We Can Sell Anything
We Can Sell Anything is an applied exercise in which participants improvise a sales pitch for an absurd, useless, or impossible product, training persuasion, benefit framing, confident delivery, and the ability to find genuine value in unlikely material.
Structure
The Setup
Participants are randomly assigned a product that is strange, useless, or paradoxical: a transparent window, gravity, sadness, a broken umbrella. They have a brief moment to collect themselves before pitching.
The Pitch
Each participant delivers a short sales pitch as if genuinely persuaded the product has value. The pitch should include features, benefits, and a call to action. No irony or winking at the audience.
The Debrief
The group discusses which pitches landed, what made them compelling, and how the structure of a pitch applies to conventional sales and communication contexts.
How to Teach It
Objectives
We Can Sell Anything trains the structural habits of persuasion: problem identification, benefit articulation, specificity, and confident delivery. Absurd products remove the anxiety about factual accuracy and allow participants to focus on structure and tone.
Facilitation Notes
Praise pitches that found genuine emotional resonance, not just clever humor. A participant who makes the group genuinely want to buy gravity has mastered the exercise.
Common Pitfalls
Participants treat the absurdity as the joke and play for laughs rather than commitment. The best pitches are delivered with complete sincerity.
In Applied Settings
Sales and Persuasion Training
We Can Sell Anything is used to train persuasion fundamentals by separating the structure of a compelling pitch from the need for a credible product. Participants who can sell the implausible develop the structural confidence to sell the reasonable.
Marketing and Brand Communications
Teams use the exercise before messaging workshops to loosen attachment to conventional framing and discover unexpected angles on familiar offerings.
Leadership Communication
Facilitators use the exercise to train executives in conviction and presence, coaching them to commit fully to a position even when the position feels uncertain.
Skills Developed
Worth Reading
See all books →
The Applied Improvisation Mindset
Tools for Transforming Individuals, Organizations, and Communities
Theresa Robbins Dudeck; Caitlin McClure
The Art of Making Sh!t Up
Using the Principles of Improv to Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse
Norm LaViolette; Bob Melley
Something from Nothing
The Technique of Improvisation
Richard Goteri
Improvise!
Use the Secrets of Improv to Achieve Extraordinary Results at Work
Max Dickins
Getting to Yes And
The Art of Business Improv
Bob Kulhan; Chuck Crisafulli
Putting Improv to Work
Spontaneous Performance for Leadership, Learning, and Life
Greg Hohn
Related Exercises
Create (and Sell) a Product That Can't Be Sold
Create (and Sell) a Product That Can't Be Sold is an applied improvisation exercise in which groups design and pitch a product that is inherently unsellable: ethically problematic, physically impossible, commercially absurd, or so niche as to have no viable market. Groups develop the product concept, a marketing campaign with slogan and target demographic, and present the full pitch to the group. The exercise develops creative thinking, persuasive communication, and comfort with absurdity.
Imaginary Ad Game
Imaginary Ad Game is a creative applied exercise in which groups create a complete advertising campaign for a product that does not exist -- then present it with the confident enthusiasm of a real pitch. Participants name the product, invent its features and benefits, create a tagline, and present the campaign as though the product were entirely real and the benefits entirely compelling. The exercise trains creative confidence, the ability to advocate for an idea before it is fully formed, and the improvisational skill of amplifying imagined value.
Fake Ads
Fake Ads is an applied improv exercise in which small teams create and perform a thirty-second television advertisement for an imaginary, impossible, or absurd product, including a dramatized pitch and an original jingle. The exercise uses the familiar format of commercial advertising as a scaffold for rapid creative collaboration, idea generation, and performance under time pressure.
Persuade
Persuade is an applied improvisation exercise in which participants practice influencing others through active listening, building on offers, and authentic communication rather than scripted techniques. Drawing on the improv principle that agreement creates rapport, the exercise develops the ability to read an audience, adapt a message in real time, and lead through connection rather than pressure.
New Object Name and Application
New Object Name and Application is an applied improvisation exercise in which participants are given an ordinary everyday object, assign it a completely new name, and then pitch a convincing use case for it under its new identity. The exercise trains spontaneous creative reframing, confident presentation under uncertainty, and the ability to find value in unexpected contexts.
The Lineage
Explore the schools and structures that influenced or evolved from We Can Sell Anything.
The Applied Improvisation Mindset (Dudeck & McClure)
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). We Can Sell Anything. Retrieved September 28, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/we-can-sell-anything
The Improv Archive. "We Can Sell Anything." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/we-can-sell-anything.
The Improv Archive. "We Can Sell Anything." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/we-can-sell-anything. Accessed September 28, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.