One of the best ways for salespeople to be more creative is to do different things. Think about it, the creative process is fueled by your experiences. Doing the same things over and over again will deprive you of new experiences. The lack of new experiences means you have less material to drive your creativity.
Here are a few suggestions to be more creative.
1. Drive a different way home. (Sorry Google Maps!)
You just might learn a hidden shortcut and at least you see different sights. Those new sights give you new information and ideas to be creative.
2. Read something different.
You might love mysteries. For the next book you read switch to historical fiction or something you normally don’t read. You might learn something new that triggers an idea that you can use for selling.
3. Eat a new food.
You may have never tried Thai, Salvadoran, Vegan or other type of food. The next time you eat out go for a new type of food. New food experiences give you the opportunity to see food in a different way. Some Mexican food includes chocolate. The restaurant may have different décor. New things will trigger new ideas for you.
4. Exercise.
When you go for a walk you relieve your logical left brain from thinking about your work. That rest period allows the ideas in your unconscious to come alive and reach your conscious awareness. When the ideas start popping into your head, be sure you can capture them. A cell phone and voice recording works well. Sending yourself a text works, too.
5. Stop judging.
This one is hard for many people. When a new idea pops into your head you might think of too many reasons why it won’t work. Stop it! Judging halts creativity. It takes many ideas to lead to the best idea. You might be eliminating the great idea that leads to the best idea.
Dean Keith Simonton, Professor of Psychology, reports that on average, creative geniuses weren’t qualitatively better in their fields than their peers. They simply produced a greater volume of work, which gave them more variation and a higher chance of originality.
Generate more ideas and you are more likely to be successful. Being creative in sales gets you those plentiful ideas.