Acting is sales...

Everyone’s faces dropped in disbelief…

He’d absolutely nailed it.

He became the character.

And I mean completely embodied him.

He was only 19 but managed to transform himself entirely into Hamlet.

I was new to acting at the time and during this particular class everyone had a go at delivering probably one of the most challenging speeches delivered by Hamlet, known as the ‘ghost monologue’.

Lots of wooden attempts from the awkward to the unbelievable to the downright ridiculous.

Then along comes this young guy – and the entire room fell silent in awe.

This was no coincidence – clearly, he’d spent time, energy, and obsessive amounts of practice in order to get there. Talent was only part of it.

Just try reading through a Hamlet monologue and imagine bringing it to life where you fully embody the character in Medieval Denmark. Difficult is not the word.

It’s hard to describe the feeling when you observe such incredible acting in person just two feet away - it’s almost spiritual in nature, transcending space & time, and takes you to a place you’ve never been before.

It pulls you in and is almost hypnotic in taking you to a place you didn’t know even existed.

It feels so real, so truthful that reality itself feels like a lie in comparison.

I learnt a huge amount from acting, and much of it applies in the world of business, communication, and sales.

Some takeaways:

- You can’t just wing it and expect to reach a level of mastery. It requires obsessive amounts of practice till you begin to really hone your skill

- Words themselves are largely irrelevant compared with the delivery, belief, conviction and intention

- Self-belief, faith & courage manifest themselves through your actions, behaviour, and your voice

- It requires a lot of mistakes before you become truly skilled

Take your average 21-year-old SaaS salesperson.

They find themselves tasked with having to approach CTOs, CIOs & VPs in order to sell their software.

But they know very little about the world of their prospects, and even less about how to communicate with them effectively.

So, they need to learn.

They need to become an actor.

They will come across a whole myriad of personality types.

If they are not chameleon-like, they will only ever be able to communicate with people like them.

Sales is acting in business.

But not in the fake sense as many people would assume.

It’s very real.

To become the best, salespeople have to become the expert, the consummate professional who can hold their own against a C-level director twice their age.

To achieve this requires a lot of grit, graft, and guts.

And there are no shortcuts.

But you do need to know how to get there.

And once you do, you'll become the character you need to be to truly excel in your role.

#sales #business #communication