“Yes And” in Sales

Using the golden rule of improv to help you sell

If you want to improve your selling skills, find your local improv group and participate in one of their workshops.  Improv is a form of entertainment where several people perform a completely unrehearsed comedy show for the audience.  Performers continuously play off each other’s comments.  Neither the performers nor the audience know where the performance will go.  Thus, each performance is unique. 

Performers have to be quick on their feet.  They have to react quickly to changing topics and physical movement of the other performers.  Sometimes props are brought into the performance, which adds new dimensions and directions.  Audience involvement is often solicited to get them engaged in the performance.  The randomness of it all can lead to slow moments from a comedy perspective, as well as hilarious moments. 

While it’s not rehearsed and appears very random, there are some rules or guidelines that the performers follow.  Their golden rule is called “Yes And”.  This rule requires each performer to never turn down or say “No” to an idea or question from another performer.  Instead, you must reply, “Yes, And”. 

For example, if one performer says, “I love going to the beach in Florida.  Have you ever been?”  The response to that is always, “Yes, and I enjoy the opportunity to snorkel when I’m there.  Have you snorkeled?”  This allows for the performance to be continuous and build creatively on itself.

You might be asking, what does all of this have to do with selling?  Everything!  Look at what happens on the stage.  Two people start off a conversation with a general idea of where they are going to go.  However, impromptu topics are thrown in.  There are interruptions, other performers chime in to take the conversation in unpredictable directions, and we don’t know exactly what part of the performance we are in.  Is it the beginning, middle, or end? 

Doesn’t that sound a lot like selling?  The prospect knows why you are there – to sell them something.  However, they don’t know where you are going with your sales call.  You think you know where you are going with it, but you truly don’t know for sure.  Will it get shut down in the first few seconds or will you be there for an hour, or more?  You are calling on the buyer, but others will chime in – the service or parts department might jump in to look over your after-sale support, or accounting might be brought in to scour your purchasing terms, or the buyer’s manager brought in because it’s a company-wide decision to buy your products. 

Each of these people will bring in unknown comments and challenges to your sales call.  Making this look a lot like an improv session.  Sometimes a great sales call.  Sometimes a flat performance.  But always active and reactive in a unique way. 

The skill it takes to feel confident on a sales call is similar to that of an improv performer.  You can plan, practice, and be as technically proficient as possible.  However, you are not in total control of the sales call.  Instead, you bring all this preparation to the unknown outcome of your next stage/sales call. 

Yet, there is one major difference between our sales call and an improv stage.  Those participating in improv all play by the golden rule.  However, in our sales call scenario, our prospective customer does not.  They will often say, “No” or shut down the sales conversation.   Maybe they are busy and want to get rid of us.  Maybe they are truly happy with their current supplier.  We never know completely what’s going on in the head of our prospect and they may not want to play in our sales improv performance.

This is where the sales call gets a bit difficult for us.  Do we persist in our sales call and ignore their objection?  Or is this just a test of our resolve to sell a good product?  Or are they throwing a challenge in front of us to see if they can get a better deal?  Again, we never truly know the answer to those questions. 

So, an adapted version of the improv golden rule applies in sales.  I call it, “No, but.”

This means that a no doesn’t mean the sale is over.  That sales call might be over if they tell you to leave or have no time to meet, but the sale is not over.  If they use the products or services that you sell, then the sale is never over. 

No has a lot of meanings.  No, for now.  No to that product.  No to the terms of buying from you.  No to a large purchase from you.  This is where the “No, but” rule comes into play.  Again, the prospective customer is not playing by our rules.  So, they often leave off the second part of the responses below.  They simply say, “No, I’m not interested”.

• No, not now, but possibly another day, month, or year.  Take the conversation into their purchasing habits.  When and how do they evaluate products like yours?  Who is involved in those discussions and decisions?  Can I be considered as a supplier at the next one of these decisions?  How would I do that?
• No, I’m not interested in that product, but you might have other products that interest me.   If you get this response from a prospect, please refrain from telling them all about your other products.  Instead, stear the conversation to their operation and discover what their needs are.  Then position a solution to that need.  Too often, salespeople feel this is the time to share their entire buffet of products and services.  Buyers don’t want a giant menu.  They want you to narrow down their choices to a solution which solves their problems.
• No, those terms would never work for us, but maybe if there was some flexibility on them.  Find out which terms are deal breakers and whether or not you have flexibility in them.  More importantly, find out why they are deal breakers for this customer. 
• No, we have been working with our current supplier on sourcing a large volume of product and couldn’t risk messing that up, but it might be good to have a backup.  Get your foot in the door with a small purchase and earn your way to more sales with them.

Final thought.  If you are not interested in attending a local improv practice session or don’t have one nearby, there is one more way to practice your impromptu selling skills:  role-play a sales scenario with someone on your team.  If you are a salesperson, request that your manager line it up for you with the right person on your sales team. 

The secret to a good role-play training session is to make it very specific.  Give the person playing the customer as much information on the customer as possible.  Let them know the purpose of the sales call you are acting out. 

Best of luck on your daily sales calls (improv sessions)!