Want to Boost Sales? Take a Tip From Improv Theater
by Judy Jacobs /Whether it’s by using techniques from improvisational theater or adopting the customer’s lingo, travel agents need to rethink their traditional approaches to business – especially sales.
That’s the word from bestselling business author Daniel Pink.
In his latest book, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others (Riverhead Books), Pink outlines tactics and tips on how to sell products – and ideas. His suggestions include approaches that readers may not have considered before.
Two of Pink’s previous books, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, soared to the top of bestseller lists and have been translated into scores of languages.
Pink shared his ideas, including several tailored to travel agents, with Travel Market Report.
You write about using the tenets of improvisational theater to be better at sales. How can these be used in a travel agency setting?
Pink: There are three particular lessons of improv theater. The central lesson is to hear offers. One of the things that improv actors are taught is that embedded in every line that comes out of a fellow actor is an offer. That’s a very interesting way to think about business. Even if a client says no, somewhere in there is an offer.
The second central idea is saying, ‘Yes, and.’ When someone says, ‘I’m interested in going to Savannah,’ you can say, ‘You could go to Savannah, but Savannah weather is terrible this time of year, so you should go somewhere else.’ Or you could say, ‘Since Savannah weather is really terrible this time of year, I can connect you with someone who just went there and who can tell you what it’s like.’
What’s the third tenet?
Pink: The third principal is to make your partner look good. That’s especially important in travel. You want the conference organizer to look good. It’s even true at a family level. If mom is spearheading the trip planning, you want to come up with things that the kids think are awesome or the spouse will think is awesome.
Travel agents should tune their ears to hearing offers. They should say ‘yes, and’ instead of ‘yes, but.’ And they should make their customer look good.
You cite research showing that mimicking others, which scientists refer to as the chameleon effect, can improve people’s ability to sell. How does that work?
Pink: One of the central qualities in how to find common ground with other people is attunement, or taking the other person’s perspective. One way we’re able to see things from another person’s point of view is through subtle, honest mimicry. It’s something that humans do. We understand someone’s perspective by mirroring peoples’ facial expressions, postures, etc.
For face-to-face settings, it’s important to be conscious of how a customer is standing. What is his posture? What gestures is he using? Be conscious of that, and if possible mimic some of this back.
The important thing is to use the customer’s language instead of your own language. In sales, a lot of people use their own lingo instead of the customer’s lingo. By using the customer’s lingo you indicate you understand [where they’re coming from].
In a Dutch study of waiters, those who repeated the orders word-for-word got substantially higher tips.
Another thing you stress is the art of pitching. Would you elaborate?
Pink: It’s important to understand that the purpose of a pitch is not to convert people immediately. It’s not to get them to say yes, but rather to begin a conversation. Pitches that bring people into the situation and make them a co-collaborator will be more successful.
Somebody reaches out to an agent for a family vacation. ‘We have two weeks coming up, and what do you think?’ they might say. The agent shouldn’t be trying to sell them two weeks in Hawaii but to give them ideas that they might be interested in, so that they will become involved.
Think about the pitch as the first step of the conversation. They come back and say, ‘This is really interesting, but what if we do x, y and z,’ and you say, ‘That won’t work, but let’s see what we can do to work things out.’
Think of pitching as a way to begin collaboration rather than a way to convert.
What sets travel agents apart in the realm of people who sell things?
Pink: The key today is they have to be able to do something that people can’t do for themselves online. That draws on very different skills.
First, it requires understanding your customers much better. Second, it requires the ability to solve problems that customers might not know they have. The third, I’m convinced, is that it requires a much higher level of expertise.
You write that salespeople used to have all the power, but that because clients get so much information online, the balance has shifted. How does that affect the way travel agents should do business?
Pink: They have to be able to do something that people can’t do for themselves online. They need to give advice. An agent can say, ‘Disney World is very crowded this time of year, but there’s this great gem called Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif., that three of my clients have been to.’
Agents have to provide a level of expertise that they didn’t have to provide 15 years ago. They can take a page from consulting business and write a white paper on 15 overlooked places to go or 10 tips for traveling with children.
What I hear over and over again in a whole range of industries is that there is a whole new premium value on expertise. It’s essential. The idea of simply trying to get customers to have you do simple routine transactions on their behalf isn’t that viable anymore.
Can you say more about agents as consultants?
Pink: At some level travel agencies today actually have a lot more in common with high-end management consulting than they do with traditional kinds of transactional commerce.
So what they can do to establish their brand is things like white papers, so that they become a trusted source, a trusted adviser. Some customers will use their expertise and continue to do self-service, but that’s the nature of the game today.
For more advice from Daniel Pink, see: Million Dollar Question: Would You Sell More If You Were Paid More?