Why Creativity Is So Important for Salespeople

I just gave a program on Serious Creativity at an international conference in Las Vegas. The program shows business professionals the process for generating new ideas for business that work. What better skill is there than creativity for salespeople?  You may think you don’t need to be creative or you’re not creative. Either way, you’re wrong. Here’s why.

Selling is one of the most unpredictable professions. Sure you plan your sales call, but what happens if your customer gets called away for a meeting. You had better be creative and come up with another plan. What happens when you think you’ve identified a customer need or problem and you come up empty? Time for creativity. Then there are the inevitable customer problems. You better have the skill of creativity to solve some of these issues to meet both customer needs and your company needs.  See why you need creativity?

One of the easiest ways to be more creative is to stop judging yourself.  Here’s an example. When you need to come up with ideas, some people, even before they say the idea, will think that the idea is wrong, bad or unnecessary. They’ll say to themselves, “That won’t work” and the idea never gets out of their brain. That’s wrong. 

The way your brain works is by association. One idea leads to another which leads to another which leads to another. If I say a word like tire, something will come to your mind. That idea will trigger another thought. The new thought will trigger another word. If you don’t start with the first idea you’ll never get to the last idea. That’s what association is. That’s why avoiding judging early in the creative process is so important. You allow all your ideas to flow to create numerous possibilities.

So the next time you face a challenge where you need your skill of creativity, let all the ideas flow. Let them lead you to wherever the ideas take you.  That’s the best way to generate many ideas. Then you can judge at the end which ideas are the best.

I’m a fan of creativity. I also believe everyone can believe in their creativity. At the end of my program in Las Vegas I asked everyone if they believed they could be creative as a result of the program and the creative tools they learned. All hands were raised.  Do you think you can be creative now, too?