Episode #340: How To Do Sales Role Play Practice

Role play is one of the keys to improving in sales. We are in a psychologically safe environment where we can experiment and learn. The majority of salespeople however are practicing on the client. That is an extremely bad idea, but they do it anyway. The main reason is the firm is not well organised or the salespeople are not well organised. Even if the firm isn’t helping, grab a colleague and agree to help each other by using role play practice before you see any clients. It doesn’t have to be for hours at a time, but fifteen to twenty minutes will be a big help in refining what you will say and how you will say it.

There has to be different version of the same talk. Some clients will be incredibly detail oriented, sceptical and wanting tons of proof, before they will consider buying anything from lowly salespeople. When we do this practice, we need to marshal all the proof we have to explain why this solution is a safe option. Another client will be the opposite. They are big picture people and don’t like getting tangled up in the weeds of all the detail. We need to go macro too and talk about the way this will elevate the firm’s status and success. Some clients are very focused on the relationship and will want to have a cup of tea and get to know us. That conversation is bound to be soft, non-pushy and allowing time to work its magic to get the deal – eventually!!! The “time is money” client will be driving the meeting, they are always in a hurry and want the key points so they can get back to what they were doing. What will be the outcomes they can expect, when can they get them and how much will it cost? Forget about the cup of tea.

Doing a single version of the role play the way we normally function, means we are missing the options to appeal to the other 75% of buyers who are not like us. We need to speak these four languages and we need to spend time practicing them. The other three styles are not natural for us, so they need refinement. This takes commitment and practice. If you are a “time is money” type yourself, slowing down and having a cup of tea is the last thing you would ever think to do. To drop the strength in your voice, slow down your speech and fit in with someone totally different to you, is a form of torture. It requires work and patience to make it happen.

Ideally, the practice would be geared up for the clients we will meet that day and we may need to work on a couple of versions in preparation. If we don't have anyone in particular that day, then we can work on all four types. The key is to make it as realistic as possible. Ask your partner to become an actor and play the role of the client, matching the way they conduct themselves in sales meetings. It won't be a perfect match, but if the client is time poor, we have to practice with that in mind and truncate a lot of explanation, get to the key points, make a very assertive recommendation and be prepared to be ushered out of the meeting in very short order.

We shouldn’t just do one repetition either. We should do at least three repetitions, with feedback, to get the practice cemented. The feedback is important too. Don’t expect your partner to be a genius of feedback and know how to do it properly. You can tell them what you are working on and ask for their feedback on that particular point. Ask them what you are doing well – the good – and what you can do to improve – the better. Left to their own devices, the majority of people will immediately start demolishing your confidence and telling you a million things you are doing which are hopeless or wrong.

As we get the feedback, we polish what we are doing and we can step it up in the next practice. Doing it once and doing it three times should be dramatically different and becoming much more persuasive. Often though, wd do it once and then move on to something else. Think about the rest of your experience. When did that ever happen? We had to repeat things at school in order to recall them. In sports, we did massive repetition practice. When we are down at the gym, we don’t do just one rep on a set of weights and leave it at that expecting to get stronger. Why would sales be something that gets a “once over lightly” touch and suddenly we are geniuses?

If the firm is well organised, we can do our three repetitions and then rotate partners after each set, to get a different feel. All of this requires the time to be allocated and the session to be led by the manager. You would think that was the most obvious thing in the world, but often this is not what happens and there isn’t the needed repetition or feedback in play. The manager just pushes for results, but doesn't invest any time or effort to help that occur. That isn’t very smart.

Role play is important and role play done professionally is a lot more important. How are things down at your shop?