The real dollar value of role-playing

Tell almost any sales person they are going to participate in role-plays as part of their training and you will hear a collective groan. In short, most sales people hate role-playing. It is often seen as a form of potential embarrassment, or something stilted and false. Many people feel self-conscious and don’t want to look ‘bad’ in front of their peers. It doesn’t help either that over 90% of all sales people follow no logical processes when selling, so when it comes to role-playing they don’t know what to work on.

When role-playing is brought to bear in a training program it doesn’t help if role-playing is treated as a token gesture and is irrelevant to the real life situations faced by the sales people. Many role-plays are generic and not pitched towards specific skills or behaviours, nor are they properly monitored to provide genuine feedback on performance, suggestions and insights. This means that role-plays are viewed as a waste of time. And they are if they are not built or delivered properly.

Given the right kind of structure and environment, the real truth is that most sales people would really benefit from regular role-playing and in turn their businesses and customers would be better off too. We cannot under value the importance of role playing and rehearsal to improve and enhance our performance. When used properly role-plays and rehearsal can really hone the skills, knowledge and mindset of our sales people. Linked to clear processes and behavioural performance standards we can create an environment of conscious and conscientious practice where sales teams are willing to practice and refine their skills and talents.

Make sure all role-plays are specific to your clients’ business and their client situations. Furthermore, ensure that the role-plays are broken down into steps which can be applied and practiced, check list an ‘observer’ can use to monitor and provide specific feedback on the performance of the sales person, make sure there is an opportunity to receive clear and unambiguous feedback on performance. In short, make sure role-playing and rehearsal is practical, useful and insightful, allowing people to adjust their behaviours and mindset to create better and better performance standards. Though the challenge is to make this a regular activity in sales teams.

In all sporting environments ongoing training incorporates, at regular intervals, ‘race practice’. Race practice is where you simulate the environment and actions you are likely to face when at the real event. Race practice is a regular feature of any athletes’ life. I can recall in my competitive swimming days that our squad would practice race starts, turns, relay changeovers as well as rehearse our speciality events racing against each other to develop a sense of what it would feel like when we were to perform at the real events. This happened at least once a week. This practice or role-playing was invaluable to our sporting skills and especially our confidence. The physical actions and emotions we would experience at the real events were simulated in practice. We learnt not just how to swim well but how to handle the pressure of performing.

Like competing athletes, sales people often need to perform under pressure. Therefore we must practice to learn how to perform under pressure. Role-playing is an ideal format for building your skills and strengths in sales and working out how you handle yourself under pressure. Done constructively, and with the clear intention of building people’s capabilities, role-playing can be a challenging, exciting, fun and great learning experience for all.

Sadly, however, it’s estimated that only between 15-20% of sales teams actually practice role-playing throughout their sales year.

Role-playing needs to be valued as a business tool, a peak performance business tool that helps people reach higher and higher standards. Role-playing or rehearsal helps us:

1. Be prepared to handle a variety of different scenarios:

• Different types of clients, ie. from industries, large to small; high value clients, etc.
• Clients with different types of communication styles, values, desires, motives, needs, wants, goals, etc.
• Dealing with multiple contacts inside an organisation, ie. CEO, COO, Procurement, CFO, HR, etc. Our sales people need to know how to adjust their language and position with these key stake holders.

2. Handling challenging situations:

• Anticipating tricky situations, ie. client complaints, accommodating extra people in a meeting, other agendas competing with your suggestions, etc.
• Thinking on your feet when dealing with difficult or different issues, ie. hostile clients, issues outside of your control, etc.
• Handling objections or dealing with misunderstandings.
• Presenting different solutions and making yourself understood.

3. Presenting or pitching for business:

• Making client presentations or pitching for new business with major accounts or new prospects.

Good sales practices include processes and steps to follow. They can be taught and learned. Role-playing allows us to practice in safe environments and identify where we need to pay more attention to ensure better performance.

Role-playing and rehearsal also allows us to make sure our effective skills and capabilities don’t’ ‘go to seed’ and keep us fresh and alert.

You’re never too old or too experienced to learn. The other week when our new Director of Sales, John Garrido and I were out on a client meeting, John was able to give me feedback on my sales performance. It was refreshing to be able to have someone observe me and make suggestions on how I could be better. It is very hard to observe your own performance. We need people to observe us, see how we are performing and give constructive feedback.

Good sales teams look out for each other. They plan ahead, they account for various contingencies and they actually practice how to deal with them. They do not leave their deals or sales careers to chance.

Let’s bring back effective role-playing and rehearsal and ensure our talents and capabilities are able to flourish and shine.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Sue Barrett practices as a coach, advisor, speaker, facilitator, consultant and writer and works across all market segments with her skilful team at BARRETT. Sue and her team take the guess work out of selling and help people from many different careers become aware of their sales capabilities and enable them to take the steps to becoming effective and productive when it comes to selling, sales coaching or sales leadership.To hone your sales skills or learn how to sell go to www.barrett.com.au.