Rehearsing your next Sales Call, why not?

At the Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play — with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn’t).

Tim Brown is the CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, taking an approach to design that digs deeper than the surface. Having taken over from founder David E. Kelley, Tim Brown carries forward the firm’s mission of fusing design, business and social studies to come up with deeply researched, deeply understood designs and ideas — they call it "design thinking."

One thing that I have been encouraging lately is role playing. Since we have become a service society our product has become us. Have you ever videotaped or just talked into your webcam to see how you looked and sounded? Technology has made it so easy and at practically no cost. The benefits of a rehearsal can make all the difference.

How about role playing an issues they were having with your service team? Getting a few actors from your local college to role play for you could be a lot fun in a training session. Think about developing ways to mimic the problems your customer faces. If nothing else, you could be putting yourself in their shoes – not a bad idea at all!