Happenings

The play was Cinderella. The part was a member of royalty. The Director’s instructions were to be bold, loud, and proud. You are royalty, not a shy ten year old. To be respected as royalty you have to act like royalty.

Excitement is mandatory for a good play to be successful. A bored, shy cast will have a bored, sleepy audience. Each actor/actress must encourage each other, play off each other, and create excitement. For the audience to be entertained, the cast must know their lines, have fun, play off each other, and even cover for each other.

Lets carry the acting lessons over to the business world.

To be respected as a good salesperson, you must act like a good salesperson. None of this, “I just don’t know how to sell” business. Your prospective clients are not interested in helping you grow as a salesperson or meet your quotas. So if you don’t feel you’re a good salesperson, the first step is to “act” like you are a great salesperson. Have confidence in yourself.

To be seen as someone who knows what you’re talking about, you must know your stuff and you must act like you know what you’re talking about. Knowledge is important. Excitement is mandatory.  A bored, shy salesperson or manager will have a hard time making a sale to a less than enthusiastic client. You should know your products; and just as importantly, you should be excited about your products.

Management and salespeople should encourage each other, play off each other, and create excitement. You should enjoy what you’re doing (have fun), encourage your colleagues, and cover for each other. Do your company’s salespeople and mangers compete or compliment each other? Of course a little competition can be a good thing.  A lot of competition though can make the joking around, the fun, the encouragement, and the desire to cover for one another stop all together.  Once that happens and it becomes more about the numbers and less about helping each other. Moral suffers and eventually business suffers. So let’s take a lesson from a child’s acting class. Let’s be confident, know what we’re doing, and have fun.