Top salespeople consistently conceive outside-the-box solutions that drive client ROI. Get your creative juices flowing with these tips, and increased sales will follow.

Delve A Little Deeper: Suffering from a dearth of ideas for a particular client’s promotion? Maybe it’s because you don’t know that client and/or its end-users well enough. Recommit to the customer. Ask more meaningful questions that help you develop a full understanding of the buyer’s needs and desired outcome. Talk with clients, too, about their audiences. What are the end-users’ tastes? Supplement that discussion with online research that reveals trends among the demographic group (think researching apparel styles and branded messaging that may appeal to Millennials that grad school programs want to attract). Cool ideas will spring from the knowledge you develop.

Make Solution Categories: So you have a buyer that needs a really unique solution. But you’re stumped. What to do? Get methodical. Try what researchers of a study that appears in the Creativity Research Journal identify as the hierarchical heuristic method. Start with brainstorming: Write down a number of potential solutions. Identify what they have in common. The commonality becomes what’s known as the superordinate – the overriding category of solutions. Next, come up with more possible solutions that fit this category. From these ideas, branch out to form new general categories with their own sets of conforming solutions. Practicing this method will help spur creative ideas that impress clients.

Go Blank: Shut the television off. Put the mobile phone in a drawer. Find a quiet place devoid of distraction. Then do the inconceivable: Nothing. Sit there. Don’t even try to“empty your mind.” Let your mind wander. Allow thoughts to wander through it. Fresh perspectives and novel ideas often emerge from this exercise in passive thoughtfulness.

Break The Mold: Step outside your routine and expose yourself to new places, people and perspectives. Doing so will open your mind, help you think more expansively – more creatively. Sure, a trip to an exotic locale will prove stimulating, but there are simple everyday steps you can take, too. Try a different route to work. Jog someplace new. Embark on a day trip to a destination you’ve never been to before. Read a book you normally wouldn’t consider. Learn a new a hobby.

Jot: Have a neat idea? Jot it down. Putting ideas to paper (or in an email to yourself, a Word document, etc.) helps you capture concepts that otherwise may have flown away. It also helps keep your mind open and attuned, fueling your ability to think creatively.

Hand-Jive: Okay, you don’t literally have to do the happy hands dance from Grease. But doing something with your hands can stimulate creative thought. Draw doodles without a mind to creating anything in particular. Strum the guitar or tinker at the keyboard. Work a piece of wood. Cook a new dish from scratch. Knit or sew.

Action Items:
❑ Try the hierarchical heuristic method the next time you’re really stumped for a solution that will work best for a client.
❑ Try doing an “idea dump,” jotting down your thoughts, however random.  

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