Sales Training and Development Book Review

Home Page

Site Map

Customer feedback

Promise of service

Get in touch
+44 118 933 1357
coach@salessense.co.uk

Enter your email address for monthly tips and sales help newsletter:

Sales training, coaching and consulting.

Stretching Creativity Muscles

December 15th
1998

Published in the December 1998 edition of
Inside View

Creative types are often pictured in marketing think tanks and brainstorming meetings as people with unconventional taste in clothes and jewellery. In fact we are all creative. Consider how many completely original sentences you utter every day. Belief has a lot to do with it. Placebo's, pills that contain no drugs, have been shown to help cure medical conditions just because the patient has been led to believe in the treatment. Past experience of finding solutions to problems sets our unconscious expectation of competence. If we believe we can, we do. Sounds too simple doesn't it. If you associate problems with failure you are sabotaging your ability to come up with creative answers.

You have probably heard the phrase; 'problems are opportunities'. Its truth is not much help when you can't find a way to resolve something. Here are three of about a dozen practical methods I use to generate ideas:

1. Reverse the Question
Suppose you can't think of a good reason to get back in front of a prospect who is about to make a decision. Ask yourself "What reasons could I give to avoid speaking with them if they called me?" All kinds of excuses will occur to you. Pursue them and see where they lead. Amongst your ideas will be just the reason for talking to them you are looking for.

2. Mentor
Call to mind the most successful sales person, business leader or entrepreneur you know. Imagine yourself in their presence, asking their advice. What would they suggest?

3. Brainstorm
Write your problem at the top of a piece of paper. Underneath write every possible solution that occurs to you. Make sure you include any silly or impractical ideas. Don't stop to consider them, just keep going until you have at least twenty-five. Don’t worry if none of them make sense. Put your list to one side until the following day. Now repeat the process. If you need to, refer to yesterday’s list for inspiration. It seldom takes more than a day or two before you discover just the idea you need.

Article by Clive Miller
Questions and comments to clive@salessense.co.uk

Me-3S.jpg (2424 bytes)
Clive Miller

Contact Us Tel 44 (0)118 933 1357 Wyvols Court, Swallowfield, Reading, UK, RG7 1WY info@salessense.co.uk
©SalesSense Home Page Site Map About SalesSense Consultant Profiles Newsletter Terms of Use Privacy Policy