On Acting and Sales…

I’ve been at Staffbase for three weeks now, and it’s lovely. Great company, wonderful people. I’m really enjoying it.

But I’ve noticed something interesting –

There are a weirdly high proportion of sellers at this company with a background in film, television, comedy, improv, or theater. I’ve counted five, so far.

And you can absolutely tell this when these people talk to customers or prospects. Sellers with a background like this are… more natural, more approachable?

I’ve given, received, and observed thousands of software demos and pitch calls over my 25 years in this industry. And the thing I see most often is sellers that are … scared – if they’re not scared, then they sound scared. They’re tense, they’re uptight, they’re over-rehearsed, and they’re so locked into a narrative path that if they have to deviate because of an unexpected question, they get thrown way, way off.

This makes everyone nervous. I’m not an actor, but I do a lot of conference speaking, and I’ve learned that if you make the audience nervous, they will resent you for it. It’s the first step to losing them.

With sellers who have a performing background, you don’t see this. They’re much more in command of a call or a demo. They’re more elastic. They tend to roll with whatever comes. They can flex easily based on what the prospect asks. They work with the prospect, not against them. The tension ratchets way, way down.

I maintain that prospects will project this demeanor onto the product. If a seller seems terrified, the prospect wonders what they’re scared of – does the product suck that bad? But if a seller is calm and natural, then they seem confident of their product, and prospects pick up on this – if your product makes you this confident, then it must be pretty good.

I was on a call with the other day with one of these sellers, and I realized halfway through that everyone on the call was having a good time. She was easy-going, she knew when to be self-deprecating, and she seemed like someone you’d like to sit around and have a beer with. The prospect was engaged, and happily asking questions, and was fine when they were told we didn’t know the answer, but we’d get it.

I’m wondering too if performers know the difference between being in-character and out-of-character? They have performed, so they know what’s a performance and what isn’t? They know when to be “on” and when not to be? Maybe they know what it means to be artificial (to act), and so they have a better sense of how to be natural?

So, maybe that’s how you get better sellers? Send them to acting or improv classes? Everything else being equal, I absolutely think it would help.