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The ability to be creative with
solutions, prospecting or working with customers has always been a
key skill for any salesperson to possess. Being creative will allow
you to revitalize your sales career tenfold because you will
instantly find yourself becoming more able to provide your prospect
with new and innovative ways to solve their problems or improve
their situation. Creativity does not come easily to many
salespeople. Barriers to creativity arise every day, and your
ability to identify and conquer these ever-present obstacles will
help you to increase your sales success.
Routine can be one
of the most common barriers to your personal creativity. Following
the same routine every day will certainly not stimulate you, leading
to a serious lacking of creativity and innovation in both your
career and personal life. Some routine is definitely necessary, even
inevitable and desirable, but too much of it will certainly not help
your creative juices flow. Try varying the ways and times that you
do things in your every day schedule, and doing so is sure to help
stimulate your creativity.
Fatigue is another highly common
barrier to creativity in salespeople. Giving your all every day
while you pursue prospects is highly respectable. However, you need
to take some serious downtime if you want to avoid burnout. Burnout
is not conducive to stimulating your creativity, and you need to
keep this in mind. Take time to play. During this playtime you will
find that your creative juices will flow. You are likely to find an
elusive answer to your prospect’s problem when you’re not at work,
and not even thinking about it.
Negative thoughts can also
present barriers to your creative thinking ability. Thinking
pessimistically is obviously destructive to anything, and your
creative ability is no different. The optimist sees an opportunity
in every problem, but the pessimist sees a problem in every
opportunity. You probably know this. But knowing something and doing
it are two different things. By approaching any sales problem with
an open and positive mind, you are sure to stimulate your creativity
exponentially. It will allow you to try new and inventive ways to
fulfill your prospects’ needs and wants.
Fear
is a concept that fits into the category of negative thinking.
If you fear trying anything new in your sales activity, then
you will most certainly fail to tap into your creative sources.
Conquering your fear of using new ways to approach, help, or
service your prospects will help you conquer a serious and
common barrier to creativity. It’s up to you how you choose to
face your fear, |
 and
if you face it with courage, then your ability to use your
creativity will surely increase. Any crisis presents an interesting twist on your
creative ability. If you view a crisis as a phenomenal opportunity
to tap into your creative abilities, then you are on the right
track. Salespeople who fear crisis situations and fail to see them
as chances to prevent the same problems from arising in the future
are the same salespeople who are hurting their own creativity.
Creativity solving any crisis situation can also provide you with
the possibility that new and creative ways of doing things may
emerge from the current crisis.
Unfortunately, making excuses
is a common practice among lots of rather average or poor
salespeople. Blaming your own failures on outside factors is just
too easy. You must avoid doing this if you intend to maximize your
sales performance and stimulate your creativity. Blaming your own
shortcomings on factors such as a bad territory or your competition
will do nothing for you, your sales performance or your income. Take
responsibility for your mistakes and your lost sales, and use what
you’ve learned from these failures to creatively approach future
prospects’ problems, wants and needs.
Another excellent way
to stimulate your own creativity is to read and study the creativity
of others. Biographies, success stories, articles and examples can
help to inspire you to reach the higher levels of creativity that
other innovators have reached themselves. Reading this type of
material can help to push you to higher levels of creativity that
others have reached.
Creativity is sometimes difficult to
maintain and keep. Your childhood imagination sometimes leaves
you as an adult. Barriers that will hinder your creativity can
include such factors as too much routine, fatigue, pessimism,
fear, the way you handle crisis situations, and making excuses.
Each of these barriers can be overcome if you become able to
identify which of them is negatively affecting your creativity.
Simply use your head when you feel stumped by a problem and then
implement the solutions that are discussed above. You should not
feel limited, though. Develop and use your own personal
methods that will allow you to cultivate your creativity. The
key is simply to realize what exactly it is that is harming your
creativity, and then conquer it. This will help you improve your
sales performance, as well as your own self-image, and this is
priceless in creating your own creativity and your own
successful future! |
