you talk to anybody.
- Talk to one or two current customers first to get you warmed up.
- Think that instead of giving speeches/presentation, you’re giving a performance.
- Get some kind of upbeat music or any song that helps you to get going.
- How you present depends on the size of your audience.
The bigger the audience, the less interaction. The smaller the audience, you need to perform less and get them involved more. Spend more time intimately with a smaller audience and less time on a big performance.
It’s the same with sales. A presentation in front of ten people is different than when you’re on one-on-one where you hope they do most of the talking.
- Spot the dark knight and the white knight.
Note that usually in a group of people, there is always that one person who talks negatively but is not the decision-maker. Make sure to find a way to get others involved. Try to get the decision makers to talk more.
- Don’t focus on you, focus on the buyer.
Focus your communication with others but pick out that one or two things that are the hot buttons for those other people and that’s what you focus on with the other people. Many salespeople though pick out 20 hot buttons. They have one or two problems they’re trying to fix while salespeople have a product that solves a hundred problems. And your clients don’t care about the other 98 because they only care about what’s going to make their life better. Focus on the only thing they care about.
- Have a presence.
Be good at what you do such that when you walk into a room, everybody knows you’re in charge and that you’re in command. But there’s a fine line between presence and cockiness. A lot of times, you don’t have to say a word.
- Come out with either a bang or silent passion.
You don’t have to start your presentation immediately. Command the room with silence before you start. Then when you start, you have to come out with either a bang or silent passion.
- Take your shyness and come out with silent passion.
First step to overcome your shyness is to look that part. Pay attention to your tonality as well. Take that shyness and come out with passion. Do it with an extreme amount of overabundant passion.
Glenn’s Major Takeaway:
LISTEN.
Episode Resources:
Get to know more about Glenn Hebert on Horse Radio Network.
Predictable Prospecting by Marylou Tyler
Need a speaking coach? Check out my speaking coach Linda Yates
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